Do your kids bring ingredients to school for food tech ?

[Shishasister]

Private Day school announced that due to health and safety pupils supply own ingredients.
Today it was 250g beef mince, can of tomatoes, box of tomatoe paste, 250g milk , 6 sheets of lasagna, 25g butter, 25g flour, 50g of grated cheese, 15ml of oil , and onion, a.carrot and a oven proof dish ..
Oh and pepper and mixed herbs.

Health and safety my arse , a child carrying raw meat and milk in a rucksack is more of a risk. 🤢
Plus I spent an exorbitant amount on last minute purchasing that surely would be more reasonable in bulk. Yes the dish came home but nobody will eat it except maybe the dog.

Yep, they all have had to take in their ingredients. Very annoying when it's something we don't actually use and they only need a teaspoon of. The school generally supplies basic herbs and milk though.

No it’s all supplied by the school, they ask us for a donation at the start of the school year.

TBH I could understand why many state school children would struggle to do this because those are expensive ingredients if you’re on the deadline. If you can afford private school, a fiver in ingredients is nothing.

Re the food going off - what time is their lesson?

That's grim carrying round raw mince then tepid mince. Surely they should provide and just charge you. Or don't make things with meat in.

Do they not put the meat etc in the fridge when they get to school?

Yeah we send in ingredients - I wish we just paid a fee though - much easier to buy in bulk! Interestingly, the DT department asks for a contribution for materials so it is possible.

Mine had to supply their own ingredients in state and private. It was taken to the food tech room before registration and kept in the fridges.

We have to supply their ingredients but the kids can take them to the fridges in the food tech room at the start of school so they’re kept cool
assume it is the same is most schools or it is a H&M risk

They do put the meat in the.fridge but some kids travel an hour on the bus so I think the health and safety angle is nonsense. Previous teacher supplied ingredients, new one cba in my opinion. We don't pay for any other ubjecr supplies so I feel it is unreasonable in a fee paying school.

Put a cool block in with the food if they’re travelling for a while

Nope all supplied. Run of the mill state school in scotland. I wouldnt eat any of it though...hot food carried around for hours in a tupperware then brought home..... 🤢

We have to send in the main ingredients but they pay £10 a term to cover the small bits like oil, salt, pepper, herbs, splash of milk, teaspoon of cocoa etc.

Yes both of mine at different state schools and the school I teach at all do this. I used to take my own ingredients in 25 years ago. Common practice.

Not fee paying but you have the choice here. You can either take your own or pay for it to be organised by the school. It’s usually cheaper as they’ll buy big packs and split them up.

when my older three were at the school you had to bring your own. a kid in their class used to make a few quid by being the one who sorted all the ingredients. He lived opposite the school and would stick it all in the fridge in food bags with names on. Was always impressed by his thinking of it!

Some spices and staples contain gluten, then there are allergies and dislikes, basil or onions and garlic. I can imagine a teacher stocking and supplying could be a pain…
however if you’re going to measure out all the ingredients into sachets and baggies you might as well make it at home and submit photos.

Yes at my dc school they have to provide ingredients. It is a faff when you need to supply a quarter of a cabbage and 3 tablespoons of mayo. I'd rather just contribute at the start of the year.

They take it all. (Except cooking oil and sometimes stuff like milk if its a tiny amount).
Goes in the fridge when they arrive, picked up at end of day. Each of the food rooms has a fridge for each period (plus a spare for cooking club).

No food poisoning yet!

It’s horribly expensive but I do think it pays off as they become quite confident and like to cook more at home. Good life skills to be learnt, although yes the H&s angle can be a bit 🤢.
ours put supplies in the fridge when they arrive at school for use later in the day, and use cool packs to transport.
One thing I have found quite handy is to use butchers and those zero waste shops to buy exact quantities of the requested ingredients that we wouldn’t otherwise use.
Ther have been times though when I’ve REALLY resented the food tech teacher, particularly after Christmas when I’d resolved to budget a bit and the Chicken Fajitas recipe requested everything from tortillas to ingredients for homemade guacamole. So pricey 🙈

This was one of my biggest bugbears when my kids were young enough to cook at school. It's a terrible waste of food. How many families were really going to tuck in to a chicken curry cooked at 10am and then slowly cooled and carried around a school all day?

If they can't store the raw ingredients and cooked dishes safely at room temperature, it shouldn't be a dish they're cooking at school. What happened to home ec staples like a scone-based pizza/omelette/salad to eat for lunch, flapjacks, cheese straws?

Edit - good if the school has plenty of fridges, my kids' school had one in the home ec room that they weren't allowed to use. It was for those doing food tech at GCSE only 🙄

Yes we had to take in all ingredients at the private school I went to including salt and pepper. Sometimes it takes me an hour to go round the supermarket and get my groceries home so meat going on the bus for a hour wouldn’t really bother me. I remember the state of the bowls and utensils though, the cupboards would smell as some kids do not know how to wash up. I’d be thinking more about that bacteria 😵‍💫

Previous teacher supplied ingredients, new one cba in my opinion

Or maybe it's not their job to buy ingredients.

We send in £3 on cooking days to cover everything including a container to bring it home in.
Bog standard state school. They return to food tech room at end of day to collect from fridges to bring home.
They only cook 1 term a year 6 seperate times/dishes.

I understand what they are trying to do, but for sake of cost and time (in lesson) and fact only person to eat it is dc, I wish they would only make enough for 1 or maybe 2 people rather than 'a family' . They would still learn the same skills, just on scaled down quantities = much less waste and more time for DC to focus on the process.

I have a boy and girl in separate secondary schools.

Ds school provided all food for food tech. We paid a voluntary donation at start of year towards it.

Dds school we have to send in the ingredients. Yes she had to take raw chicken in once ..I double bagged it in food bags and packed it with an ice pack...but she told me she goes straight to the food tech room before registration and puts it in the fridge

yes. at both the schools my kids are at they have to bring in ingredients. and carry it all home.
and sometimes if you're really lucky, one of them will trip and somehow manage to drench himself in cauliflower cheese. which is nice.