School lunchbox police

[Beyondbeliefsometimes]

Just after some input on others thoughts. Kids have come home from school that they are to have a healthy snack at school. The last few years my kids have been taking a fruit and the youngest also 3 cream crackers with a slither of butter (she doesn't like much butter). My youngest only eats fruit for breakfast, so 3 hours later she is hungry and does need a carb of some sort. Occasionally she will have bread sticks.
She has now been told that she isn't allowed butter, it is not healthy, she is to have dry crackers.
Their lunch consists of a sandwich, a yogurt and a small fun size bar. They have been told there is too much in their lunch bag... On a Friday when school dinners are hot dogs or pizza, they occasionally, very occasionally get a jam sandwich as a treat, they have been told this is not healthy enough. Yet if I paid for school dinners they could eat the healthy alternative of pizza or deep fried chips and sausages... Make it make sense to me! Also not allowed sugar free squash which they will still be getting as my youngest has constipation and needs lots of fluids to help and that doesn't happen when drinking water only. They have also been told their lunch bags will be checked. Yet dinner always involves a cake of some sort!

It is the dry crackers for me... Is this bat crazy or am I so out of line that they dry crackers is suitable. Jeepers we used to dare each other as kids to eat them dry it was that hard to do

(both my kids do afterschool sports 5 days a week and gymnastics at weekend. Both always need their clothes taken in as they waist size is much smaller than their height, you cna count every rib they have from across the room. So definitely not over weight. We are also in NI so back to school already)

Why are teachers even in the dining hall? I taught for 40 years and never set foot in the dining hall.

My lunch time was spent marking work, setting up for the afternoon and grabbing a quick bite to eat in the staffroom.

Ignore it, this nonsense usually fizzles out after a day or two.
If it persists request a copy of their policy and their risk analysis of the effects on dc with food sensitivities and ARFID.

It's completely overstepping.

Parental role: feed children

School role: educate children about nutrition.

I think if schools/local authorities want to control what kids eat, all school kids should be provided with a healthy school meal. This should be part of the school day, where kids could even get involved in.

or let parents send kids in with whatever they want!

I agree with this. If schools had the funding to do it they would much prefer it. They don't want to waste time dealing with kids lunch but they also have been shown how strong the evidence is between poor behaviour and poor diet, so they need to do what they can.

Free school meals for all school children would be far easier for schools and parents, could be nutritious and as you say, if the children could play a role in setting the menu/preparing food that would be a great idea.

My kids always enjoy dinner much more when they've contributed to it.

We live abroad ( Canada) and honestly we never hear anything from the school about the lunches

How do the school have time to police the lunchboxes?!?

Also in Canada and am constantly astounded at stories like this. Apparently very common in Aus by what I've seen online, too. Crackers with butter may not be packed with nutrition, but the crap served in school dinners is far worse.

We went to the chippy at lunchtime or to the snack bar in school, I always had a sausage roll, 2 Cadbury flakes & a can of pop from the snack bar or a chip butty for my lunch, I was 7 stone & a size 6. Once we got to 15 or 16, we just went to the pub, there was an unspoken rule in the pub, we didn't mention we had seen the teachers & they didn't mention they had seen us.

Probably someone on slimming world, by the sounds of it.

I didn't complain often when my kids were in primary school, but that was one where I had words and never ever heard about my kids' food again afterwards.

My children eat very healthily; they even ask for salads as their lunches. But school decided to have a lunch box check one week and gave certificates to all children whose lunches were deemed healthy.

My kids lost out. The crime? A single, home-baked shortbread biscuit in their otherwise sushi-, salad etc. filled lunch boxes. What was more amusing was that their UPF cereal-bar munching friends got the award, even though a single bar would have had more sugar than the entire batch of biscuits we'd made that week.

I went as far as breaking down the nutritional value of our lunches and comparing it to the lunches on offer at their school. They very quickly shut up.

Sadly, many staff still think that all fruit/ veg = good and all carbs/ fats = evil. I have a degree in biological science and am qualified in health and nutrition. Very few foods have close to zero nutritional value; it's all about the weekly balance.

OP I'd suggest you tell the school where to stick their opinions and if they persist, show them the nutritional value of their hot dogs. That'll make an interesting discussion.

I've never worked in a nut free school.

How could homemade soup be unhealthy?

They are bonkers.

Bonkers OP
Cracks me up that they have all these rules about lunches in primary and then the next year in y7 they go to secondary where they can bring absolutely anything in. Chug a 2l bottle of coke and a huge packet of Haribo if they like for lunch

When our school had the healthy eating drive and the kids got house points for bringing fruit, the janitor could hardly lift the bins that were full of uneaten fruit.
The kids were showing their "healthy snacks" to the teacher to get the points and then binning them.

Our high school stopped a van from parking outside that the pupils were using for unhealthy lunches. The result - they now all go down the town to the chipper or local bakery.

Where do you live? Every primary school round here (SE) that I know of us but free

Surely you could exercise some common sense and realise these messages aren’t aimed at you? Some kids do go to school with a pile of shit to eat. This causes obvious problems for others and in class, behaviour problems after breaks re sugar come downs and no nutrition. Take the hint and realise these messages are never aimed at the parents who don’t need to read it. Just like the messages about missing parents nights, having head lice, impetigo, conjunctivitis, setting boundaries, bringing toys in from home etc etc etc.

Excatly.
Also why is everyone told in my country no nuts in lunches because of allergeries.
Once they start school this is no longer required. I always found it difficult for the way and what we ate included nuts and grains.
We were banned from apples if a certain age for choking since a child died here. Doe not mean it will or would happen again.
Its becomes to ott.

What do you mean? Why isn’t it aimed at her? The child was literally told don’t bring xy and z in again after what she brought in was seen by the dinner lady?

My reply is to the OP first post about the subject. Does that help?

No not at all-
The OP’a opening post said that her daughter was told she wasn’t allowed butter with her crackers. Her other children have been told they have too much in their lunch box.
It literally says that in the post so why wouldn’t the issue be about the OP and her kids?

Where does it say that the school specifically informed this parent about food in lunchbox?! It doesn’t. Schools routinely send email reminders about food choices in snacks. Children often perceive that adults TOLD them this or that… seriously, please refer to my original response!

I work in a school sometimes and we're generally fairly relaxed, we're mainly concerned about making sure all the children have eaten something. Healthy ideally, but at least fed. I think when people are getting their knickers in a twist about a bit of butter on a cracker things have definitely gone too far.
I did raise my eyebrows about a child having 2 packets of haribo as part of his packed lunch, which were obviously pretty unhealthy, but also had an effect on behaviour in the classroom. I think there does need to be some regulation, as this could then have a negative impact on the learning of other children too.

East Mids. Have worked in various primaries, infants and juniors.

Luckyblackcat13
"Where does it say that the school specifically informed this parent about food in lunchbox?! It doesn’t. "

The OP referring to what her daughter has been told
She has now been told that she isn't allowed butter, it is not healthy, she is to have dry crackers.