Prue Leith wants to ban school packed lunches?

[SneakyGremlins]

Good luck with that.

www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/amp/47733670

As someone who exclusively ate packed lunches (not a picky eater at all, just preferred having food from home - although during secondary school I discovered I had gluten intolerance and had to change my diet, so school dinners were an absolute no no), this really irks me. I get the whole stopping childhood obesity thing - but surely that's the parents job to ensure they're kids are eating healthy? Besides, I'm sure most of the time what's in a kids lunchbox is more nutritious than the crap the schools make.

*their

Natsku I can imagine the horror of most UK parents if that menu was offered in our schools, with no other choice available. Especially after Jamie Oliver was so vilified by getting turkey twizzlers off the menu.

Many UK parents have a very romanticised vision of the Finnish education system but I think that is mainly based on the fact that they don't start formal education until they are 7, I think they would struggle with most other parts eg compulsory school dinners, children being expected to walk to school alone from about 6, most young children being latch key kids from a similar age due to short school hours and the majority of parents being in work

sudo the same way the school deals with any other issues. And if a sensory issues is severe enough to result in a restricted diet, I would expect parents to be engaging with the appropriate professionals and thus have supporting evidence.

Believe it or not, most schools genuinely will move heaven and earth for children with additional needs. They could do without the timewasting parents

Laughing at the idea of medical evidence and support! It was only when ds was at the point of rapidly losing weight and eating nothing a lot of the time that any kind of “support” became available.

Most people with restricted diets due to SPD/autism wont be getting (or necessarily needing) and sort of extra medical support. It may be jotted in their notes from a check up along with everything else but that would be about it

Natsku not all children go to daycare to experience the 'getting used to' school dinners. They are at home eating lunch with their parent/carer. Lunch that is usually along the lines of something sandwich related. Then they have their main meal as a family at tea time. My daughter (age 10) has packed lunch - ie a sandwich + bits like carrot sticks, yogurt etc and me being home at lunch time I usually have a sandwich etc for lunch. It's lunch. That's what lunch is. It doesn't need to be a cooked lunch if you don't want it to be.

I wasn't diagnosed I was a teenager after two years on the waiting list. When I was primary school nobody even knew I had autism. But I still couldn't have coped with school dinners and simply would've not eaten.

I work and cant cant afford guving my 3 kids money for lunches. Youngest has packed lunch and older 2 take in food and have a couple of quid each for whatever (eldest in college).

My work place is a primary school. And tbh the food is pretty basic. And for £2.50 a day I expect better. There is less than 25% having dinners.
Banning packed lunches is not doable.

I work in a secondary school and I'm horrified at the school lunches. We nickname the canteen the "beige buffet". Breakfast is a bacon sarnie, lunch is an array of carbs - rolls, pizza, chips, nuggets, hot pocket type things and a piece of fruit (usually a banana or apple) along with a pudding of chocolate crunch or a shortbread slice. It's probably the unhealthiest school food I've experienced. I would definitely say a "typical" packed lunch is healthier than that.

Good job she's not in any position to do so then.

My kids school dinners seem to be ok food wise for most kids dd7 has a school dinner everyday if she does like the 2 choices of main she can opt for a sandwich, although they used to offer 3 kinds of filling chicken, cheese and ham, they are changing to cheese only.
My dd9 is a very clean eater doesn't like sauces and loves veg and salad, so has a packed lunch consisting of salad, fruit and crisps so much healthier than school. She also can bear the plastic trays they serve the food on she gags at the smell and feel of them, i get that I've gog issues with food being served on wooden boards and slates. If the are making them all have school dinners they'll need to serve them on plates for her!

As lots of pps have said this would only work if they were free. School meals round here are £2.50 per day per child. That's £50 a month times however many kids you have which is a lot of money to find especially if you're already forking out bus fares for the ones at secondary school (£10 a week each here).

Natsku do Finnish parents have such negative attitudes like so many UK parents seem to have? From PPs on here such a system couldn’t possibly work here, but it seems to in Finland.

bookmum the majority of Finnish parents work, I think it is something like 80%, so most children will need to go to daycare before they are old enough to go to school

ineedaholiday that's why we can't really compare UK schools to Finish schools as it's a different lifestyle. I would be interested to know what Finnish adults have at lunch time. Do they get a sit down cooked meal or is it a sandwich eaten in the tiny break room of their work place or if they are lucky they have a microwave so they can zapp last nights leftovers or a kettle so they can maybe make a cup a soup!

