To think that free breakfast at school is a bad idea due to the quality?

Our Breakfast Club is for 40 mins for £1.50 a child. We serve toast ( with flora spread, because of people who are dairy free )and cereals and fruit juice or water. There is no time for anything else! And the toast is toasted by TAs not the kitchen. They’re too busy sorting healthy meals for later. Yes that sometimes involves pizza made in the school kitchens, and gluten free buns, low sugar biscuits plus there is ALWAYS fruit available. Some children will only eat fruit, some won’t touch it with a barge pole. There is a lot of fussiness and a goodly amount of waste, to be honest.
The kitchens dare not serve up unhealthy food!!!

Soooo not every parent can afford a 70p supermkt brand of cornflakes???,dont believe it, its the parents that dnt give a damn and spend their benefits on their own thrills

Here’s some explanation for the school meal system.
I work in an academy as an assistant catering manager. We are an in-house catering team, which means we set the menus, order the food and set the prices.
The free school meal allowance isn’t just the cost of the food. It is to cover wages, electric, gas, pension contributions, national insurance contributions, holiday pay, sick pay, etc etc so for example, a child may receive £2.50 free school allowance a day, but factor in everything else and we probably have to make a meal for £1. That meal will include a snack item at break, a main meal which because we set the menu is a protein, a carb and a veg plus a pudding which must contain fruit. A typical roast dinner will be, the meat, such as a joint of beef, a Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, 2 different vegetables, gravy and dessert which is normally a fruit crumble and custard. The snack option is offered at break time (secondary school) and that is normally a blueberry muffin, a big wedge of watermelon, yoghurt, fruit salad, homemade wholemeal pizza.
We use all locally sourced ingredients where we can with local butchers and fish mongers as suppliers.
We are lucky, we are in house and our pupils are lucky.
The problems stem from the government insisting on academies, that are now run as businesses and not schools, CEOs on more money annually that the prime minister. These then opt to use big companies such as Hutchinson’s Catering, chartwells etc etc. These companies buy big and buy cheap. Everything is done on the cheap to keep costs down, this then makes them a profit, but are able to go to academies and say “hey look we can charge you such and such and do everything and you don’t have to worry about a thing” the schools say yes please, once they have their foot in the door on a 10 year contract they can serve absolute tripe to kids.
Dont blame the dinner ladies, they can only work with that they are given and the same will happen with the breakfast. Blame the government and academies

But really cornflakes are 80p who hasn't got the money for breakfast? I was jobless and young (look up how much less benefits under 25s get compared to 25+) and my kids still went to school having had breakfast.
Who is broker than a jobless under 25?

The neglectful types who don't feed their kids breakfast aren't leaving the house early to take them to breakfast club either.

Because that is what happens with breakfast clubs - people use them as and when. So some days will be more than others. Some parents will use it daily and some will be few and far between. My friend's school has 3 kids using their club some days but then others days they get up to 50. That is all. If they cater for the 3 then 50 turn up they have no food for 50. They can buy fresh for the 200 in the school but it gets thrown out as it isn't often they get 200 in. If they get 200 in then the staff have to go shopping in their own time to get food if they have't catered for them. What do you do at that point?

You cannot work out what the average is when all are invited to come daily and it is just if they want to come or not. How about the government do not introduce stupid initiatives that waste food until they figure out how it is implemented.

How would you logistically manage 3 some days and 50 other days (but unknown) but it could be 200 some days again unknown? Do you think 1 box of weetabix will cover 200 kids for 5 days if they show up and no milk? Really? You talk of using logical thinking skills and think 1 box of weetabix will go to 1000 servings.

A box of weetabix in case of spares! ha ha! What 190 spare kids chowing down on a 12 pack of dry weetabix?! Give over!

What's the difference between porridge stuck to a bowl like concrete and a plate with a few crumbs on? Shows you don't wash up often.

This is my situation, it’s sad and I worry about the long term effects of such bad eating habits but it’s a hell of a lot better than the effects of not eating at all.

I think maybe you need to check your privilege a tad. I also don’t think some UPF’s in a day is the end of the world if balanced out with some fruit and veg. Not all policies benefit all people but this one will definitely help those in areas of deprivation and give options to those who often don’t even get the option of breakfast.
Also, there’s ways around this, if you are genuinely concerned get involved with your PTA, suggest approaching local grocers and supermarkets for fruits donations etc. these are the times we are living in, we all need to pitch in a bit really.

and if kids can't eat it due to dietary needs as well.

