About kid not eating school meals?

[Dorsetmama]

I dont know for sure that he doesn't eat them every day. But i know if he doesn't like something, he'd rather go hungry. He says most of the dinners are yucky.
We have the new meals system in Dorset, meant to be an improvement, but this school uses hot trolleys and i guess it makes the food quality lower.

He sporadically asks for packed lunches. Where I have 4 kids, and frankly, they mostly put up with school meals rather than enjoy them, they'd all want packed lunches.
I'm not sure i can make that as cheap as the hot meals.!
Wwyd? Carry on making him have the school meals or provide packed lunches?

Just provide a packed lunch for him.

Packed lunches can be cheap and don't need to be fancy. Pasta salad and a bit fruit. Job done

You could ask school to have one of the mid day supervisors monitor what he eats for a week before you commit to years of making packed lunches for him. We do that and it's often surprising how much they eat compared with what they tell their parents they eat

Is he hungry when he gets home? Does he behave as if he hasn't eaten anything? If not- then ignore!

I'm a soft touch, mine never liked the school meals so I've been making packed lunches for my two for the last 10 years :)

However, it doesn't need to be expensive. I'm sure it's cheaper than school meals, even for teenagers.

However, because both DH and I work work time, it's the time that bothers me. Not so much the time making it, it's the thinking what to get, making sure there is stuff in and replacing lost containers..

Mine generally have a sandwich, something else such as a few mini sausage rolls or a piece of chicken, a couple of bits of fruit and a biscuit. With a bottle of tap water or squash. I reckon I'm probably not much above £1-1.50 a day each. e.g.

£3.00 for bread
£3.00 for fillings
£3.00 for extras e.g. bag of sausage rolls and tray of chicken drumsticks
£1.00 bag of apples
£0.50 bunch of bananas
£2.00 bag of raisins
£1.50 packs of biscuits.
£1.00 bottle of squash.
Total = £15 divided by 2 and by 5 days = £1.50 but that's probably an overestimate as things like chicken etc are usually just left overs from dinner. Sometimes they'll have tuna pasta which works out pretty cheap.

Theres me foolishly thinking i have to buy fancy prepackaged marketed lunchbox fillers

Never considered pasta. Dont know if he'd eat it cold.
He is my only picky eater.
Coming home hungry isnt easy to spot, he has an after school snack on the walk home, plus he is a grazer so a little goes a long way appetite wise. Not so good for growth and development though.

" Not so good for growth and development though"

If he's not hungry he's eating enough. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.

Dd2's school do a sandwich option for school meals, don't your school do something like that? DD looks at the menu in the morning and orders a sandwich with her teacher.

I feel so sorry for our school cook - she's a bloody genius, yet for 20% she doles out plain pasta no cheese, no sauce.

I never understand why people say packed lunches cost a lot of money - they really don't need to; make it a plain and basic packed lunch ie: sandwich, piece of fruit and water to drink so that it is not seen as anything 'special' compared to the school meal. My DS has a packed lunch and I never buy anything different to our normal shopping - don't fall for all the 'marketing' hype about kids' packed lunches.

This is true ragwort thinking it through i suppose i could make them fairly cheaply as stated above as well.
I am too much of a convenience person. As in I like it.