To think a leftover happy meal isn’t the worst packed lunch you could have?

I think if there isn't any other choice then it's food that's better than nothing !
But if it's being given because parents to lazy then it's not acceptable tbh ! 😞

I’d view that as neglectful behaviour.
Poor child having a parent line that!

Erm... The cheeseburger itself comes in at about 298 kcal (1,251 kJ), with 25g protein, 43g carbs, 16.5g fat, 8.3g saturates, 19g sugars, and 1.98g salt.

We eat left over KFC sliced up in a sandwich, it's delicious. I think it would be worse if the child wasn't having any lunch-better to have something than nothing.

Who in their right mind woykd think it was ok to send yesterday's cold leftover happy meal into school even as a one off.

Loads of people wouldn’t do it because they would worry about judgement even if their dc would eat it at home.

@RosesAndHellebores yes, the school food is shocking but they ban a choc bar in a lunchbox

Nothing would happen but i bet it would be documented
Who in their right mind woykd think it was ok to send yesterday's cold leftover happy meal into school even as a one off.

it’s often luke warm/cold

The bigger scandal is the abysmal quality of school lunches. I accept that the budgets are woefully low but we switched to packed lunches because of them. A cheeese, chicken, tuna sandwich on wholemeal bread, a piece of fruit, a small piece of cake, quality biscut or yoghurt. It was more expensive to provide than a school lunch. Which often was: nuggets, burger, pizza, fishfingers, a meat dish (never pork or beef) was accompanoed with over stewed unedifying veg and mash and chips, soggy, were always available. Followed by cake and coloured custard or ice cream (cheap, UPF) ice cream.

I cannot imagine that universal school lunches fkr ks1 are improved. When parents paid, feedback was legitimate; when they don't it isn't and gives scope for further deterioration because there should be gratitude.

In any event, no school meal is free. They are free at the point of delivery, like the NHS.

One left over happy meal is a safeguarding incident? 😆

It wasn't raw though and I put an ice pack in with it. Just seemed really odd! Sushi inappropriate but nuggets never a problem (maybe because they served them with chips themselves?)

I think they should concentrate more on the shite they serve for school dinners

It shows that your parents don’t care about you and thats enough of a safeguarding concern in itself.

Nasty? How is this nasty? Please explain. Which part is nasty?

Saying that it's dysfunctional? It is dysfunctional to not cook and provide. Trust me I know.

You are being unreasonable. I'm not even going to go into the ins and outs of whether cold Macdonalds is an ok lunch or not in general. The reason I think your view is unreasonable is because it ignores the fact this wasn't just 'for lunch', it was for lunch at school. It's completely inappropriate to send a child into school with MacDonalds for their lunch (hot or cold).

We had a parent send in a warm Happy Meal once. They forgot to send the lunchbox in in the morning and brought it to the office 10 minutes before lunchtime. They'd decanted a Happy Meal into a lunchbox, to disguise it coming in, but had left everything in the boxes inside. As soon as we saw it we had a moral dilemma. The child's eyes naturally lit up, but of course every other child on the table was green with envy and were refusing to even try their dinner because they all want MaccyD's like him. I had to be bad cop and take it away, explaining to the child that we need to ring mummy as MacDonalds isn't allowed at school. She was told she'd either have to collect him to eat it at home, or we'd order him a school dinner. Mum was fuming and couldn't understand the inappropriateness of it but we absolutely had to make a stand before all the kids went home saying their friend was allowed to eat MacDonalds in front of them and that's what they want now for their lunch. We're in an area where many wouldn't think twice about how inappropriate that it, and would likely all start sending it in on a weekly basis as a treat. Not ideal at all. We had to make a stand. She picked him up, bitched about us on Facebook, and brought him back still mouthing off about it. She was purely focusing on school apparently judging her for letting her child eat MacDonalds. She totally didn't get that she's entitled to pick him up and take him out for MaccyD's at lunch if she wanted to. It's the sending it into school that we wouldn't allow.

Disclaimer - I have no issue whatsoever with children eating Happy Meals as an occasional treat. For a school packed lunch though? Absolutely not. It's totally inappropriate for so many reasons (especially if cold).

I have sadly seen many examples similar to those in the article. A packet of biscuits seems to be the standard 'child packed their own lunch out of what they could find in the cupboard' scenario. I've seen that one a few times over the years and we've always sorted them out with a school dinner (and obviously recorded the incident on our safeguarding system). I didn't record the Macdonalds incident, as child was being fed. It was just inappropriate to send it to school.

It seems many parents are unable or unwilling to make sandwiches these days for their children. It baffled me on a recent school trip, where a pack up was required, how many children came with a supermarket meal deal (pre-packed adult size sandwiches which they had two small nibbles out of). That seems totally bizarre for a 5 year old in my opinion. Surely it would have been much cheaper to buy the bread and ham/cheese etc and have a week's worth of sandwiches? They could then be cut to a more appropriate size too. I sadly fear it's just because people simply can't be bothered these days. It's not a cost issue, as a meal deal works out much less cost effective.

McDonald's dont use reclaimed meat. Their burgers are 100pc beef and the chicken nuggets are white chicken meat in batter.

Whether it's hot is debatable, half frozen chips seems to be a norm in Glasgow 😬

Precisely because its not hot and pretty grim
I love a McDonald's but cold leftover fries and congealed burger is horrible
And who in their right mind thinks its ok even as a one off.

I haven't eaten McDonald's since about 1982, and even then it was under duress. Feeding a child stuff like that is something I just wouldn't do. The idea of it as cold leftovers is revolting. Please don't misunderstand me: I eat plenty of stuff that is not very good for me, but the thought of reclaimed meat is just disgusting.

It's a bit scummy and may indicate lax parenting, but honestly it's probably not much worse than a ham sandwich on white sliced bread. They are both processed meat wrapped in crappy bread. At least the chips are made of potato and have a bit of vitamin C in them.

If it's happening a lot, then I can understand that - but if it's a one off, and the child usually has an 'acceptable' lunch, then why would school be worried? After all, they serve similar food for lunch - albeit hot.

C’mon! It’s diabolical. Of course the odd Happy Meal won’t do any harm. And yeah, a cold one isn’t going to kill you. But to send that in for your child’s lunch is pretty poor parenting IMO.

It suggests that you can’t afford, can’t be arsed to make or go out and buy a fresh lunch, which is the least we you can do really. It’s what it represents.

I’d feed a left over refrigerated happy meal to the dog the next day, but not a child. Christ.

But aren't these kids now getting wholesome, nutritious food in their 'Breakfast Clubs' that sets them up for the day, according to this Labour government who is rolling this out across the board?
If so, they can surely stand one crap meal a day until they get home ?

You dont think they will?
I would be expecting a concerned phone call at least .

This appears to come from the same school of parenting as the mother I read about some while ago who weaned her baby on happy meals put through the blender. Oh dear.