To be sick to death of the school pushing crap school dinners?

[Helphelphelps]

Ever since the free school meals came in, DS1's school has been trying to get everyone to sign up (all years, not just KS1).

This includes a weekly 'competition', the winner being whichever class had the most uptake of school dinners, and various 'special days', where they get to eat with their teacher or have a theme.

I wouldn't mind so much, but the menu is total crap. DS1 had to have school dinners for a week when i was in hospital last year. Being vegetarian, he's quite limited to what he can have anyway, but for £2pd, he had the following:
Pasta, courgette, chips and beans
a roll with cheese and spread in (nothing else, that was the whole meal)
cheese pizza and chips (again, nothing else)
jacket potato, cheese and beans

These were accompanied by a sweet pudding (sticky toffee pudding, brownies, muffins etc) or fruit. DS says nobody chooses fruit because the puddings are yum!

The water jugs are always empty and apparently it's very difficult to get the supervisors to refill them.

DS always pesters me for school dinners because the food is basically junk food and he wants his class to win the school dinners competition.

It makes me so bloody mad, i just can't understand why they're doing it!

DS1s last school in London had fantastic meals, cooked on site. His current school has a teeny tiny kitchen and meals are steamplicity (ie reheated or re constituted) and are really not very nice; frequently what is on the menu is not available for every child, meaning on a Friday day (Fish & Chips day) quite often he was eating chips with roll as due his "weird allergy" to eggs he can't eat omlette which was the alternative (thanks Artandco )
"Salad" is one slice of cucumber, one wedge of tomato and some grated carrot. Not great.
Both in KS2 now so packed lunches all round!
It seems quality and quantity is quite hit and miss across the country, and yes it's a huge concern that schools will miss out on vital funding due to lack of applications.

I live in Hampshire and the primary school meals are excellent (but small portions). But secondary school is rubbish.

YANBU. Trying to get kids to pester parents into forking out for school dinners is dreadful. Packed lunches are generally cheaper and can be easier for parents of children with allergies.
Ds1 is at an infant school so the whole school can have free meals, the food is excellent. Parents are sent a menu home which states where the food is sourced etc. It's all made from scratch using local ingredients. The dairy, fruit and veg are organic.
Ds1 loves them and I'm very pleased with them so far, so much so that when he goes to juniors I may try and find a way to afford them.
If they were shit though he'd be having a packed lunch and I'd be really pissed off if I felt pressure from the school.