School complaining about dd perfectly normal packed lunch.

[Juk3]

The class TA came out to talk to me yesterday (from a distance) to discuss dd unhealthy lunch and the lunch box policy. The dinner lady assigned to dd raised it and the TA did say she wasn't in the class room during lunch so was just passing on info she had been given. She asked me to have a look on the website for the lunch box policy and try to adhere to it if possible, she was perfectly pleasant and I took my telling off but after reading the policy dd's lunch has not broken any rules. I try to make a variety of different lunches as I wouldn't want to eat the same thing every day myself. If I list yesterday's and today's lunch below could you tell me what's so bad about them as I just don't get it. I am wondering if the there has been a mix up with kids not that I will bring this up with school.

Yesterday:- grilled chicken breast with mayo on a mini wrap with lettuce, cucumber and tomato.
Carrot and red pepper sticks with a single serve pot of humous.
Pot of honeydew melon.
A tube yogurt.
A square of homemade shortbread.
A bag of sliced apple (she usually will have this at break).
Carton of juice

Today:- sliced boiled egg sandwich on 50/50 bread with crusts removed.
Pot of sliced red grapes.
2 mini cucumbers and celery sticks with a single serve pot of humous.
Small bag of mini pretzels.
A bag of sliced apple (usually eaten at break)
Carton of juice

She is 8 (9 in dec) in year 4 perfectly normal height and weight.

Thankfully DD’s school doesn’t have packed lunch police, the only rule is no nuts because there’s a child with an allergy which is fair enough. Unless there are concerns about neglect in which case a social services referral should be made I’d tell them that I’ll decide what my child eats thank you very much.

The offending item was cold pizza

Food of the gods

You'd really think they would have better things to worry about, wouldn't you?

Could it be the sliced egg? We've been asked not to send egg sandwiches in because of the pong and obvs nuts because of allergies...

Was the carton one that has the "school compliant" logo on it? If not, they may be put out by that or the brand of yoghurt, I guess, but I think it's a lovely lunch and amazing that your DC will eat all of those delicious and nutritious bits and bobs. The odd extra gram or two of sugar in the drink or yoghurt doesn't make it unhealthy in my view.

I'd query, by providing the list of contents and just asking what you should be avoiding in future as you couldn't readily spot the contraband!

Sorry, didn't see the update! My phone wasn't letting me scroll to the bottom. The school's response is a bit barking, even if mistaken identity. Pizza is on most school dinner menus and is basically a topless sandwich

The school is seriously bonkers. What's wrong with pizza? That's bizarre.

If it's a choice you are making personally @twobrews then fair enough but a school cannot dictate what you eat for breakfast.
They can't police it no, but all children do have a right to education and schools have to make reasonable adjustments to provide it. If my son starts reacting more seriously to traces of allergens on people then school can request that nuts/peanuts are not eaten before school, if pupils or their parents can't or won't accept that then they can move those children to another class. This happened in a previous year with a child with severe hazelnut allergy and another child with Autism who only ate Nutella sandwiches.

Anyway,I was under the impression that we cannot announce that a school etc is nut, egg free etc because it's not a true representation of the world we live in.
This is true to a degree, my little boy knows full well he can't rely on anything being completely safe it's taken me years to be confident enough to go to parties etc but it's nice to know he can relax his guard a little at school.
As I said however in some cases the allergen is so severe that it's either make adjustments or that child cannot go to school.

And my dd is not fussy at all, she just doesn't enjoy overly processed foods 👍
I don't think toast with something else that's not egg is any more heavily processed than toast with egg on. You have a non fussy child with no allergies so you have many options 👍

@unmarkedbythat
Whilst I agree with the thrust of what you're saying, there really is no need to take that snide tone. Your soul doesn't look particularly beautiful with the whole "your little precious is a picky eater" thing.
You're right. The laughing faces and the uncaring nature of the post really hit a nerve. It's hard enough to think your child could accidentally die from eating something mislabelled or contaminated but it's ten times harder to hear that some people would knowingly cause harm to them because it's too much of an inconvenience to eat a different food. It doesn't bring out the best in me.

messed up my bold and tagging, most of that post was for @yasmeani

Surely if you knew there was a child with a severe nut allergy in school you just wouldn't give your child nuts for breakfast. I mean jeez I love peanut butter, DC's often have it for breakfast, but if it might prevent someone from being able to breath I'll find something else to give them whether the school 'police' it or not.

