Only 1% of packed lunches meet the nutritional standards of a school meal

[Ifailed]

According to a Government report www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-53574164. Without Googling it, how many know what would constitute a "correct" packed lunch for a child - I know I wouldn't?

My kid struggles with school dinners. At the start of the year we sat down with the menus and talked about what the problem was, and I got answers like "well mum if it's fishfingers that I like you have to have beans that I don't like and the bean juice goes everywhere. You can only get carrots and broccoli if you have yukky pie." I asked school if it was possible to swap the veg, and they said it's not allowed. So now my kid eats only the half of the food that hasn't got covered with the food that she hates (that they won't leave off the plate). She comes home ravenous most days.

In lockdown she has eaten weird combinations of food, but a decent amount of veg at least! Packed lunches are only allowed if there are allergies, etc.

@Billyjoearmstrong I despair of the absolutely dreadful nutritional advice that comes out of schools these days. The absolute crap teachers have told my D(S)C is unbelievable. It’s not necessarily the teachers’ fault but the stuff they teach is all micro-level ‘good’ and ‘bad’ food (and often wrong) with no idea that you’d need to judge a diet (and a lifestyle) over the course of weeks or months rather than looking at a single meal or snack.

Children will only eat the bits that they want to in any case. Younger children will almost certainly leave stuff - they’ve had a load of milk at 10:30, they’re just not hungry at midday. I worked as a dinner lady for 10 years, and the packed lunches were generally consistently better than the school lunches. There was always a few parents who thought cold toast and a bag of crisps made a good lunch, but they were in the minority. It would be better to make school meals free for older children as there would be far less waste.

School dinners at DS and DD's school are really good. They've struck a good balance between nutritious and accepting that there's no point in having a menu that a lot of kids won't eat.

At DS's last school they banned Dairylea Dunkables as they are not healthy. An over-zealous TA took DS's lunch from him once because she felt that the homemade (not by me) hummus and guacamole were "dunkables" and therefore not healthy.

Ok, answering my own question here. as I'm stuck under a breastfeeding baby and bored...

I've read the BBC article linked by @Ifailed and the report that it is based on (linked is in the BBC article). The report cites this paper bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/1/e029688 as the basis for its claim that only 1% of packed lunches meat school meal nutritional standards. The most relevant information is on page 6 of the paper.

You packed lunch will meet the standard if it contains: starch, protein, dairy, fruit AND a vegetable. It must not contain any sweetened drinks (only water, milk and pure fruit juice allowed), confectionery (defined as anything with chocolate in it), or savoury snacks (such as crisps).

So, if your packed lunch meets those standards, you are in the 1%.

Not passing may judgement at all, as this is obviously only one way of defining healthy. But, as we are discussing it, based on comments in this thread: @CarlottaValdez would be in the 1% and @DinosApple might, depending on your definition of snack. @squeekums, @DipSwimSwoosh, @BoobsOnTheMoon, @Tinyhumansurvivalist wouldn't meet the standard.

Looking at Table 1 from the paper (hopefully attached here) white bread, ham, yoghurt, crisps, chocolate biscuit and a sweetened drink are all present in 25% or more of packed lunches. Which does sound pretty unhealthy to be honest.

Table attached (hopefully).

In my day we had white bread sandwiches, fruit juice, crisps and a wagon wheel.

My son always has left overs stuffed into a pitta or wrapped in a roti, so things like veg curry, veg chilli etc. He also has one piece of fruit, some veg sticks and one oreo. He has a bottle of water that he can drink through the day/fill again at lunch time.

The school lunches at our school are so terrible, it would be really hard to make a packed lunch that was unhealthier even if you were trying

@gonshite

I don't really understand why it's not ok to have a packet of Pom Bears in the lunch box but ok to have a cake for pudding if having a school dinner.

This^^

It annoys me that My DS is told he can’t have one small biscuit in a packed lunch but the school lunch has jelly and ice cream for pudding!

That news report has to be a piss take. I work in primary schools and school dinners are rubbish.

Mine takes a sandwich (usually chicken - wholemeal bread if it is relevant) some salad veg such as cucumber, peppers, cherry toms or carrots, a piece of fruit, and something else. So I think I would fail according to what the 'something else' is. Yoghurt days I'd pass, but crisp days and chocolate biscuit days, I'd fail. Leftover cake day I'd definitely fail, but I figure I'm better giving her the cake for lunch than her having school dinner and the cake straight after school as well.
I took the same packed lunch through all of primary school. There was no veg in the 80s though and the sandwiches were beef paste. Yuk.

I find that hard to believe. School dinners are shit.

Our school dinners look okay on paper - different veg every day etc. In reality the kids get a small portion of protein, baked beans, mash and sweetcorn every day. It's not difficult to pack a better lunch than that.

@Love51 actually leftover cake day would be fine. It wouldn't fall afoul of the guidelines as long as it's not got chocolate in it.

@questionssquestions thanks. I won't tell the kids that though! Small one is starting packed lunches in September and he'd be asking for it every day.

