School dinners through laziness.....

[Wherediparkmybroom]

I have just forked out 38 quid for hot dinners hoping that I can get away with tea on school days! I'm thinking beans on toast or a jacket potato, hell sandwiches and cake if it's warm...if they have two courses at lunch surely that's enough at primary school? Or am I just trying to claw back half an hour after school.

My ds will be going into school dinners this year cos they're free but he'll still be having a decent tea, because he'll only way what he fancies at school, and is permanently hungry anyway

Please tell me that's an exaggeration Lost ?!

I think the word 'dinner' might make some parents think the amount is more substantial than it actually is.

For me anyway, the word 'lunch' conjurers up a far more realistic image. The lunches should be a small, light meal rather than a heavy one.

I know they're only words, but that's how I think about them

Liberal, I suspect it's quite true. Don't recall seeing fish fingers but I know if they have sausage it's one sausage with a scoop of mash with 2 or 3 small roast potatoes. Most don't eat the veg that has to be served with every meal including spag bol etc.

Sadly what lost describes is not an exaggeration. I gave up on school meals for precisely this reason as I felt I was being ripped off.

The portion sizes are absolutely tiny. 6 chips is standard.

My youngest DS has school lunches and he always wants a proper evening meal. His school lunches are quite good too and he has decent portion sizes (as he should seeing as they cost me £17 a week).
I suggested that we could have beans on toast for the evening meal so sties seeing as he has a good amount to eat at lunchtime but he replied that 'beans on toast would be like eating a snack and isn't nearly enough food for the evening meal'. He isn't fat either, if anything he is on the low side of the weight scale.
His previous school had ridiculous school lunches; pasta Bol with only half a dozen pieces of pasta and some sauce and they had the cheek to charge me £11 a week.

I've never understood this idea that having a warm lunch at lunch time means you don't need a proper dinner at dinner time. the idea is that the lunchtime meal sustains them until dinner time, whether that lunchtime meal is hot or cold. they still need the same amount of food at dinner. unless you are saying you would send less food for a packed lunch than you would expect them to get in a school dinner? (if so why?)

My dd's school dinners are really good. She has things like beans on toast, bagels, sandwiches etc for tea. There's no way she would need two big main meals a day.

plus my two normally want cereal or crackers/biscuits and milk and fruit when they get in from school as well as eating proper dinner at 6.

Doesn't work for mine. She comes home starving regardless. I second slow cooker. When they go back on Tuesday I'm planning a slow cooker pork and apple casserole. First slow cooked meal of the season, and it'll be out permanently now til half term

At my DC's school, a roast dinner consists of...

2 paper thin slices of meat
3 or 4 tiny roast potatoes (the Aunt Bessie type)
1 tiny yorkshire pud
About 2 spoonfuls of veg

Afters is a choice of a piece of fruit, 2 crackers and a Dairylea triangle, or a tiny pot of ice cream.

The drink is always water.

Imo that's enough for a midday meal but I would always cook something much more substantial in the evening.

I'm in and out of schools a lot in my county (through my work) and I see and sometimes partake in the school dinners with the head. They're enough to fill me up. The roasts are great. No cheese triangles in sight. It must vary a lot by LA.

I think it does definitely vary in both quality and amount.

Mind you, I wouldn't want Primary age DC eating enough to fill an adult, especially before PE or running around a playground.

My three are all on school dinners (they will be Y5, Y3 and Y1 from next week), depending on what the lunch menu is some days they are hungrier than others.

Tea is often jacket potato, cheese on toast / beans on toast, soup and a roll / hot dogs / sandwiches, all with appropriate veg and fruit and yogurt for pudding.

They do come out of school asking for food but that could be because lots of parents bring snacks for their children to eat on the way home (and occasionally I cave and bring something too)

If they get the nibbles later, we have a fruit bowl they can help themselves to.

Thinking about it,ds said he'd rather have 'school pack up' which is sandwich, yogurts, fruit etc. Think they leave it up to them on the day.

That might work out healthier?

I work in a school and sometimes have a dinner. I get the same size portion as the children and its certainly enough for me to have tea rather than dinner in the evening. They are bigger portions than I would have given my children at 5/6/7 years of age.
I do wonder if this is why so many children are obese because we have lost touch with what is a normal size portion?

I work in a school and sometimes have a dinner. I get the same size portion as the children and its certainly enough for me to have tea rather than dinner in the evening. They are bigger portions than I would have given my children at 5/6/7 years of age.
I do wonder if this is why so many children are obese because we have lost touch with what is a normal size portion?

Schools are supposed to set an example, so I'm shocked to learn some are feeding such young children, adult sized portions in the middle of the day.

Perhaps they're bowing to parent pressure?

Dd has always had school dinners, but then there is a proper kitchen on site and they are cooked from scratch by our lovely neighbour (village primary, understand this set up is sadly quite rare these days). I think it is well worth the £2.10 a day to ensure she has varied meals and I don't have to cook twice (toddler gets lunchtime leftovers of whatever Dh and I had the night before). Appreciate this is probably quite lazy bit means I'm not constantly buying snacky lunchbox food and scoffing it myself!

you are kidding surely .you cannot garantee they will eat lunch and the portions are small anyway .goodness i have to make the childrens main meal about 4.30 because they are starving ..they have a sandwich at 3.30 after school then tea at 4.30 .

Ours aren't adult sized portions as such. It is far less than I would have for tea later on but it's certainly enough to fill me up at lunch like a sandwich would or a bowl of soup or a salad. They are on 1980'a style sized dinner plates rather than the larger ones I use for adult meals.

Depends on the meals and your kids. Dd couldn't eat two main meals a day so she had toast and fruit at home.

However meals were rubbish and they always had bread and massive puddings so don't assume your kids actually ate the meal and didn't fill up on bread and cake as you might want to make a healthier tea to make up the shortfall which is hard when your kid is too full from lunch to eat much

School dinners aren't great. There are some really simple quick nutritious recipes. Baked potatoe tuna and sweet corn , chicken slice of lemon wrapped in foil stick in oven with jacket spud and frozen peas. Easy as a sandwich.

I will be making dinner for everyone else so if makes no odds to me, but if i was in your position and knew the school lunches were suffice then why not

Our school dinners are good, not huge portions but plenty for ds3 (8). He has a soup and/or sandwich or wrap and yogurt/milk pudding and fruit for tea.