To be really, really irritated by this leaflet from the School Food Trust...

[SuseB]

DD came home on Friday with a 'Little Book of Goodness' from the School Food Trust. Is basically an advert for school dinners (DD has packed lunches). Wouldn't have minded but there was actually a page that said Packed Lunches - big red cross, School Dinners - big green tick. Cites a load of research about the fat, salt and sugar packed lunches contain, waxes lyrical about how packed lunches don't contain vegetables.

AIBU to be irritated? Seems unhelpful to make all packed lunches seem undesirable - kids have them for all sorts of reasons (in our house - cost, control of contents and child's preference). I am of course aware that the producers of the leaflet have not had the benefit of seeing my DDs carefully chosen, lovingly prepared and nutritionally balanced lunches :)

our head teacher said he could guarantee that school dinners are healthier than packed lunches. wholemeal bread, cheese, dilute squash, a pece of fruit and a box of either fruit (blueberries/strawberries/grapes/cherries(rarely) /orange pieces/raisins) or veggies... sugarsnap peas/tomatoes/cucumber. no cake. no biscuits, no yogurt (because it stinks and slimes the inside of the lunch box) hometime snack is a banana and the occasional biscuit.

You're right gruffalosma. They do only contain 40g yoghurt and it's not a lot. That said, for some kids it's enough for a sweet treat, which is inevitably far less sweet than the school dinner options I would have thought.

Natural yoghurt with fresh fruit/puree added is a better option

OMG - have just downloaded the booklet - what a load of rubbish!!!

I am now about to write to them and complain......big time.

I don't even know how they got away with it.

It actually just seems like a way to make money through school lunches - are schools allowed to make a profit from school dinners?

Or the govt. to make money, should I say.

Thankyou chic! I will put it next to my pious twat of the year award

UANBU they've mucked about with our lunch menu and now DD2 will eat lunch once a week. I hate doing packed lunches because she is a unrepentant fussy madam. Flubes are one of the few things she will accept in her lunch box. She just wants to rush of and play.
She is very good about fruit at home, and I can get fair bit of finely chopped veg past her in her tea.
Schools really need to remember that what they see is not all the children eat. DD2 has the will power to eat next to nothing rather than anything she doesn't like and given she cares very much what she
looks like that could cause a whole lot of trouble.

Er...I think it's actually illegal to target your advertising at children, which is what this sounds like. I would contact the Advertising Standards Authority and complain.

YANBU by the way - feckin' outrageous.

Hooray - am v. pleased that IANBU. All these packed lunches sound yummy. DD (she is still 4, one of the youngest in the school) had for lunch today a homemade bread roll filled with mackerel in tomato sauce, a portion of grapes, a piece of homemade bran loaf with butter, a yogurt (Rachel's my first yogurts, which are sweetened with fruit puree) and a few Pom Bear crisps. No veg today although we had beans, peas and carrots at tea!

I think what annoyed me was the assumption that all packed lunches are of lesser quality than the school meals, and the way that the leaflet explicitly showed packed lunches as worse than school meals. DD is very into school and all the 'rules' and would take that on board I think. Plus I prefer, especially while she is still so little, to have maximum control over her diet. DH went into school to have lunch with her a while back, they both had a school dinner, DD picked the sandwich option! So I would be paying £1.85 for her to have what I could have packed her for next to nothing. Plus I do lunch for my son for pre-school and DH for work as well, so have economies of scale.

Tiffany do you have link to the website?

Frubes are banned at our school because the end quite often breaks off and dinner ladies don't carry scissors.

DD has in her pack up - some french stick, a cheddar mini lump, red pepper, cucumber, sugarsnap peas, a couple of slices of pastrami or a mini chicken satay. Treat is a fairy cake.

She used to take Babybels in instead of the cheddar and the dinner lady at school really pissed me off my telling DD that Babybels are rubbish cheese and unhealthy, etc. They're no different to ordinary bloody cheese.

Selective Eating Disorder???????

He'd starve??????

Not if he was hungry enough he wouldn't! How many cases of "Selective Eating Disorder" do you suppose there are in the developing World?

BornInAfrica - what a fucking ridiculous post.
SED is common in kids with ASD. Are you suggesting the PP leave her child to almost starve to death to see what their survival instinct will make them eat?

As a teacher I have witnessed some truly horrific packed lunches AND school dinners.

The worst packed lunches: a cold McD's crappy meal; a sharing bag of Haribo and a can of coke! We don't ban anything from packed lunches but we sent out a healthy choices leaflet with tasty and easy to make ideas for packed lunch boxes as we do see alot of chocolate bars and crisps, fruit shoots(FULL of sugar) and chocolate spread/white bread sarnies.

I don't think it's right to advocate either packed lunches or hot dinners as being then better option as the quality varies so much - though I have to say, school dinners look like food I would actually eat atm!

Bold: Chicletteeth - please make me yummy packed lunches!!

I prefer DD to have packed lunches, mainly so that I know what she has eaten and also because when she has school dinners, they do one main meal, one main veggie meal and they also give the option of jacket potatoes with cheese/tuna/beans. Given the choice, DD has jacket potato with cheese every single day. Followed by cake/jelly/ice cream/custard.

Her packed lunches are much more varied and contain lots of fruit and veg, so much better for her imo.

Ilovetiffany I would love the link if you could find it

I read the thread started by the MNer who had written a packed lunch website but it seems to have been deleted. I bookmarked the website to look at later (still haven't had time to yet)

www.packedlunchideas.com/

I can't remember who it was who has created this so can't give them credit but I'm sure it was a regular poster.

It is not, in my opinion, a fucking ridiculous post. You are perfectly entitled to your shouty opinion which I do not share. Is that ok?

Borninafrica why were you being so ignornat and blatently rude in your post to me?

we have only just discovered that DS has this and because we are moving house in the summer, are waiting to get him assessed and treated in the new county. We are also being involved with the study at Loughborough University who are opening a new free Food Disorder Clinic soon.

Yes, I honestly wish my ds didn't have a problem with eating but perhaps if you armed yourself with a little knowledge, you wouldn't have me feel completely humiliated when I read your post.

I expect you don't have a child who, if he smells orange squash, refuses to eat or if he nana touches a piece of food on his plate to encourage him to eat, says he won't now eat anything on it?

He was exclusively breastfed until 21 months when he was weaned onto a diet of lovely, healthy organic home made food so please don't be arsey about SED anymore!!!

Getting back to the OP, yes, I think that they're targeting children through their advertising and that's wrong. I will mention something to that effect in my letter.

Sorry - that read wrong - I obviously weaned him onto food before 21 months! It was 6 months, but he was breastfed until 21 months.

No it's not OK BIA. Your 'opinion' which you stated as fact implies that ASD and symptoms of it are not real. That is offensive and wrong.

Oh and borninafrica, we have actually left DS to go hungry and he still doesn't eat. When faced with a child who is underweight and refusing to eat, wouldn't you offer a bowl of porridge before bedtime to give them something in their tummy?

DS isn't, as far as we are aware, autistic, although he shows signs of OCD, which often ties in with the SED.

That website is awesome! Thanks for the link caught . :)

Although I'm finally going to have to figure out grams vs cups, aren't I? :)