When mine took packed lunches at primary school, 90% of the time it was a sandwich (usually ham, cheese, or chicken; often with sliced tomato or cucumber) and a biscuit / crisps / yogurt / piece of fruit (usually two of those in their packed lunch and one for break) plus a drink. That was pretty much the norm. School dinners were pretty stodgy and light on veg (I have dc that like veg but they said it was rarely offered as it was just expected not to be wanted). Secondary school dinners weren’t much better.

Not passing may judgement at all, as this is obviously only one way of defining healthy. But, as we are discussing it, based on comments in this thread: @CarlottaValdez would be in the 1% and @DinosApple might, depending on your definition of snack. @squeekums, @DipSwimSwoosh, @BoobsOnTheMoon, @Tinyhumansurvivalist wouldn't meet the standard.
Looking at Table 1 from the paper (hopefully attached here) white bread, ham, yoghurt, crisps, chocolate biscuit and a sweetened drink are all present in 25% or more of packed lunches. Which does sound pretty unhealthy to be honest.

No judgement felt by me, im under no illusion her lunchbox healthy lol. I wait for the day the teacher tries to say something, we been lucky so far and have teachers who operate in reality.

I go by the theory of i will give her what gets eaten at school. I found tying to do a lunchbox that ticks all the boxes left her hungry and hangry after school as she just didnt eat it. Its better for ALL of us if she is fed, even if thats a bag of crisps and a hot dog or whatever.

@questionssquestions

Ok, answering my own question here. as I'm stuck under a breastfeeding baby and bored...

I've read the BBC article linked by @Ifailed and the report that it is based on (linked is in the BBC article). The report cites this paper bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/1/e029688 as the basis for its claim that only 1% of packed lunches meat school meal nutritional standards. The most relevant information is on page 6 of the paper.

You packed lunch will meet the standard if it contains: starch, protein, dairy, fruit AND a vegetable. It must not contain any sweetened drinks (only water, milk and pure fruit juice allowed), confectionery (defined as anything with chocolate in it), or savoury snacks (such as crisps).

So, if your packed lunch meets those standards, you are in the 1%.

Not passing may judgement at all, as this is obviously only one way of defining healthy. But, as we are discussing it, based on comments in this thread: @CarlottaValdez would be in the 1% and @DinosApple might, depending on your definition of snack. @squeekums, @DipSwimSwoosh, @BoobsOnTheMoon, @Tinyhumansurvivalist wouldn't meet the standard.

Looking at Table 1 from the paper (hopefully attached here) white bread, ham, yoghurt, crisps, chocolate biscuit and a sweetened drink are all present in 25% or more of packed lunches. Which does sound pretty unhealthy to be honest.

Honestly I couldn't give a toss if it falls under the government guidelines for healthy. She is coming up 7 and weighs just under 21kg. She is chronically ill and on a low dose of chemotherapy to suppress her over active immune system. She eats fuck all, will starve herself for days rather than eat a vegetable. Some bureaucratic areshole can do one. When they provide her with food she can eat or a healthy menu that isn't all pizza chips and chocolate pudding i may reconsider. Til then they balls quite frankly

I am so glad this mania for policing lunch boxes has passed us by in Australia. My two boys get a sandwich on multigrain bread, some fruit, one of those date and nut ball things and a biscuit (plus morning recess). It’s just good to keep them full and give them energy for the day - it’s one meal out of three and needs to be something easy and quick (otherwise it gets left because they want to play), something that won’t go off in the heat and something that they actually like.
It’s not the job of teachers to tell parents how to feed their children.

I agree with the pp who mentioned tiny portions of veg with school dinners.
If you order a jacket potato for a reception child at my school they only get half of one. And most children don't like the skin as they are oven baked the skin is quite thick, after scooping it out they don't get much potato at all.
They do get given the vegetables of the day too however some days (fishy Friday for example) the veg of the day is beans which they will happily serve next to tuna but if you've already had beans on your jacket you don't get extra.

All school meals are small. Unfortunately when parents read for example roast beef dinner, they expect their child to be given they same as they get at home. But in reality it's 1 thin slice of beef, 1 or 2 'mini' roast potatoes ( so about half a small potato), a mini Yorkshire pudding (again about half the size of a individual one) and dessert spoon of veg. Pudding is a piece of cake about an inch square. And then add that children in reception have their lunch from 11.30 am so it's no wonder when they come out of school hungry at 3.30 ish.

Isn't the 1% figure ten years old? nhs report on the research

I am confident I make healthy packed lunches so not concerned. The school 'packed' lunch option during covid was too little food even for the small kids (1 sandwich, 1 piece of fruit, 1 healthy cookie or similar) so all the parents ended up sending lunch boxes.

If fsm are to be extended I hope they up the quantity! Kids that aren't getting enough for breakfast or tea don't benefit from a light lunch.

Notice a few people saying school meals are small...at the same time we have an country where being overweight is normal...any link perhaps?

@SushiGo so that NHS write up is of part one of the study, published in 2006. The figure in yesterday's BBC article comes from a follow up study that was run in 2016. The percentage of so called healthy packed lunches increased from 1.1% in 2006 to 1.6% in 2016.