AIBU to want the goverment to introduce lunch box standards to stop the food police.

[porkchop9]

First post on mumsnet after reading posts here for a long time. I'm a mum of 3 dc, dd8 ds5 dd3 and live in the Surrey.

Dd aged 3 does 2 full days at preschool, you pay £4.50 for the lunch hour club and provide your own lunch. Monday first day back after Easter Holiday and were presented with new lunch box rules/guidelines, there are some strict rules already in place but these new rules are beyond ridiculous. My opinion in general is they're your children and you should have the right to feed them as you want.

We do not allow sweets, fruit winders/fruit school bars/dried fruit (sugar content is high), nuts, chocolate, crisps, biscuits,cakes (homemade or otherwise), no chocolate mousse/yogurts or pudding, no processed food (including such items as ham, cheese slices, cream cheese, corned beef, chicken roll, sandwich meats with added water), no fruit yogurts that have been previously frozen, NO FOOD item thats been previously frozen, no tinned or frozen fruit, no chocolate spread or peanut butter.

There are plenty more items listed infact this update takes up 4 A4 pages. One other section states Food is checked for dates, whether it is edible and follows our lunch box standards. Food that is not suitable will be returned to parent in a clear bag with an explanation of why, if repeatedly provide incorrect items they will be charged £2 per item and your child will be excluded from the setting until charges have been paid

Today there was a parents meeting with the bussiness manager who wrote this update. She was absolutley vile to one parent in particular who ended up really embarrassed and near tears and yes I and several other parents did stand up her her. The business mangers issuse was the lady shopped monthly bulk buyed and frooze items such as yogurt, cheese and ham, her dc only had fresh fruit the first week of the month then tinned/dried after that etc, she accused the mum of damaging her dc health. The lady did explain they were on a tight budget and freezing things was the only way she could feed her dc a balanced diet as weekly shopping was out of the question for her family. The last time I looked and this was some time ago tinned/frozen fruit & veg was still 1 of your 5 a day. So aibu to think that a basic set of national guidelines would stop the pack lunch police.

I'm not sure a national standard is needed - surely the parents just need to point out to this woman that she is not the arbiter of their children's diets and that they will be withdrawing their children from the club if she insists on enforcing rules that she has made up with apparently no reference to any nutritional guidelines whatsoever!

She sounds like an absolute loon and that banned list is outrageous. There is nothing wrong with frozen or tinned foods and frozen can have more nutrients than fresh foods that have been sitting about for a few days.

I am so glad that they have no banned foods here (apart from nuts due to bad allergies in the school) and that we get to choose what to feed our children (Scotland)

Wow! Just wow! I have read about some lunch box fascism in my time but this is beyond beliefe.

YABU for wanting the government to get involved and put even more legislation around what should be an entirely personal choice.

However YANBU for being very p'd off.

In your shoes I wuld seriously consider leaking this to the local paper and hoping a bit of healthy ridicule and comment might make thme see sense.

Is this a private pre-school?
That list is ridiculous.
In what way is the business manager qualified to be instructing parents in this way?

Blimey, what on earth CAN you send?

I'm on a tight budget too, and wouldn't be able to do this. I batch cook and send previously frozen food in for lunch boxes. we eat loads of tinned fruit.

I think calling somebody at the local authority and /or Ofsted might do the trick. They might be able to have a quiet word.

Gosh, I would struggle to know what to put in their sandwiches with this list! So silly some of the things they're banning!

Slightly OT but you have to pay £4.50 just to eat a lunch you provide yourself?

Id send that to a national news paper! Wow whats left??? No ham or cheese. I freeze yogurt.... cheek

How the hell can they tell if a fruit yoghurt, or indeed anything else, has been previously frozen?

Lunacy. Not a single lunch box at my local primary school would pass that level of scrutiny.

You can't even have naice ham!

'Slightly OT but you have to pay £4.50 just to eat a lunch you provide yourself? '

Yes what's that all about?
You are being fleeced.

Madness. Freezing food to defrost in lunch box over the morning is actually a really sensible thing to do.

I would have to send in a pretty empty box. I have no idea what I could put in. The list is ridiculous. Why is she allowed to dictate to you to this level? I wouldn't attend again

My ds2 has a ham sandwich and a yoghurt every day for lunch because he's a fussy eater who hates change, he has some sen and so long as he's eating I don't really care.

There were some outraged parents at the meeting this morning, it's just an absolutely ridiculous idea. The pre school is in my other dc's school grounds but not connected to the school in any way, the actual school does not have these ridiculous rules, the only pack lunch box rule is no cold take away meals. Dh thinks we should remove dd from the pre school and make it very clear in our 4 week notice letter of the reason why.

This has daily Mail sad face written all over it. Please send it in

Oh and our preschool charge £2 for lunch session, but this is just to cover staffing hours between the morning and afternoon.

I agree with your dh.

I fucking hate that dried fruit myth.

My kids go to school with a small quiche type muffin thingy that I pull straight from the freezer. And a dried apricot or two on some days.

And what on earth is wrong with peanut butter?

I think a mutiny is in order.

The OP is probably paying the £4.50 as the session cost.

Our preschool does similar (the charge, not the insane crazy lunchbox list).

To me it sounds like they dont really want to run the lunchclub anymore and are trying to get rid.

I think the yogurt that has been previously froozen was something to do with the use by date. Something along the lines of they wouldn't know if it had been froozen or if you were providing out of date food. I don't think any parent would purposely give their dc out of date food.

You have to pay for the lunch club if you want your dc to stay for lunch, as morning session finishes at 11:30 and afternoon session starts at 12:30. I didn't realise this was unusual but now I am so thank you.

That's madness.

What's wrong with frozen stuff?

I keep thinks like Frubes in the freezer, they defrost through the morning and are fine by lunchtime

I keep bread in the freezer too. How would they even know?

Neither of my children's schools have strict rules about lunches - no large chocolate bars (as in proper Mars bars, a 2 finger kit kat is fine) and no fizzy drinks

Mine are pretty good eaters and have a pretty good diet, but I'd have no idea where to start with such a restrictive list.

Maybe they should send out a list of what is allowed

Peanut butter I can understand due to allergies but the majority of that list is crazy. No cream cheese? Ham? Dried fruit? What has she suggested people send?

DD normally has a tuna and sweetcorn roll, a tub of frozen raspberries, a kitkat and a pack of raisins and dried apricots.

Maybe she would be allowed to keep the roll!

That woman sounds batshit crazy. I cannot believe the audacity of someone to stand up and tell someone COMPLETELY INCORRECTLY that they were damaging their children's health by given them frozen vegetables.

Honestly you've got to get this publicised somehow to open this woman up to the ridicule she deserves.