School lunches

[abovedecknotbelow]

DTs started Y7 today and I've just had the app update me on what they have had to eat today...

DT1
Sausage roll
Wedges
Milkshake
Pizza (I think this is a small slice of pizza at breaktime)
Milkshake
£5.80

DT2
Meatball pasta
Garlic bread
Milkshake
Wedges (this must have been her break snack)
Flavoured water
£5.40

It's their first day so I'll let them off this time but over a fiver a day, is that normal? £200 a month?! That's not happening...

The obvious ones to go are the drinks and they have water with them anyway that they can refill or I'd be happy for them to take different drinks from home if they want to.

What do you do, do you restrict what they can have, or give a budget and when its gone it's gone and they can take packed lunch? Is that social suicide?

I'd sit them down and crunch the numbers with them. It's tjhe first day, it's all new and they were probably excited to try everything that looked good. But yes drinks to go. If you are allowed to send snacks in then they can have a breaktime snack from home and a main meal?

We have compulsory school meals and no food from home at ours (private school). Funds are on a pre-loaded card and the guide amount given by the school was about £250.00 per term, although it seems to last longer than that for us. Ds went mad last year being in charge of his own meals so he really only seems to have bought doritos, oreos and doughnuts. (The fact that these are even on offer is an annoyance tbh). I am hoping this year he is a little more sensible.

😱 probably the novelty of a secondary school canteen!

I put a certain amount on my DDs account every month and tell her when it's gone, it's gone. She prefers to take packed lunches now anyway as that's what her friends do.

But yes, crunch the numbers with them so that they're aware of the costs adding up.

Yes very much over excited at the option of a canteen! Both came out and said they didn't like the food anyway so that's that problem sorted! They also only have 35 minutes for lunch so apparently lots of them take pa led lunches in so they can eat quickly instead of queuing

Can you put a limit on how much they can spend a day, my DC’s school used to allow this and it worked well? So for example you could put a £4 per day cap on their account.

Mine ended up with packed lunches so they could avoid the queues

My girls take bits like crisps, fruit, snacks etc from home and just buy the main from the canteen in place of sandwiches i.e pizza, bagel etc. This is our deal 🤣

It's very early days. Give them a weekly or daily cap, it'll settle down. Today's just a bit like letting them loose in a sweet shop. It's not the new normal unless you let it be.

Yikes! Slightly different for my ds as it’s an independent school and lunches are included in the fees. But snacks at break from the canteen are paid in cash. So I will only let him do that once a week as a treat, the rest of the week he can take a snack from home.

Our school has a max of £5 a day. My daughter is taking a few snacks and then getting a baguette or something so spending around £2 a day.