Angry over salad bar for free school meals

[Jotim02]

My son gets free school meals in KS1, the school lets them choose salad bar or hot school dinner. We thought he had been eating a hot dinner, until his friend came home for a play and told us he had salad bar.

Today he had a wrap - probably with added salt and sugar, cheese, raisins and carrots. For this the government was charged £2:30. Am I unreasonable to think the government are giving kids free school meals so they can have a hot dinner, not a sandwich?

The school say it's the kids choice what they have. My very unfussy son, has now become fussy because his friends have salad bar, so he wants it too and - doesn't like hot dinners.

I am really furious and thinking of writing to the catering company and David Cameron. It's mostly about the principle that the government is paying for this crap...

I'm challenging the assumption that hot is more filling and nutritious than cold

I really don't understand why a wrap is more likely to have added salt and sugar than say a stew

'Hot meals can be curry, casseroles, pasta bakes, stews, roast dinners. All perfectly healthy and filling.'

And I don't understand people who believe a cold meal or a sandwich is not a 'proper meal'.

The kids are offered a choice. The child chose the wrap.

If the parents want to police what the child chooses, then they need to provide the meal themselves.

OP, can I ask, have you been feeding your child a dinner at home, or had you been assuming he was having dinner at school, and giving a smaller meal/snacks at home? Is the source of the issue that you thought he was having 'dinner' at school, and not been giving him one at home, and now realise that's not been the case at all?

My son has a hot lunch, and manages to wedge half the salad bar on his tray too. The. He has pudding and fresh fruit juice too.

Today I sat with a table of children. One had a wrap with a full compliment of hot veg on the side. A couple had the chicken pasta bake with veg, one had salad too. I had a baked potato, as did the youngster sat opposite me. I chose salad with mine, he had green beans and baked beans.

Each and every person enjoyed what they ate. All were full. Not one paid. That's a win. To have a choice, to enjoy the food and to feel that you're not going hungry is a great start to the afternoon.

OP, you're a judgemental fool if you think there's anything wrong with your son's lunch choices. You'd be an utter muppet if you the. Go on to give the poor lad a complex about it. You can't control the 9-3 portion of the day, let it go and let him get on with learning to be self sufficient.

You should be glad OP. My 7yo only has the choice of two different hot dinners. Since beginning this diet he's been producing massive shits which completely block the toilet

I think I preferred the salad :(

Hear, Hear! Procrastinator! We need a like button!

As both a parent and a former teacher and TA I think it's best if not too much is made of who has funded the child's lunch - parents or FSM

I think it's good your DS has a healthy choice for his lunch, and also a social choice, he can choose to have the same as his friends and sit with them etc. whoever has funded their lunches too.

The social aspect is very important too IMHO. And as others have said the hot meal won't necessarily be better nutritionally than the salad bar choice.

My DC have always had school dinners, and have generally enjoyed them.I think the independence involved is good for them. I've found someone else giving them lunch very helpful too! We usually have a simple pasta style supper, a few other things on the menu, but not the most extensive variety!

School meals vary MASSIVELY depending on the school. At ours (I'm a TA in a school that runs from 2-19) the primary school side meals are awful. Salad bar is definitely the best option, as the hot meals are inadequate, totally unappealing, and generally grim ... today's was beefburger in a bun and veg... the burger was cheap and nasty and the veg limp . The veggie option was the most pallid macaroni cheese I have ever seen. Or there are jacket potatoes.. generally underdone . Pudding was a sad looking apple sponge and custard, a few grapes, or natural yoghurt...which was very sour. Most of the little kids choose the salad bar as at least it looks appetising!

Get to the secondary site and it's fabulous food.. the veg is grown on site, the cooks are amazing and I miss working that side as I could order a fab curry, or a chicken roast which filled me and filled the teens there while being organic , healthy and delicious.

And some children eat next to nothing. We can't force them (thankfully)!

It's something you simply have to let go unless you are going to send in the food every day yourself!

Salad bar sounds way better.

Be grateful you aren't paying for it...my DC has school lunches because I'm lazy I don't like doing packed lunches and struggle to offer variety so the school lunch should be better (And no-one offer exciting packed lunch ideas because I don't like doing them!)
I occasionally asked what she got for lunch -she seemed to be trying various things, not too bad - no worries.
Then one day she said 'cheese baguette' I thought that was an expensive sandwich (they are mini rolls really and it is 'and salad bar' except she doesn't like anything on the salad bar apparently)...I asked her the next day 'ham baguette' then cheese baguette ...she had been just eating ham or cheese baguette for weeks - apparently she had discovered they don't have to queue as long for them (pre-made) so get them quicker and so get out to play faster...
(We agreed to compromise that she had hot food 3 times a week - and unless she isn't being truthful that's what she is doing...)

The OP's thought process puts me in mind of a torrent of shart. There is little more to say on the matter.

