to think that this is a pretty shocking school dinner?

[anchovies]

Today my boys had Caribbean style chicken with spaghetti hoops and garden peas. Pink sponge and custard. Strawberry milkshake.

£1.90 a day.

Thought there must have been some sort of mistake but have just checked the published menus and that is what they had planned for today. Only other main meal was the vegetarian option which they are not allowed (again with peas and spaghetti hoops.) Could have chosen fruit for dessert.

Mentioned it earlier to my neighbour who also has children who have school dinners and she thought it was fine as "the carbohydrate is in the spaghetti hoops".

Wrote (yet another) email to our local council but am now thinking I may be wrong?

So is it just a particular word people are objecting to rather than the concept of some foods being an essential part of your diet while others are not and can actually cause harm if eaten too often/ in large quantities? I really don't think this all boils down to using a different word.

"Children below the age of 2/3 need milk, this should preferably be human of course, but cow is better than nothing if the child is intolerant."

This doesn't make sense. Why would you give cow's milk if a child was dairy intolerant? Or do you mean bm intolerant? Surely that is v v rare and it is more to do with women choosing not to bf/being unable to bf that children are given alternatives to bm?

... cow milk is better than nothing if they child isn't intolerant to it...
typo, sorry.

If a child was intolerant to bm they would be intolerant to cow milk too I think, if it's lactose intolerance.

All this thread has done is confirm that people spend far too much of their time on here. If you're so obsessed with being healthy bubbleymummmy shouldn't you be out exercising instead of sitting at a computer? Or paying some attention to your children?

I think that the health outcome of being ultra healthy versus the health outcome of being healthy enough will be minimum to non existant.
As being ultra healthy is a bit obsessive, anal and boring it seems by far the more rubbish option.

Timewasting, yes I think dairy intolerance is quite common in young babies. I know quite a few women who had to exclude dairy from their diets while bf. Although there is another MNer (cant remember her name) whose son was sensitive to lots of different foods that were even affecting him through her bm. That is obviously much rarer though.

pomme, surely following the RDAs just makes you 'healthy enough' rather than 'ultra healthy'. It is quite easy to exceed those RDAs for sat fat for example if you are eating cake/sweets/chocolate alongside milk/yoghurt/cheese/meat which most people include in their diet everyday. I don't think that healthy food has to be boring either. I think a lot of people seem to have psychological issues with 'less nutritious' ( @ Timewasting) food considering it to be more enjoyable/nicer/more interesting/more special which doesn't have to be the case.

Vena, as I've pointed out a few times, I am not 'obsessed' with being healthy - it just happens to be the topic we're discussing here. Btw, I don't have to sit at a computer because I have an iPhone and I've been outside playing around with the boys for most of the day so you can pull those judgey pants out of your bum and move along :)

@ bubbly doesn't it tell you something that you've been fighting a 1 woman crusade for 330 - odd posts and nearly every other one is telling you to lighten up/yabu/etc etc?

Either everyone else is unreasonable and you are right, or you are a bit of a bum clencher

Meh. It would be a pretty pointless crusade if I was on one. :)I think most of my posts have actually been in response to silly accusations and insults tbh. There's obviously no point in even suggesting to anyone here that they may not be eating as healthily as they think they are. Some people just don't like facing the truth and like to try to belittle, insult and criticise any one who tries to point them in the direction of it. Fine by me - I'll stick to the way I do things for my children because it's only their health that actually matters to me.

To go back to the OP, that meal sounds utterly revolting.

Do the teachers have to eat it?

Why all these smiling faces?

My son often has carrots, baked beans and a roll or something else equally mad.

The school lunches run out really quickly and he often ends up with just weird odds and ends. Luckily I give him a good breakfast and dinner. Although, as I am his carer and he is on DLA we are on free school meals. But, I do make a good dinner.

I think the problem is that we are in a fairly deprived pocket of the country and there are kids whose parents can't be arsed to apply for the school dinners AND don't send a packed lunch. The school feeds them anyway. They also pluck some kids out at break times and unoffically give them breakfast.

They also have a huge store of "lost property" and I know that they re-clothe some kids who are ragged and dirty. I have also heard that they help kids wash themselves in the staff toilets before PE.

It's a bit much, but I also admire them for making damn sure kids get kid. I have seen staff going to the kids' houses to walk them to school too (if they are super local).

If I was paying for the school dinner I would be pissed off but I am not and I know that my kid gets enough at home.

sorry - kids get fed

Sounds like a little bit of a strange combo, but not hideously bad. It is quite possible that I am unreasonable to be salivating for sponge and pink custard though - I haven't had that since junior school 20+ years ago and I'd love some now.

I think the hinkiest meal I ever had as a school dinner was a jacket potato and chips. Do I win a prize?

I remember salivating over school dinners. We used to rush to the menu board for the day.

"Traffic lights" was our favourite desserts.

It was a shortbread base with red, orange or green goo and custard.

And dinners were things like mince n tatties and peas n carrots. But I am 42.

When I went on to secondary school in 1982 things had changed and it was all about money and chips.

I think it must have been outsourced about that time.

I think it takes the piss when the government are shoving healthy eating programs down our throats, I've lost track of the amount of times ds2 has come home with one of those healthy eating plans, only for them to be given spaghetti hoops at school!

Kara - I struggle to get my DS2 to eat "healthy options" - do you?

They don't have school meals but even if they did spaghetti hoops is not on the menu, my 16 year old would happily eat the chicken or the spaghetti hoops separately but wouldn't touch them together he would have eaten it with rice or pasta and my middle son would much prefer a plate of veg to that, even so I still wouldn't expect their schools to stick spaghetti hoops on the menu, I certainly wouldn't eat that concoction so wouldn't expect my kids too