to think its a bit tight when parents count a school dinner as THE main meal of the day

[MariahScarey]

all other things being equal (money activities etc)

have a colleague who makes her kids have sandwiches for tea " as they eat at school"

they have money, they can cook - is this laziness?
I know they wont starve or out, but I wouldnt count a tiny school meal that is then burned off as a main meal.

USUAL DISCLAIMERS

Yes there are worse things to worry to about
YEs its none of my business
Yes I am judging

Glup now there is something really worth getting worked up about - not whether a child sometimes has sandwiches for their tea.

Some posters have said they feel like they've wondered into a parallel universe after reading this thread. I know exactly what they mean!

Wandered, not wondered.

Food threads are very odd.
We eat just about everything from a-la-carte to total crap.
I make a fab beef wellington, a good roast, home made beef casserole, to every ready meal, frozen pizza, costco chicken nuggets, fish fingers, chicken supernoodles (which I am sure have the nutritional value of a rabbit pooh !!). The other day we ALL had a tesco salt and pepper french stick, with a huge portion of hooola hops and wait for it, monster munch!! My kids eat just about every veg and fruit going, and every snack and crap and chocolate and biscuit aswell.
But beleive you me, this thread won't make me loose any sleep weight over it.
Infact most of the time, I am struggling to put weight onto my 2, who eat like gannets but still remain skinny.

I think you summarised this thread very neatly in your first sentence, Oblomov.

Glup that, very sadly, doesn't surprise me. And I should point out that the OP said, specifically, that this wasn't about families where money/activities were an issue.

But mainly, I agree totally with Wordfactory. I find the recent food anti-snobbery on MN - the threads where people go on about how they'd be fine to go out to friends' and be fed beans on toast - really bizarre. (I'd be most upset. And perplexed.)

I am about to feed three 11 year olds and a nine year old pasta with a garlicky cumin-flavoured lentil and tomato sauce. And mini-choc ices .

That is bad Glup. At my school, as a child, it still provided fsm in the holidays for the many children who were on them. Not sure how they managed that.

FWIW though, and I say this as someone who is basically as poor as someone in this country could be right now, even on gateway benefits you do get enough to feed your kids.
I also say that as the biggest socialist going, and someone who gets benefits, so not a DM rant either.
It is a juggling act, but I think ime a lot of families that are not managing to feed their kids have problems managing their money, and often other issues (drugs, alchohol, gambling).
Things have got pretty bad here on the bottom rung, but I struggle to imagine not providing food. I have completely given up alchohol, for example,so that we can still eat properly. If I hadn't been able to do that ,ds would be hungy tonight.
Not defending the cuts and the bastard government, just saying, there are other reasons kids go without.

I came across this idea just the other day and was taken aback by it.

My DD's lunchtime is at 11:30-12:30. Her bedtime is at 7:30pm. I cannot imagine just giving her a sandwich between her lunchtime and bedtime. Or are people talking about an after-school club meal thingy or something?

I'm genuinely confused.

Usually, dd will come home and eat something at around 4ish. Could be toast/cereal/yoghurt/fruit, although it'll be a very small portion (she's only 3 and a half) She then eats a proper hot dinner with us at around 6-7. This could be rice/meat/chappatis and curry/mash veg and chicken etc. this is also a small portion as she's a fussy eater, but we would never let her go to bed without eating something off her plate, although its never a rule to finish all her plate etc.

She enjoys helping to set the table/clear up, or get bits from the fridge for salad etc. it's part of our routine - a cold sandwich before bed would make me sad for so many reasons!

So you're confused. Let me explain it to you in straightforward terms.

Sometimes, people give their children sandwiches for tea. Some don't. Some prefer to make a hot meal. Sometimes, people might make one or the other, depending on circumstances.

That's really about it.

Except you aren't really confused, are you, it's just another tedious passive aggressive sad face post.

No flip

They're confused and sad poor thing

Ifnot I think you are right about there being other issues at play where children are not being fed.

That's desperately sad and altogether different from the raging controversy about sandwiches, which apparently (who knew) are terribly sad and the worst foodstuff ever.

See, I do think that "I feed my family" and that it has a huge physical and psychological value. I expend a great deal of time, energy and imagination (and money) doing so, and shop for food over a large geographical range in order to do so. I like cooking and I like my family to see me cooking and to help out in the kitchen, when they have time to do so. And we all enjoy eating seasonal produce every year - right now there are scallops a plenty, lemons from Nice, gorgeous Swiss chard, Sicilian blood oranges for us to gorge on...

Yanbu. My Parents never cooked a hot meal if I'd had school dinner. I just remember being hungry and snacking all the time and personally for me it didn't create a very healthy relationship with food as I got older.
As others have said, it depends on the quality of the meals at school and also whether or not the children actually fancy anything. The time and amount of lunch makes a big difference to dinner.

The very fact that eating is something we all must do, is what makes it valuable.

We all have to do it. We cannot live without it. This is why humans understand its value on so many levels. Why food matters. All cultures accept this. Celebrate this.

Same with our homes. They're just shelter. Nothing remarkable or unique about having shelter...and yet...

Eating well is a luxury, that's for sure. I am well aware that when I go to my (very luxurious) greengrocer and spend a lot of money on fruit and vegetables that have been grown in France rather than in Spain or the Netherlands that I am in a very privileged position. I am very grateful that I can afford to show my family what really good fruit and vegetables (and fish, and meat) taste like.

And like bonsoir I too feed my family.

And yes, sometimes its boring and I'm knackered and we all eat scrambled eggs on toast...but for the most part it's indecently pleasurable. It's creative and life enhancing....and since we all must eat why not make it creative and life enhancing? Why be reductive about somehtoing we all must do? Why turn it into a function or, worse, a chore? That sounds rather joyless to me.

That is true bonsoir but I also think that cheap staples can be made into somehting delicious. That's how cooking began no? And how people all around the world cook and eat.

For sure - we certainly don't eat luxury foods all the time. Most meals in any case include staples like rice/potatoes/onions.

I'm very fussy about fruit and vegetables - probably because I come from a family where, on both the maternal and paternal sides, there are gardeners and cooks galore!

Frozen sandwiches are the way to go, make a batch at the start of the week to save time.

School dinner and then defrosted earnie with salad etc.

tee hee.
If sandwiches are , then frozen sandwiches must be

Ifnot, hey are such a practical time saver, one loaf of bread and some cheese and ham slices and you are good to go.

You can't be too posh with them though, no cucumber, cucumber doesn't freeze well.

And if you serve them with soup it doesn't matter if they haven't defrosted fully because you can get the DC to dip them in their soup.

when do you put them in the lunchbox,the night before then in the fridge overnight or in the morning?

are they not soggy?

From the freezer to lunchbox when we get up in the morning, never had a problem as long as they are plain cheese or ham so no coleslaw etc, my DC will only eat plain sandwiches. If they are for me I will get it out the night before and put it in the fridge which means I can add salad cream, coleslaw before leaving for work.

Cob rolls freeze really well with a filling added.