I think theres a difference between this being a FSM for a KS1 child where this is a universal thing and the parents can afford then to put a full meal on the table at home, and a child eligible for FSM because of finances where it might be the only decent meal of the day - in that circumstance I'd definitely rather my son had a roast dinner / spag bol etc and a pudding to fill him up as I might not be able to put a decent dinner on the table in the evening and would be offering a sandwich / snack then. A wrap with filling and salad (eg with pasta / egg etc) would also be fine but I wouldnt be able to trust DS to eat that up, especially if he'd chosen it to keep in with his friends. Our local school doesnt offer burgers / chips etc and the hot choices all seem very sensible. Whether or not YABU depends on what you are offering at home OP

I think it's quite an old fashioned view that hot dinners are better than anything else. I think our knowledge of nutrition has moved on somewhat.

To me it sounds like you cant or wont make him a hot meal in the evening so you want him to have a hot meal in the day.

My son mostly has a packed lunch. He is y6 so no free lunch. Occasionally I know I won't have time to make him a hot meal in the evening and so, with that in mind, I have paid for school dinners on those days. I was pissed off to find that he was choosing a wrap rather than a hot meal as it meant that he would be having a sandwich for both meals of the day. If I knew they were offering wraps and that is what he was going to pick I might as well have made him his usual packed lunch!

Interestingly, DD1's school doesn't offer the salad bar/deli bar to the infant school children who get the universal free school meals. They don't get access to it until they move up to I think year 3 - whichever year it is when the universal infant school meals stop.

I am surprised at how violently people seem to object to the idea of wanting your child to have a hot meal. Maybe it is terribly old-fashioned? I am glad that DD1 has a hot meal every day at lunch time because DH and I both work full time and the childminder only offers sandwiches in the evening because she cooks a hot lunch for her full day mindees. I wouldn't want DD to have sandwiches twice a day. I'm not sure why that is so strange? The hot meals DD gets at school vary - they do have fish and chips every Friday, but other than that it's a reasonable variety of fish pie, jacket potatoes, curry, chilli, cottage pie - just normal meals. They don't get turkey twizzlers. All the meals are pre-ordered by the parents so I know what's on the menu every day and what DD is going to have. I try to pick a variety of things that I know she likes. I wouldn't like to have sandwiches for two meals a day, but maybe that's a very odd view!

Thank you Procrastinator!! Some of us spend our time getting your kids to eat the veggies you can't make them touch.

And then we get slated for it, hey ho.

If anyone doubted my credentials my 2 DC have had school meals at the school where I work all the time, DD2 hates the fact I nag her about the lack of veg on her tray.

I fully accept school kitchens are different but in ours stuff is cooked from scratch & we take an active interest in what kids eat.

The next time a parent complains about our salad bar, whilst feeding their child an oven cooked pizza in the evening I might get grumpy.. :(

OP you're saying cold isn't good enough for a meal yet that's what you give him for his evening meal. If you're that obsessed with the temperature of his food heat him some beans when he gets home.

Oh and what did you want to say to David Cameron? Perhaps he could write to your son and ask him to choose the cottage pie? I'm sure he's not busy.

If he enjoys his food, is not going hungry, and is eating nutritionally sound meals, what does it matter if he is eating 2 cold meals a day?

And I say that as someone who vastly prefers hot food and almost never eats cold food. It's just a preference, I prefer hot food, the OPs DS probably prefers cold.

Neither is necessarily nutritionally better than the other and in some cases is exactly the same food. Where the OPs DS has a cheese sandwich, I would have cheese on toast instead. Or baked potato with tuna and salad instead of tuna salad including potato salad.

Emsy, not sure people are violently against hot dinners, just surprised that the OP is so opposed to her dc chose the salad option. And that the salad/sandwich option is deemed less healthy.

I can understand wanting them to have a hot meal if it's the only one they will have all day but then maybe they don't always want that. I don't always have a hot meal in a day, sandwich at lunch, salad for tea. I guess people are just saying good can be nutritious without being hot

unless you are one of the lucky few witg quality local food cooked fresh on the premises the reality is often cold cheese and carbs or hot cheese and carbs with a cube or two of mystery meat that's sat in a bain marie since the van dropped it off.

temperature means nothing in regards to nutritional value. why dont you send a packed lunch it's better all round.

I didn't say people are violently opposed to hot dinners, but to the idea that someone might want their child to have a hot meal each day. Is it such a weird thing to want for your child?? I've never given much attention to whether a hot meal is 'healthier' - I tend to agree with the comments here that hot/cold is no indicator of how nutritious or healthy a meal is. But I do still want my DCs to have at least one hot meal a day. I would also generally give them a hot breakfast (porridge usually) every day when it's cold outside. I don't know why. I hate having only cold food all day - it doesn't feel like a 'proper' meal to me if it's cold, but that's just a personal thing. I don't think it's wrong or stupid to feel that way or to want your DCs to have hot food at some point each day.