The parents here don't have negative attitudes about it as they ate the same foods in school so it's what they are used to.

Its normal for adults to have a hot meal at lunch time too (lunch is the main meal of the day traditionally), there are lunch restaurants that give pretty much the same food as school food (some fancier but others are very similar to school dinners but also ethnic restaurants will do canteen lunch with their own foods too) but with two or three options, canteen style. A common employee benefit is lunch vouchers that can be used in these restaurants.

We live in Wales. It is £2.40 a day, and no free lunches for KS1. £12 per child per week.

In the 1970s my mum was a teacher and I was at primary school.

School dinners were in 'sittings' and were served family style. Teacher or dinner ladies served up and plates were passed around. My mum remembers eating lunch at the table alongside the children. It was very much meat and two veg, crumble and custard type food but balanced. The teacher was modelling good eating habits and table behaviour (and got a free lunch!).

Schools need to improve the choice and quality. My DS's school introduced a whole new menu with nothing but healthy food and very few meat dishes - things like sausage rolls and pizzas have disappeared. Now they're whinging that far fewer kids are having school meals and that the canteen is making a loss. Give the kids what they want and they'll eat them. Not hard is it. If they're worried about unhealthy sausage rolls and pizzas then change suppliers to get ones that are more healthy, i.e. less additives and preservatives, rather than everything being cheap and frozen.

And if a sensory issues is severe enough to result in a restricted diet, I would expect parents to be engaging with the appropriate professionals and thus have supporting evidence.

The kids will probably have left school by the time the NHS has diagnosed the problem and the kid has finally got to see the right therapist! The waiting lists are crazy,.

But Kazzy this is partly the problem in this country, so many children don’t seem to be able to eat anything unless it is pizza, chicken nuggets, sausage rolls. I remember when DS was at Primary School and every so often a new dish was added to the menu, which was different than the normal kids’ menu type food. They would put a description of this dish on the menu, and almost immediately parents would be complaining, asking why such a dish would be offered, their child wouldn’t eat it etc. Why? Why do children in other countries seem to cope with eating normal food, whilst children in this country have to have kids’ menu food? If fish was offered in any other form than a fish finger, parents would complain. It’s just so sad.

The reason how school dinners can be free in Finland are because taxes are much higher there.

I only pay 2% income tax but yeah municipal taxes are higher than council tax and I think that is what covers school dinners in the municipality. Plus there's the ideological commitment to free school meals, no government would dare abolish it, its practically sacred

ineed Exactly. Why is it only UK kids who seem to demand a diet of beige processed rubbish?

It starts early. I hate seeing small children being handed one of those Ella’s Kitchen pouches and sucking the contents out of it. So many parents don’t think food is important enough to sit at a table for and engage with properly. Although saying that Ella’s Kitchen pouches are a disaster on here is akin to blasphemy.

And don’t get me started on how many children think it’s acceptable to drink gravy off their plate, like Compo from Last of the Summer Wine drinking tea off a saucer, or who can’t use a knife and fork. Complain about it, and you will be met with hostile responses and a hundred and one excuses as to why basic table manners don’t apply to their child.

re: "if a sensory issues is severe enough to result in a restricted diet, I would expect parents to be engaging with the appropriate professionals and thus have supporting evidence".

NHS don't deal with kids who are selective/avoidant eaters unless they are losing weight/seriously at risk from lack of food - as confirmed here by Dr Elizabeth Shea who runs a private clinic on selective eating

network.autism.org.uk/knowledge/insight-opinion/autism-and-eating-issues-interview-dr-elizabeth-shea

People wondering why only Brit kids seem to have food issues and can only eat nuggets etc well I will tell you a tale. My Dad has always been a picky eater. When he started school the Dinner Lady said he couldn't leave the table until he ate the peas. Well when my Granny came to pick him up at half 3 he was still sat there. That was in 1949. No alternative diet of nuggets and fish fingers then. Some people just don't like certain foods for a variety of reasons
He still has a very restricted diet.

Not sure what drinking tea out a saucer has to do with diet.