to find it difficult to believe that 'only 1% of packed lunches are as nutritious as school dinners'?

[gogoflo]

This is the statistic quoted repeatedly on the literature being sent home from school. Dc currently have packed lunch and though they'll try hot meals, tthey're keen to keep having packed lunches but school are really keen on everyone having hot meals once it's free. Just looking at the menu, tomorrow it's chilli and rice, jacket potato and beans or fish and chips followed by chocolate sponge and custard or jelly and ice cream.

Tomorrow their packed lunch will be crackers with ham, cheese and sausage, carrot, pepper, cucumber with hummus, fruit salad with 4 portions of fruit and a biscuit. I don't think school dinners are more nutritious and struggle to believe that so many people are sending their children to school with such crap packed lunches that fish, chips, chocolate cake and custard is nutritionally better.

Aibu to find this statistic difficult to believe?

Blimey you must have had a lot of play dates.

think it's made in a similar way to mozzarella hence that lovely rubbery texture.

Surely not! Rubbery it certainly is. They should make bouncy balls out of it instead of selling it as an approximation to food.

I have seen some shocking packed lunches when I worked in school but most were fine.

Mine have packed lunch because I can't afford £60 a week in school dinners.

They don't take fruit because they don't have time to eat it but they go through bloody lbs of the stuff at home so I don't fret.
They have OJ in a carton.
A sandwich with various crappyish fillings - ham, jam, marmite, cheese.
A cheese thing
A fruit snack e.g. yogurt raisins or a cereal bar.
I think they probably get too much salt and sugar in their lunch because they added to everything , even bread.

I would love for them to eat smart little lunches in a lovely tiffin box but they have decent meals at home and eat plenty of fruit/veg and very little sugary stuff.

I think we're in danger of over thinking school lunch/ packed lunches/ food in general.
It's exhausting.
I agree with a pp who suggested less choice.
As I am very old I was witness to the changeover in schools of "school dinners" which involved a limited choice of not very exciting but balanced, nutritious "old fashioned" meals (shepherds pie or spam fritters followed by sponge and custard or tinned peaches) to the canteen style food of today. We loved the changeover, and immediately ate the tastier crappier options available. Without exception.
I hope the school meals are ok when my kids start reception because packed lunches are a PITA IMHO.

Just Googled.It's just Mozzarella heated to 140 degrees to make it more stretchy.No toxins involved.

£60 a week?

Just Googled.It's just Mozzarella heated to 140 degrees to make it more stretchy.No toxins involved.

OK. I shall have to stop vilifying it then. It's hard to believe it is actually just overheated cheese but there you go

In my mind the best lunch in this thread is the jacket potato and beans mentioned in the opening post.

It actually saddens me to keep reading comments such as "mine have school dinners as in lazy"

"Packed lunches are a pain in the arse"

"I can't wait til they come in I hate making packed lunches"

It seems so many people know the dinners are crap but they would rather they kids eat them than spend five mins making a lunch box.

It's all part of looking after your children. Waking then up in the morning is a pain in the arse but we still so it.

Of school dinners are what's best for your child because your school does them well or your child eats better at school or you can't afford to feed your children then that's one thing. But letting your kids eat meals you know are crap soley because you can't be arsed to make a lunch is pretty harsh IMO.

Gold it's still vile.

The list of supposedly crap packed lunch food is more or less what I had when I was at school I'm still partial to a white bread jam sandwich. It makes sod all difference, kids burn a lot of calories and it's only one meal in a day.

DS starts reception in September, and I'll be making packed lunch because he won't eat most of what's on offer. The stuff he will eat, like spag bol, is stuff I would be serving for dinner - and my version would be a lot tastier, and probably healthier. Put simply, I'd rather give him a sausage roll or jam sandwich that I know he'll eat than have him go hungry until he gets home.

I think people are starting to forget that most things are ok in moderation. The odd cheesestring or ribena isn't going to do any harm!

See, my kids have (imo) healthy packed lunches. I think they might even be healthier than the school option, but unfortunately it seems to be making them a target for peer pressure so I'm guessing it's not 'normal' to have a healthy packed lunch. For example today my kids had home made sweet potato and lentil dip, with wholemeal pita bread, carrots, sugar snaps and celery. Then yoghurt and a pot of grapes and blueberrys. They both ate it all but both mentioned that the other kids had remarked on it. They also have stuff like wraps and sandwiches and veg muffins, but that still often gets remarked on. So Im guessing lots of people send their kids in with biscuits and crisps and that kind of thing. If that's the case then maybe school dinners are generally healthier than pack up.
I'm guessing my kids will eventually end up with school dinners if the comments start to bother them, which will be a shame as they don't really like them and I'm wanting to take advantage of them eating healthy stuff for as long as possible before they are teenagers and will only eat pot noodles.

Recent packed lunches kids have brought to school include:
3 packets of crisps + babybel
Monster munch + wagon wheel
Cold chips

I honestly think a majority of packed lunches are pretty crap - ham or cheese (often processed) on white bread with crisps, cake/biscuit is standard.

School dinners can be very good but too much choice brings down quality and it's just not necessary for ks1.
DS is too young for school but has lovely home-cooked food made on site in nursery. There are 2 choices: meat/fish or vegetarian. Sometimes they all eat veggie and there is no choice at all.

When he was in French nursery they had meals brought in from the primary school next door, again no choice they just ate what they were given but the meals were good and the kids ate them. If they can do it in french schools, why not here?

Recipe for the dip please!!

I had school dinner today

Roast pork, mash, cabbage, broccoli and sweet corn
Yoghurt and fruit for pud

Other options were roast cauliflower bake, cottage pie or baked potato and beans -salad bar is available daily

Chips are served once a fortnight, pizza once a fortnight and battered fish once a fortnight (always on a Friday)

The meals are ordered a week in advance so the choices don't run out

Certainly better than the staff canteen at my old work!

I believe 80% of the packed lunches at ds's primary school were healthier than the hot lunches some of the children we're bring served. (I can comment as used to go in to read and would be leaving through the hall at lunchtime on many an occasion).

But it was an affluent village school and most of the parents chose packed lunches over hot deliberately because we believed that we could cater better for our children nutritionally than the catering company 20 miles away (and for a lot less than the £2.80 charged).

Ds would take chicken, tuna, or egg and ham salad, three pieces of fruit, a soya yoghurt and some form of carbs (gf bread/unsalted crisps or tortillas/cold new potatoes) everyday.

Mine Giles ? It's on BBC good food website. If you search 'sweet potato and lentil dip' it should come up. It's really nice and keeps well in the fridge. (Cut the potato up really small though or it doesn't mash well).

mrstiggy they may not go through the pot noodle stage. Ds3 is 14 and has school dinner and usually goes for the hot meal option such as hotpot or the jacket potato option at school. He has come up with a theory that the naughty kids at school choose the junk food options.

We had a leaflet home today encouraging school dinners take up, which stated that a school dinner cost £1.95 but a packed lunch was approx £3. .

I think not. I am very tempted to ask them how they arrived at that figure.

Thanks tiggy

:)

I give my dc one or two pieces of fruit a day in their packed lunch knowing full well they won't touch it. It makes me feel better and I always have in the back of my mind that someone might be judging me on it.

I do find all the pressure to have hot lunch a bit odd though. Why can it not be a choice for the parents to make? Why do they push it so hard?

NP Giles