Lunches/healthy eating at Secondary? New Y7 Mum

[BeachBabbler]

Just wondering what, if anything, you do to encourage healthy eating at secondary?

DS has just started, at primary he had a hot meal every day which always came with vegetables plus access to salad bar. Of course it's all change at secondary, there is a 'proper' main option which comes with hot veggies but there is also the option of hotdogs and chips and sausage rolls and all kinds of lovely junk food. DS isn't hugely fussy, he eats a varied diet but given a choice he is going to go for the junk food option more often than not. Which is kind of fine, that's part of growing up, making your own choices etc. I just worry about the lack of vegetables.

He's been mainly taking a pack up so far, which he takes cucumber and pepper sticks with, but due to carrying a pe kit twice a week and guitar once a week he is keen to have school meals sometimes. Do you put any provisos on this? Like insist they have the main meal with veggie option x times a week? Ask them to take crudités in with them?? Or is that all just nonsense and I need to back off and let him get on with it?

FWIW DS is super skinny, but strong and healthy. Eats a varied diet including around 3 of his 5 a day at home (ideally would get/have two more portions at school).

If it's only once or twice a week does it really matter?

The only thing you can do is chat to your ds about healthy options and hope he makes good choices or don't allow him school dinners.

Lots of the kids here spend their lunch money in the local chippy or buying sweets....honestly id take even the hotdog etc as a not bad option.

Let him make his own choices, talk to him about good choices, and up his vegetable intake at home

Yes if it's once or twice a week then I could probably just let it go - but what if it's everyday? It's good value, and pack-ups are a hassle so I could be persuaded to pay for a meal everyday - what then?

We do talk about healthy choices of course, and ultimately he has to make the choice himself eventually, I'm just looking to guide him at this age whilst I still can!

It's a digital system so he can't spend it anywhere but at school - and I can see what he buys (if I want to) but when I was at school I definitely pocketed the money and saved it for myself other than the occasional packet of chips!

Yep, it’s hilarious that after 11 literally nobody cares any more and it’s back to turkey twizzlers. There are vending machines stuffed full of sweets and crisps and by year 8 most of them are way too cool to have the school meals (obvs). A packed lunch can incite Kevin the teenager level humphs. it is only cool to go to the corner shop, chippy or pizza shop by the slice. All the nice school meals you saw at open day do not exist day to day and if they do, the queue to get one means nobody has time to actually eat them

He can take a piece of fruit to have at break?

Ultimately all you can do is reinforce the importance of healthy eating and hope he chooses healthy food, but accept you won’t be there and can’t make him. (And make sure it’s healthy food at home.)

@craigth162 round by us, all secondary school pupils pay using a dinner money account which parents top up, so the children don’t carry lunch money they can spend elsewhere. (They may be using their own money in the chippy of course…)

Just to point out schools aren’t allowed to have vending machines full of sweets and crisps! Nor should they be selling those things in the canteen. Not to say they don’t somehow still end up selling junk like pizza slices and hot dogs, but they’re not allowed to sell sweets or fizzy drinks except compliant ones like sparkling fruit juice.

We just ended up doing sandwiches for this reason (and the fact that the lunch room was a nightmarish circus of overwhelm for DD2).

You are just entering the stage in your DC's life when you can no longer control everything they do. It's a shock, tbh! You have to accept that the average teen, given the opportunity, will spend their dinner money on chips and cake if they can possibly get away with it, and there's not a lot you can do about it, unless you stand next to them in the lunch queue.

In our case, I checked the digital expenditure regularly, set down some ground rules (no expensive sugary drinks was mine), educated them as much as possible..... but then had to accept that sometimes the choices weren't as healthy as I'd like them to be. As long as dinners are healthy that makes up for it. For a couple of days a week, don't worry about it.

I think having lunches a couple times a week, let him choose whatever he wants. If he's having a healthier pack lunch other days and eats well at home then hotdog and chips isn't that bad twice!

If he has money, surely he could potentially buy the junk type stuff daily even if he has the pack lunch? So I'd say policing it would be difficult.

It sounds like he eats healthy food willingly which is more than many kids of that age do!
If he's a healthy weight then I wouldn't worry.

Encourage taking fruit as a snack, and as part of breakfast.
Plus after school snacks... crudités etc.

My DS is year 7 and has school lunch every day, We've just educated him on making his choices and how did affects your health and fitness, he's sports mad. It's working so far. I also just make sure everything meals are healthy as possible with lots of veg. He also doesn't have a dessert at home after his dinner unless it's the weekend, so if he has the meal deal with the cookie/cake etc it's not too bad.
They aren't allowed out school at lunch and it's paid via fingerprint so I can see what he's having.

Mine takes in at least 2 portions of fruit/veg even if eating a school dinner as they have 2 break times.

Then we just have plenty of fruit/veg at home: fruit bowl for snacking, veg as a normal part of dinner, usually raw crudités/salad on the table for dinner, fruit as pudding most nights.

This

There are no vending machines with sweets and crisps in UK schools.

It's interesting to read everyone's thoughts and experiences, thank you.

I sort of knew that this 'stage' was coming but I keep reading how crowded and busy most school canteens are and I thought he would just take a pack-up everyday day. I thought I'd credit some money into his account for him to have a drink and cake occasionally but otherwise he'd eat food from home. So I hadn't really thought through what to 'do' if he wanted to eat school food more often 😅 of course I could just stop him, just not credit his school account, or only credits a few £ and insist he takes in food from home but I want him to start to make healthy choices, ideally on his own.

You've all reassured me that his healthy eating habits at home will make a big difference - luckily he is very active and a healthy weight. Will encourage him to bring fruit to school, and offer more fruit and veg at home and monitor to see how things settle down.