I’m a primary school cook/catering manager AMA

[cabsavtonight]

Following on from various threads complaining about school lunches, I’m happy to answer any questions.

Do children ever ask for seconds because they’re still hungry? If so, are you allowed to say yes, or is it always no?

Our lunch service is 45 mins so any leftovers are available after everyone has been served . However this tends to only realistically be year six who are still in the dining hall at this point . All children can have extra fruit if they have finished their lunch and still hungry though.

It is more common that children don’t finish their lunch and are in a hurry to you out to play . Very few children ask for more and I would always find them something if they were still hungry .

Are budgets tighter than they used to be? If so, are portions smaller as a consequence?

How do you feel about the responsibility of catering for children with severe allergies/Anaphylaxis?

It’s not something I have noticed yo be honest , and I have been in my job for 9 years . Obviously food cost has increased but this has mostly been managed by more in house cooked food and less pre-prepared ie homemade cookies for dessert are far less costly than tubs of ice cream .

I personally feel confident in dealing with allergies . We have good systems in place.

Is a lot of it pre packaged / UPF eg sauces?

To a certain extent , although we have to abide by school meal standards so any readymade sauces etc are approved by our councils school meals dept. I try to make as much homemade as possible but I suppose where the budget cuts come into play is in the staffing , therefore time is short.

I have been wondering how processed and how salty the meals are?
they serve a lot of things like burgers and chip or fish fingers, pizza, etc. Is that all home made making it at least marginally better or is it as bad as it sounds?

We were forced to eat whatever was 'dolloped' onto our plates before we could go outside to the play ground.

I had to hide inedible bits of food in my clothing to escape - are these draconian practices stlll in place or can I finally let the nightmares go?

Pizza we make in house (albeit with tinned sauce) , fish fingers are Birds Eye , burgers and sausages from local butcher. Processed meat is only used once per week .

Certainly not forced to eat . Personally I think we should be encouraging more though . I think most parents would be shocked by how little is actually eaten , and I don’t believe this is because the meals are ‘slop’ and more because children would rather be playing.

Do you work for a catering company or is run by the school?

We are run by the school .

Much better than i thought tbh! And a relief..
would this be country wide?

Is it true young kids are served food on plastic trays, like prison?

I know nothing about prison, but yes , plastic trays.

The school meals standards are country wide . They are guidelines which all schools should use and available on Gov.uk

Why do schools still serve meat when it is so expensive? Wouldn't the kids get hugger quality meals if they were all veggie?

I am not veggie by the way, just eat mostly veg and only have meat once or twice a week

In my experience, with the exception of upf meat substitutes, most children are not great fans of vegetarian food . Pizza and jacket potatoes are also exceptions, but have cheese as a protein which is high fat and salt. We do have a meat free day at least once a week , but unless it’s pizza it’s not very popular. We have a vegetarian option every day , which on the whole take more time , are usually healthier and in my opinion are much tastier. They are sadly very unpopular, and only the vegetarian children on the whole actually choose them .

Why is so much UPF Quorn used for veggie meals? Why so many cakes and cookies? My son is veggie and entitled to FSM but I took him off them due to all the sugary desserts and UPF. He doesn’t need cake or cookies every school day. He’d eat plain pasta, baked beans and a cookie or a cake. He won’t eat things like curries or stir fry. Plus eating off sectioned plastic trays is not very appetising. Not that lunch boxes are great either.

Who decides the menus?

Most of the problems you have mentioned probably due to (lack of ) funding. There are probably only around 5% of vegetarian children at the school I work in so less time to spend on what is often very few meals . Homemade cakes and cookies are very cheap to make . We have fruit for dessert twice a week ( also available as an option on every other day), a milk based dessert once a week ( usually ice cream or yogurt) and usually cake or cookies on the other 2 days . The cakes are often lower sugar recipes and a small portion. I really don’t think the children have a problem eating from plastic trays , although it’s not really something I’ve thought about . It does save on washing up though as a plate, bowl and tray would be 3x the amount and therefore time and staffing would increase, potentially leaving less budget for the actual food.

we are in house as opposed to contracted caterers , so we use menus from our councils school meals team . I do however make some tweaks ( within school meal standards) as I know what the children will eat . It is a balancing act to be honest to ensure healthy meals but also give the children food they will enjoy .