I'm a dinner:AMA

[Duckingella]

I'm what's known about in old fashioned terms a school dinner lady;I work in the kitchen/dining hall.

What's your job called in new fashioned terms?

I had so many questions to ask about what kind of dinner you are!

What percentage of kids say 'thank you'?

You work in both? Round here people either work in the kitchen doing all the food related stuff or the dining hall doing the supervising but not both.

Are the meals at your school freshly prepared and cooked on site, or do you use catering packs from an external contractor?

Lol , your a dinner ?
Sausage mash and beans ? Or something or posher?

Disappointing. I was going to ask you whether you minded being called lunch like those southern types like to do

Kitchen assistant usually

I thought this was going to be one of those games where you stick a post it note on your forehead and everyone has to guess what dinner you are.

About 50% but about 95% use the term please when asking for what they'd like

I was looking forward to guessing the dinner too ☹️

We go out into the hall and help the children with clearing their plates,trays etc especially the very small children.We have lunch time supervisors doing the closer monitoring of the children.

Freshly prepared on site although the menu is very limited on a daily basis to keep prep times to a minimum as we work limited hours

Most cooks hate being called a dinner lady! Dinner lady gives an image of (to quote Greg wallace) woman of a certain age in a tabbard buttering bread! When I worked in school meals the cooks made most from scratch (including bread/puddings/curries/sauces/pastys/pasta sauce etc) and were qualified to level 3 food safety and at least level 2 NVQ in catering. So "dinner lady" was quite demeaning!

Going back many years.. I loved our dinner ladies. They were both frightening, (a bit stern), and lovely, and made sure we were all alright. Often used to say hello when I saw them out and about when I was much older. They were very much part of the community and had the respect of the parents and children. Do you still feel like that?

I will admit to being a dog's dinner myself....!

Do you feel like you're treated with respect and dignity by the school leadership? Do you earn more than minimum wage?

I’m a former woman in a tabbard

m.youtube.com/watch?v=S6iyY1PY520&pp=ygURd29tYW4gaW4gYSB0YWJhcmQ%3D

If a child, for example my son, ‘doesn’t like’ the food, do they literally have nothing else to eat until they get home? We have to order the specific meal they’re going to have ahead of time, then they have some wrist band situation…. But half the time he says he didn’t like lunch even though he chose it. I guess my question is how many children do you see not eat a thing? Thanks!

Oh, this is not the thread I thought it was ☹️

It's unfortunately NMW but it means I can be home with my children when I need to be.

The leadership team are actually really lovely,the deputy head always stops by for a quick chat with us

More often than I'd like when it comes to seeing children not eating enough,the lunchtime supervisors try there best to get the children to eat but you can't force them

I don't come into contact with the parents:I'm in and out the school outside of pick up/drop off.

The kids are sweet (mostly),I've not yet come into contact with any of my pupils outside of work knowingly.I look very different at work and in public so they likely wouldn't recognise me.

We're less women in tabbards these days and women in polo shirts and aprons

I was a lunch time assistant (at my dc primary school) for a while, a few years back.
One thing that shocked me was the amount of food which ended up in the bin. I often thought about all those parents paying for their dc to eat a cooked lunch which they barely touched.
Do the kids eat all the meals you cook them?

Why don't you insist they say thank you?

Where do you get the lumps from that you put in the gravy?
Are they the same ones that you put into the custard? Are they flavourless to begin with?