Why do some schools still not have a healthy eating lunchbox?

[nickiredcar]

I'm shocked at what some people like this YouTuber gives her kids for lunch - sausage role, crisps, ice gems, junky breakfast bar, packet of grapes and a caprison.

I'm shocked that there are still schools where this passes as an acceptable lunch. In mine one of those junk foods would be allowed in on Fridays but 80-90% is banned.

Red bull and chewing gum

I agree about education, I just worry if we carry on doing nothing what will happen? Collapsing NHS and life expectancy lowering?

I will decide what my son eats, not School

I have an extremely fussy eater. She is 4 will not eat school dinners and takes a packed lunch. Her lunch is the same every single day. She has a tomato sauce sandwich, grapes, strawberries, a sugar free jelly and some kind of chicken, ie tikka pieces, chicken satay, or sometimes Iceland popcorn chicken. I dread to think what the school thinks of me

That's one meal out of 21 in a week so i wouldn't judge to harshly when you dont know what theyre eating for the rest of the time

My dd eats a wide variety of foods, masses of fresh veg and fruit but even with the greatest will in the world shes gone in with a white bread ham sandwich, yoghurt, cherry toms, grapes and packet of biscuits some days and that's ok as overall she has a sensible diet....

Dont judge

I'd have not eaten for six years if my lunch box was policed, I was really fussy as a child and would rather starve.

What’s wrong with sausage rolls? My dp regularly brings me back sausage rolls from town - from Greg’s no less and I bloody love them.

If you’re talking about a child having access only to ready meals, fizzy drinks and junk morning noon and night then there are some questions to be asked around A,the parents’ thinking, and B, the prevalence of this kind of food in our society where it’s actually possible to create a diet centred around only junk food.

However expecting schools to police what children eat causes far more bad feeling than changing people’s mindsets or attitudes.

There is absolutely some questioning to be asked around how a child could consider redbull and chewing gum lunch however the alternative where children go into school with granary bread with a pot of cucumber sticks and another pot of home-made humus is just as idealistic as most young children just don’t live on that kind of food either.

Nipem What on earth is wrong with a ham sandwich, yog, cherry toms, grapes and some biscuits?

You wants to point the finger at school dinners before you look at lunch boxes

Well it's not great by any standard but there are some kids sent to school with no breakfast and no lunch and not much prospect of a dinner some days, some schools can't be overly fussy about what is brought in for lunch.

My DC school don't do this, thankfully. No idea about other parents but on the whole my DC lunch is decent but every now and then I'll run out or forget something so give them a 'junk' day like the youtuber. There is simply no chance I'd take any notice of lunchbox police I'm afraid!

At a school I was working at one day last week the school lunch was a sausage roll, chips and beans. With a chocolate cake the size of my fist for desert. I looked at the menu for the rest of the week. The options included pepperoni pizza, chicken goujons and fish fingers. If the schools can’t even be bothered to make their own lunches in any way nutritious they can hardly criticise the lunch boxes I suppose. This grates on me too op but most people I know think that a jam sandwich, pack of mini cheddars and a Frube is a healthy lunch. With a few grapes chucked in to make it look like they’re getting their 5 a day.

Wendy- i prefer to use wholemeal bread/pittas/wraps along with a couple of portions of veggies and fruit and wouldnt regularly put biscuits and sugary yoghurts in the same lunch box.

On a good day i try and stick to the method below means i can do lunch in 2 mins

1 Wholemeal carb,
1 Protein
1 Dairy
2 veggies
1 fruit
1 treat (yoghurt, popcorn, small cake/biscuit)

On a bad day its ham or peanut butter on white, grapes, yoghurt, etc

Each to their own though

Think of the children's education!!
Think of the NHS!!

I wonder what your next argument will be?

Deckthehalls raises a good point - I'm always a little surprised by the quality of the school dinners at our school. They do have good options like curry and spaghetti etc, but it is always with a large portion of pudding and they also have a lot of hamburgers, pizza etc. served with vegetables I think, but I get the sense the kids largely skip those!

People who judge have obviously never had a fussy child.

We are NOT a fussy household. Eldest eats everything and anything that gets put in front of her. Oh how my youngest changed things.

She would starve rather than eat what was dished up.

So far, she will eat a tuna mayo sandwich or wrap. Sliced apple, but only 2 chunks, peeled of course. Skips or nik nak crisps. Occasionally a salt and vinegar pringle. Plain pasta, cubes of medium cheddar cheese. Every now and then she'll nibble a broccoli head or a chunk of carrot. She'll eat white potatoes cut into chip shape and baked in rapeseed oil. And ketchup. And anything with sugar in, such as cake/biscuits/chocolate.

And. That's. It.

Good luck making her 3 meals a day out of that lot

I often batch bake organic sausage rolls and my DD’s love taking them to school instead of their usual sandwich/wrap/cheese and crackers.

As long as they get at least 7 portions of fruit/veg per day as far as I’m concerned they can have crisps or a sausage roll in their lunch.

You have no idea what they eat the rest of the time so judging others food choices really is a pointless exercise.

Get off your high horse!

I'm lucky if DS eats 1 portion of fruit OR veg a day. 😳

I used to give them sausage rolls sometimes, crisps sometimes etc etc - it all depends upon what else they are eating. My daughter was so underweight at one point (food phobic due to autism) anything was better than nothing!

I work in a school and have to do the lunch duty. This lunch is kind of average. There are much worse including lunches that consist of cold french fries only, from previous nights dinner.

I don't know what's worse, people who send their kids in with junk day in day out, or this categorising of food into good and bad in front of and including our children.

A sausage roll is fine. 25 sausage rolls eaten compulsively and in recrimination because your mother blacklisted them from your diet 15 years ago, not so fine.

Impossible to police such nuance of children's diet but FFS! We are creating a monster.

*I'm shocked that we expect schools to fix all of societies ils.
*
🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

mouthkisses

Completely agree!

The Lunch Box Police get my goat. So what if my DD (when she was at primary) had a dairylea sandwich, penguin bar and a packet of BBQ beef hoola hoops plus probably a carton of apple juice. Honestly, it made not one iota of difference to her weight or learning.

My school doesn’t police lunch boxes.
Many of our parents are on a limited incomes. I can’t imagine anyone will take kindly to the school picking them up on their lunch box contents.

Why don't you go worry about kids who rummage through the rubbish bins at school for food because their own parents won't feed them? A teacher I know saw that happen plenty of times and started bringing in sandwiches for the poor blighters.

Never forget, folks - everything is always school's fault. Every single thing. Always.
The teachers are always to blame. Always.

Jog on OP.