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.

To be honest the packed lunches that I see are mostly full of crisps and chocolate and far less nutritious than the meals we provide. Obviously there are exceptions.

i find this sad, not to mention the chemicals in the plastic. I suppose it’s practical

No questions but my daughter loves her school lunches 🙂 the team do a great job.

I’m a teacher of young children and we don’t have plastic trays but I wish we did. They are great for segregating food - I can’t tell you how many children won’t eat the pasta because it has ‘touched’ the sauce which was carefully put next to it, on the plate.

There was a thread recently by a mother who was unhappy about a school residential at a centre which only served vegetarian food. My employer (large, public sector) only provides veggie & vegan catering, as do several local authorities i work with, and my DC’s high school now serves 2 veggie options and 1 meat option instead of the other way round. How do you feel about the idea of school meals becoming 100% vegetarian?

Glad to hear it .

Agree , they are perfect for the job . And I really don’t think the children make the connection with prison food.

I personally can’t see it happening and if it did would be unpopular. And think it would result in worse nutrition as in my experience the type of vegetarian food kids will eat is more processed . Also more children would bring packed lunches ( often full of junk food) Saying that , macaroni cheese is the favourite meal on the menu .

I agree. Ella's fruit pouches, yoghurt covered raisins, crisps, fruit rolls, then a sandwich which is discarded.

What budget would you think would be better realistically.

How is costing worked out? It it over a month? I feel slightly hard done by when I find my DC has chosen pasta with tomato sauce for lunch with fruit and yoghurt for dessert and I have paid £2.85 for their meal.

To be fair, a tomato and pasta bake ready meal is £3.50 from Sainsbury's. You can't expect cost price meals - they have to pay for staff and overheads.

Can I have the recipe for your chocolate cake and custard. It just tastes to much better at school!

We are given a cost per meal to work to , but yes it is calculated monthly as obviously some meals are cheaper to make than others

Thankyou for doing a great job!
my sons too old for school, mid 30s

Are you primary or secondary ?Do you do many themed meals, I’ve seen a lot of black history month meals while looking at secondaries, do you do a Diwali one?

Thank you

Primary . Don’t do many theme days to be honest , usually just world book day and some parent lunches . Don’t really do any religious festival themed meals .

Ds often takes homemade soup and bread for his lunch. On Fridays he has some ready salted crisps if we’ve got any in but otherwise it’s crackers/bread/breadsticks and some kind of cheese, fruit, and if he’ll eat them, salad vegetables. Occasionally there might be a small piece of homemade cake or a homemade cookie if I’ve baked. He only takes water to drink. He’s ND and it’s very difficult to keep up with his latest food restrictions and still provide something healthy. What he’d prefer would be dairylea dunkers, Quorn ham sandwiches, flavoured crisps and chocolate with some kind of soft drink. It aggravates his reflux so he can’t have those things anyway. It’s hard to come up with healthy lunches with all his restrictions and the school restrictions of no nuts or seeds. He’s always telling me that his friends have crisps and chocolate every day. One boy in his class has several kitkats for his lunch along with crisps and cake.

I bloody loved school dinners. I always got seconds of all the veggies because the other kids didn't like them. Especially cabbage and sweetcorn.

There was that weird bland square sponge with the runny custard. And tiny dishes of jelly.

Once in a blue moon there were potato smileys or waffles.

Did anyone else's school have the glasses with the mysterious numbers on the bottom? Whoever go the lowest number was the winner.

Does it piss you off when kids don’t say please or thank you? I’m a TA and it drives me nuts that kids don’t have manners. I remind them as much as possible but it’s fighting a losing battle.

What you’re giving ds sounds good and certainly much better than many of the lunchboxes I see which are often full of what I would consider treat foods . Ie , a sandwich, pack of crisps , pepperoni, kitkat , fromage frais and cake . I’ve even seen packs of haribo .

I think this would be a very different thread if you worked for a big school catering company like Chartwells.

Our year 6 children get 3 thin potato wedges counted out. KS1 and Reception get 2.

"Crunchy" chicken is made with a premade overly sweet BBQ sauce and coated with porridge oats, so it turns into BBQ porridge.

Burgers and hot dogs are too often on the menu.

The salad bar that's supposed to be on offer every day is never there.

The kitchen will often raid the KS1 free fruit to ensure they have apples and oranges to offer to children for pudding.

Adult portions at £3.50 are the same size as the KS2 children's portions at £2.85.

.ringley. three potato wedges! No wonder the kids come home starving! My eldest told me when they were in year 2 that the school lunch isn't enough food for their class!