The things that some people are keen on banning for breakfast clubs such as white bread and rice krispies are some of the only things my child can safely eat for breakfast. He can't eat brown bread or porridge, he'd end up in hospital.

No one is saying you can’t, in the scheme schools are given a budget and encouraged to make healthy choices - I don’t know why they wouldn’t? That’s down to the school and I don’t get why they would choose shit to feed the kids.

But my point is I’d rather kids have anything in their bellies that have it denied to them because someone thinks it isn’t healthy enough. The OP seemed to suggest that it’s better not to have the scheme, not to feed hungry kids, in case it isn’t healthy. And I thoroughly disagree with that. Better to have something ‘unhealthy’ and be fed than nothing at all, every time. But of course schools should be choosing healthy items to offer.

Budgeting tends to be a bit tricky when you’ve got no money to budget with.

you’re missing the point.. it’s not about getting them fed it’s childcare.

No I haven’t ever gone hungry. But I still don’t understand why they can’t have whole meal with marmite/cheese rather than white with jam. Or weetamix/shredded wheat rather than Rice Krispies or cocoa pops?

@ThisDandyWriter

Possibly. I was responding to the poster who stated the children should wash up their own pots. That would have to be in the classroom as the staffroom sink is way too high and has boiling water.

Of course that would be better, but honestly, have you ever gone without? I would rather have had food than not have food because it wasn’t ‘healthy’ enough. I hope that the food is decent quality and is healthy, but if some days some kids get something that isn’t great then I’d rather they get fed than worry about the quality.

If you haven’t been in the position then you really have no clue.

If you have the luxury of feeding your child a healthy breakfast at home then continue to do that.

That's social services intervention for neglect. Enrol parents on partenting course. Cooking and budgeting to be included.

Make benefits voucher based so they can only be spent on nutritious food/ bills/ school uniform. Not on luxuries.

Don't tax payer fund sodding cornflakes & white bread for the feckless who neglect their child. If you can't be bothered to feed them, then I'm highly doubtful that other good quality parenting is going on.

Also if you are not bothered about feeding the child, you are unlikely to get them to school early enough to fit a meal in.

But why can’t it be healthy for ‘in their bellies’?

Would you not serve it in the hall and use the dishwasher in the kitchen? Or serve in the classrooms and have the children take the plates to the kitchen to go through the dishwasher?

If you'd taught 5yos who come to school without breakfast (I've asked them) you'd not complain 🫠

@CrispEatingExpert

Ah so this is something teachers should just do…
Buy sponges and washing up liquid.
Provide lots of dry clothes for children who splash water over themselves when washing up.
Collect and transport hot water from the staff room as Classroom doesn’t have a hot tap.
Dry 34 bowls as no draining board and transport during my break to the staffroom.

I agree with you, it’s comes down to cost and greed from the companies contracted to provide the meals.

I’d rather kids had food in their bellies. When you’re very hungry, you just need to eat and don’t have the luxury of worrying about what it is.

Poverty isn’t a joke, it’s really hard. Kids need to be fed, end of.

Which presumably explains why French women are thin 😁

We had a French exchange just for a few weeks one summer, Rafaelle, a lovely girl. Only child, late surprise. Her mum told her that she mustn’t eat bread because it would make her fat. (She was 14 or 15 then)

Surely a UPF breakfast is better than kids from low income families having zero breakfast!

If anyone, a school or otherwise, is over catering by 190 portions a day, then they’ve got much bigger problems that whether a child will eat a bowl of porridge. Bar a zombie apocalypse, I can’t see any logical reason why numbers would vary by 190 day to day.

Surely anyone with a teeny bit of common sense would, after a few days, work out what the average numbers were and cater accordingly with a box of weetabix in case of extras. And what’s the difference between washing a bowl that’s had porridge in it or a plate that’s had toast on it? There’s a sink in every classroom I’ve ever been in, they can wash their own.

If we are only ever looking for reasons why we can’t do something, how we will ever teach our kids to use logical thinking skills and make positive improvements to their own lives and those around them?

You must eat this nutrient deficient food because it’s easier to serve, regardless of the negative impact it’s having on your body? This is what we’re teaching our kids? Madness!

We had a lovely experience with the German exchange as well, nothing like the French kids. I mean they were nice kids but I was worried about them basically refusing most food.