to think is just pants that dc's school do not have a bin for lunchbox detritus at lunchtime?

[TheCowCalledMeg]

Umm is this normal? There are bins for school dinners children but if you have something you want to bin it must stay in your lunch box- it does't matter what it is.

I say this after having:

A) been pissed all over by ds's juice box (why even bother putting the straw in it really?)
b)spent the last ten minutes clearing what appears to be the full contents of a yogurt out of every crevice of DD's lunch box.
c)gagged on the roasted garlic honky smell of very warm Hoormoose that the lid of ds's lunchbox lid was welded together with.... (I didn't have a diamond tipped angle grinder so it was hard that bit)

I was hoping to post this in the "I know I am right please everyone agree with me" topic but that appears to have been moved...meh...

[TheCowCalledMeg]

skanky not skunk.

Obv.

[ChasingSquirrels]

And make your kids empty their lunchboxes, helps massively in making sure they pack everything away properly.

[TheCowCalledMeg]

I have tried with the little zipped sandwich bag in as refuse collection vessel....that makes it's way to the bin?????- oh how we laughed at the irony

[verytellytubby]

I've trained mine to put their rubbish in their sandwich box. Months of nagging has worked

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

U get the theory behind it and u appreciate that teachers and dinner ladies are not responsible for cleaning lunch boxes , lets face it who would wanna stick their hands in there. But by god is it disgusting after a hot day.

[Cookethenook]

This drives me up the wall. I suppose they do it so that parents can monitor what their kids are eating, but it's totally gross and a bit OTT imo. We put a zip-lock bag in with his lunch so that DS can shove his rubbish in when he's done- only solution im afraid!

[MeNeedShoes]

I used to throw my ham bap in the bin every day People like me. We're the reason you are suffering :o

[aldiwhore]

It is minging, and the bags I provide are often binned.

I prefer it to the children chucking away all uneaten food though, as they will get the same apple everyday until it's gone evil and i expect a core as evidence.

I do think that it wouldn't hurt to write a paragraph and put it in the rambling Newsletter so that all parents understand why the school does this... because we had to pretty much guess, and I find that isn't polite or the best way to get parents on board.

Strange though, if I send the children to school with a bag 'o' lunch, they're allowed to use the bin, if I send them with their spangly wash unfriendly purpose made boxes (gifts) they come home smeared with fromage frais, whether I've privided it or not.

It's a conspiracy.

[Lemonsole]

Scrape a plate? All organic food waste. All disposed of in the same way. Lunch box waste? Horrible mixture of organic, recyclable and landfill. Vastly wasteful, on the whole. If you find it repulsive, why should school lunch staff handle stuff that they haven't prepared/ served?

[TheCowCalledMeg]

I find it minting when it's been left out (almost full contents sometimes)
plastering the lunchbox and having sat for 3 hours in a toasty classroom...meh...

[TheCowCalledMeg]

I will send them in next week with carrier bags and space food.



NEXT!!!

[Lovelygoldboots]

I am a dinner lady and most of the kids who have pack ups wouldn't even think to put their left overs in the bin. Some put some rubbish in and I generally don't stop them. It would be a problem if every child emptied their rubbish in the bin as they went out to play. There is enough waste from the school dinners.

[lljkk]

If there's that much food left behind perhaps you are giving them too much food? Simple obvious solution, saves mess and money.

I am MSA, too.
We wouldn't stop anyone from taking their stuff to bin but if everyone did it, would mean a lot more moving around the room and more risk of collisions and less actual eating. And us having to change bin bags before 2nd sitting (not impossible, but am not thrilled about the extra job which needs 2 people realistically).

[lljkk]

(Saves the environment and angst on MN...)

[lljkk]

So that everyone else realises what Devil's work Yogurt tubes are and stops sending them in?

[YourMaNoBraBackOfMyCar]

Put a folded up bit of kitchen paper in the bottom of the bag. It makes a big difference imo. I put all our lunchbags through the washer as and when (usually once a week). I managed to find an old fashioned 80's style plastic lunchbox for ds and the little turd dropped it and it smashed. It was so easy to keep clean but too expensive to replace. I find those tube yogurts far too expensive so just put value fromage frais in with a plastic spoon which gets washed and reused if returned. I was sick of my teaspoons disappearing.

[Lovelygoldboots]

at lljkk, they spurt all over my tabard.

[breatheslowly]

If there is this obsession with parents knowing what their DC eat, what systems are in place to feedback what those taking school dinners have eaten/left?

[EllenJanesthickerknickers]

I'm a lunchtime supervisor and TA as well. You do get DC whose parents give them way too much food, so they try to 'dispose' of the healthier, less liked stuff, whole sandwiches, lots of fruit, and they eat the Frubes, the crisps or the Tracker bars. Or give them sandwich fillings they hate. 'It's my worst one, tuna! Can I throw it away?' 'No, take it home and tell mummy you don't like it.' So we monitor the bins.

If they spill yogurt and tell us, we will clean it out. Usually they don't tell us. If they don't like their fruit juice box, they can empty it down the sink, but then they waste it every day. Isn't better that you know what they don't eat? Or just give them a sports bottle of juice that can be closed if not all drunk?

[phantomnamechanger]

I have worked in a school where we had a dreadful problem with mice in one area - it turned out that 2 year 4 girls were hiding their sandwiches down behind a cupboard every day, so their mums thought they had been eaten. They were seriously on their way to being anorexic. They did not want to get fat.

We also went to view a house once where there was an alleyway behind the garden that was shortcut to the secondary school and the garden was littered with bags of sandwiches that were slung over the fence on the way to/from school. Again, presumably the parents of these kids thought they were eating a healthy lunch.

If you can see what your child has/has not eaten that's a good thing IMO - one reason mine do not have school dinners where you have no idea of what or how much they have had.

[EllenJanesthickerknickers]

Breatheslowly, if we notice that some DC are leaving their hot lunch regularly, we do inform their class teacher who informs their parents. Hungry DC don't concentrate well after lunch.

[MissAnnersley]

It's not an obsession. It's simply a check. If children were allowed to through out uneaten food from their packed lunch many of them would simply bin the lot to go out and play.

In my school it would be virtually impossible to do that with a full plate of food as a supervisor is always around the bin for scraps/left overs.

[wonderingagain]

YABU - give them school dinners instead. What is it with this packed lunch thing, after all the hard work Jamie put in...