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 also really want you to get your money back. A stiff letter outlining their failure to give four weeks notice to the change of terms and conditions with a threat that legal action will be taken to recover any money not refunded in full within 14 days might do it.

Definitely also contact the LA. Someone so monumentally stupid as this woman would probably think nothing of continuing to claim for a child that has been withdrawn.

Who owns the nursery? If I was the owner or on the board/committee for this nursery I would want to know about this because it is very damaging.

Dds lunch at private nursery was £1.50 per day for a healthy hearty lunch and pudding prepared fresh on site by a cook. Its quite easy for someone to prepare a batch of food for 1.50 per head, cottage pie, fruit dessert, fish pie, fruit platter etc

OP is not paying for lunch though. She's paying for the time. Maybe they don't have a chef/cook?

I'm just saying £4.50 seem's very expensive for time when my DD's nursery could do a full cooked lunch and pudding employing a cook for £1.50 per child

I think you should definitely ask for the £117 back OP. It's not as if it's being used for your DD if she's not there anymore. I would request it back in writing and mention the small claims court.

The BM has changed the Ts and Cs, so she can't just cherry pick conditions in which she gets to keep your money. Insist on it back.

Oh and please do write to Ofsted. They'd have a field day!

I'm just saying £4.50 seem's very expensive for time when my DD's nursery could do a full cooked lunch and pudding employing a cook for £1.50 per child

Do your nursery really only charge £1.50 an hour? Because £4.50 seems like a reasonable hourly rate for childcare and I would be a but concerned at somewhere charging significantly less than that.

Yeah, mine went 3 days per week with lunch at £1.50 per day for the year before she started school, place was free just had to pay lunch

They charged £1.50 for lunch, not per hour spent there, the lunch is part of the all day sessions they started offering instead of 5 morning or 5 afternoons. IDK how much they charge per hour as i used my free hrs

hmm yeah i see now, i'm trying to work out if the £1.50 was on top of the hr included in the session IYSWIM as if so its probably about the same but op supplying a packed lunch

She done 9-3 3 days per week and i only paid £1.50 per day for lunch, on the third day i could collect at 12 (9-12) or pay 1.50 and she could stay for lunch and collect her at 12.30 so no it was just £1.50 for lunch

sorry 9-3 2 days then third day i could collect at 12 or 12.30, if collected at 12.30 i would pay £1.50 for lunch