Wow I never realised schools did this now (my DD is 2 so not at school yet) I went to primary school in the late 90s/early 00s and to echo a few PPs, I used to get a cheese and tomato sandwich is thick white bread, a munch bunch yogurt, a banana and a chocolate bar. I seriously can’t believe that kids pack ups are policed like this now!

Jesus they’d fall off their chairs if they saw what I see in lunchboxes in my class at the moment!!
I don’t usually see them for lunch but they are currently having to eat lunch in the classroom as they aren’t allowed all the bubbles in the hall - I’ve seen some interesting lunches to say the least. Your dds lunch wouldn’t have caused me any concern, ours are ‘allowed’ treats and a juice/squash in their lunchbox but water for their bottles throughout the day. Obviously no nuts, I’ve had to speak to a couple of parents about pesto and marzipan etc but in a very nice way, not in a bossy horrible manner!!

Gosh that’s much healthier than my DDs school dinners! She gets pizza and chips, ham sandwich and chips, fish and chips or pasta mainly. I am considering putting her on pack lunches

Juice and shortbread.

At our school they tell the children not to eat the food if it is not inline with their packed lunch policy so some children come home with half their lunch uneaten. The school have gone to calling Friday's " treat Friday" where the children are allowed something sweet such a cake in their lunchbox. I hate the term "treat Friday" but they use it so they can get away with their cupcake sales, doughnut sales, lolly sales, the smarties tube coin donations and the chocolate bingo which happen on Treat Friday's - their healthy eating policy goes out of the window whey they are raising money.

Cold pizza is hardly that bad. I would have thought that pretzels, yogurt tube, shortbread and juice are worse than pizza. Depends on toppings I suppose. I don't agree with food police anyway unless it's crisps and chocolate and coke every day.

I'm glad you got an apology! Your lunches are perfect.
Its so annoying some dinner ladies think any leftover foods are unhealthy. Anything other than a sandwich. I often hear "looked like last nights dinner!". So what? Not everyone eats sandwiches and they are not a superfood!

Excellent update

My children's school used to serve pizza for school lunches. I don't see the problem. At least it's not red bull and a packet of tic tacs. Or monster munch and haribo www.google.com/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/news/7270891/teacher-worst-packed-lunches-children-beer-red-bull-mcdonalds/amp/

@earthyfire

At our school they tell the children not to eat the food if it is not inline with their packed lunch policy so some children come home with half their lunch uneaten. The school have gone to calling Friday's " treat Friday" where the children are allowed something sweet such a cake in their lunchbox. I hate the term "treat Friday" but they use it so they can get away with their cupcake sales, doughnut sales, lolly sales, the smarties tube coin donations and the chocolate bingo which happen on Treat Friday's - their healthy eating policy goes out of the window whey they are raising money.

This used to annoy me as well. Healthy Eating week ended with the ice cream sale on Friday, donut sale ended Fitnes Week bake sales every other month on top of the above, but God help you if you put a Freddo in their lunch box when they were having a bad week

I think the lunch you provide is absolutely fine, I actually took my son off school dinners as I didn't want him to have big puddings every day and the meals were not to my standard lots of pizza, burgers and other rubbish .
Maybe they are hoping you will put your dish her on school dinners so they can earn more money .

Looks healthy but lots. You know how much she eats. My 2 are in secondary school and would never eat all that but I do wish they would.

It will be the juice. A lot of schools only allow water to be brought to school.

Kids in my school can eat chocolate sandwiches with a chocolate pudding, a chocolate milkshake and a chocolate biscuit and there's nothing we can do about it.

OP , your lunches sound delicious

Hummus often has sesame in it. At both my kids school, sesame is not allowed. My son is allergic to sesame.

The second is juice.

I would check back at the school, but would say find a nut free-sesame free hummus no matter what they say.

Maybe there was a miscommunication and it wasn’t your daughters lunch but another child’s

Jesus. Thank god my child’s school doesn’t participate in this nonsense.

My daughter (6) has a ham roll, juice, a piece of fruit and a biscuit. Sometimes Pom bears. Sometimes a babybel.

When she goes school dinners they give them ice cream and cake and all manner of shite. I’m just happy she’s eating well and won’t have a hungry tummy.