Junk food at school

Wtf is going on here today. With this thread, the 11 yr old in a car seat and lasagna with potatoes. There must be some very bored folk around today. Go play in the snow.

I’ve just googled it and in 2024 the school had 44% of children receiving FSM so roughly 132 children , the rest were 50:50 pack ups and paid for lunches so 85 ish children bringing in packed lunches. I don’t so much judge the parents as much as I judge the society which doesn’t value its children. The area which I work in is extremely deprived and I expect it’s different in other areas. The catering companies who supply schools are abhorrent and should be outed in the press.

So one girl had vegetables and homemade omelette, but 298 others had the cheapest white bread with chocolate spread and zero fruit?

Hmmm. Not convinced! I strongly suggest most were in the middle - just most didn't avoid all UPF's - because that is not easy on a low budget or if you are time poor and so therefore they failed to meet your high expectations.

And that's what School meals should be too. It will be the best they can offer with the budget provided. It will not be organic or UPF free on the money they have! But over the week, there is variety, there are options, and they are healthy. Yes, even the puddings. Considering the money involved I think many caterers perform miracles!

Oh, and don't judge a kids diet on one meal. For example, I stopped giving my children fruit in their lunch boxes. No point. It came home bruised and battered and thrown away. They were much more interested in getting out to the playground. Instead they had (and still do have it) as a snack when they get home from school - a smoothy is often the popular choice.

I imagine sponge cake is a lot cheaper than more meat and veg though.
They could probably replace it with white bread and butter.

Not really… the healthy lunches were one girl who had a warm lunch made for her, for example pasta with vegetables, Spanish omelette or a homemade soups. She had whole grain crackers and chopped egg as snack and chopped carrots and cucumber. She had a different pierce of fruit every day.
The rest were UPF filled, tube yoghurt, chocolate bars, white bread sandwiches with ham, jam or chocolate spread, crisps (often two packets). The occasional apple which got thrown in the bin.

If it’s Thursday January 15th, that’s census day.

If you’re worried about the routine nutritional value of the school lunches across the week (as iirc it’s worked out by the week not by the day, in the same way as it’s a ‘balanced diet’ not ‘a balanced meal) you can ask the school -or their caterer - to show how their menus match the required standards for the age group. Remember that active, growing children in cold weather gave somewhat different needs from fully grown adults.

A.chicken nugget is just breaded chicken. It is not intrinisically unhealthy or evil. It could be - chicken breast/thigh, dipped in beaten egg, coated in breadcrumbs and baked. A great option i'd of thought. Or it could be mechanically recovered chicken bulked with filler, thickly coated in batter and deep fried. Or anything between those extremes. Money and funding will influence the quality. If we want better quality it has to be paid for.

That’s exactly what I was going to say. Census day usually has junk food to try and get the best attendance.

But what's your definition of healthy?

It sounds like you are setting impossibly high standards if only 2 in 300 meet them.

I used to be a lunch lady and the meals were all poor quality junk out of packets. However I would also say that the packed lunches I saw were even worse, so much processed packaged food. I can only think of 2 children out of 300 who were given healthy food. It’s no wonder they’re always sick.
Youtube channels of mums making crap food and saying ‘he ate it all up’ and food deserts and swamps don’t help.

Also (just for balance) my DD's old primary school did not police lunch boxes. When DD took a lunch box (mixed with dinners - depended on the menu) she always took a penguin, club or similar biscuit/cake thing aa part of it. The school did not bat an eyelid.
I have no problem with school dinner deserts. I'd love schools to be able to serve palatable higher quality protein options more regularly. However, that requires more funding & many, many mumsnet threads suggest taxing to fund such things is unpopular .....

Never had an issue with Primary school food.

Kids need the energy as well as the vitamins etc. So a small piece of cake (with hidden veg or fruit) was fine. They spend quite a bit of time running around outside, and for some (too many) this will be their main or only meal of the day.

2 courses allows those that reject one, to eat the other. Meaning that that kid has something in their tummy before the afternoon ahead. Likely therefore to be more focussed on their own work and less inclined to disrupt others. As well as the welfare aspect of having an underfed child.

I do also worry that some people take "healthy" to be all veg and not much else. Healthy should mean a balanced diet, with all food groups - and chocolate and (gasps) carbs etc can be part of that. As long as the child is not eating chocolate for breakfast lunch and dinner that is fine.

And I really do wish people would ask the school / caterers for the recipes and portion sizes. They really aren't the getting the sort of cake served in a local cafe that is 6 feet high and wide and crammed full of sugar, cream - the sort I personally would lust over!

Secondary food however, that is awful!

Also, i make no claims to be a great parent but my DD has desert or a sweet snack practically everyday. So did I as a kid. It is much more common than mumsnet would have you believe DD is very sporty and a healthy weight. As part of a balanced diet, it need not lead to weight gain. Im not suggesting it is optimal for health or anything, but it isnt atypical.

And you’re rather rude, aren’t you? But I presume that I had touched on a sore point for you to react like that to a different opinion!

It is very likely that 'nugget day' or similar is a special menu for 'census day'. As i understand it primary schools receive meals funding on the basis of the number of children eating on specific census days. If few children eat on that day, they get less funding for meals. However, they must provide free meals to all KS1 pupils who request then regardless of whether they take a meal on census days or not. Schools therefore try to schedule a popular menu (nuggets, fish & chips, sausage etc.) on that day to encourage take up.

I agree. When we visited secondary school they said they prided themselves on healthy habits and meals.
Once the DC started there was a constant stream of reward chocolate, good attendance cake plus all the shite they served at lunch.

We have eaten at our school to sample the catering on site. One day it was chicken nuggets and chips.

large homemade goujons, being made on site and potato wedges cut and cooked on site. It was unrecognisable to Birds Eye and the like.

You're very preachy aren't you?

The unhealthy desserts are about cheap, filling calories: energy rather than nutrition.

@muggartthe school I was in had cake or biscuits for dessert regularly. We always had fruit and yogurt as an option too and lots of kids chose it but the unhealthy desserts were a regular thing.
I never understood why they do a dessert at all, apart from fruit or yogurt that would make it cheaper for the school, easier for the staff and healthier for the kids

It seems to be a thing when needing to feed a lot of people such as hospitals always seem to have a main and a pudding too.

i am curious whether they ever considered just not doing cakes at all? seems like it would be more convenient for the cooks, cheaper for the school and healthier for the kids ,to just not have them.

That’s wonderful that you all stood together on this issue, from some of the responses on this thread it seems that some parents are in favour of schools giving children junk food which i cannot understand at all.

I mean of course all kids will eat unhealthy food from time to time but surely as a parent you would want to control when they have access to it, and not have schools just choose to ply your children with junk food every day? and your only way to avoid this is to opt out of school meals entirely. it’s so weird that people are accept of this.

I’ve worked in a school kitchen, the cakes are made with sugar although they do put fruit in them such as grated apple etc.
The portions that primary kids get aren’t that big to be honest so the amount of cake they’ll actually get is actually quite small and when it comes to nuggets they get something like 3 each