Is this packed lunch reasonable?

[DarkBlueEyes]

DD1 went on a school trip last week. She's in Yr 7 of a private school and I selected the packed lunch provided option as she has school lunches and they seem very good.

They were out for the whole day. What she received was...

A sausage roll, a packet of crisps and an apple.

Is this acceptable do you think? I have to admit I was a bit surprised as although personally I love a sausage roll, I wouldn't eat a cold one and had expected them to provide a sandwich, piece of fruit and a biscuit/muffin or something like that (this is what I would have packed and will pack in the future).

I now gather this is totally par for the course from other mums with older DDs at the school, so clearly I won't be selecting that option again. Besides that, the poor girl was ravenous.

What would you think? Would you bother giving them feedback and risking being labelled as "that mother" or just muse at how totally crap that lunch was and leave it? I'm inclined to the second option but then part of me thinks how will things ever change if they don't know how parents feel about it, and, I'm paying for that bloody lunch so why should I have to pack one?

So I will let the collective wisdom of mumsnet decide and prepare to be flamed

001 I was referring to a pp who said it wasn't enough for a growing child and that crisps and yoghurt should be added. I did say as it's a trip it's slightly different to a normal packed lunch.

Sounds like a pretty poor lunch to me. Poor child must of been starving.
I wouldn't say anything but you know in future to pack your own nice goodies.

You are paying this private school to educate and feed your daughter, they are working for you, not you for them. I would speak with the head and give the feedback. There is always a possibility they made a mistake with the lunch, it is worth asking the question.

I am surprised at the crap food given to the kids to sustain them all day at school! My daughter has just started kindy and yes, I over did it the first couple of weeks. But crisps AND cake every day? Juice? Sugar overload!! I do agree that the OP should give feedback, you have every right to make a comment, I do think it should include requesting more food and more nutritious food, school is an opportunity to learn about good nourishing food.

Calories in a sausage roll can be anywhere between 164 and around 500 depending on the size.
So let's assume around 250.
A packet of crisps is between 120 and 184 for a small to moderate packet - so let's say 150 and an apple is around 50 calories.
If she had a drink and that was a can of something fizzy with sugar it would be around 100 calories (eg Fanta orange)
that gives a total of 550 calories.

The internet tells me that a ten year old girl moderately active should get 1,600 calories a day.
The meal at lunch is approximately a third of the daily reccommended calories.
Not a nutritionally brilliant meal. But she had plenty of protein in a sausage roll if it was a good quality one and lots of fat and carbs in the pastry and crisps to keep her feeling full and she had an apple for fibre and vitamins. If she ate everything she should have felt full and was adequately if not spectacularly fed assuming her breakfast was adequate and she was going to have a proper meal when she got home.

Also, does OP know if anything else was offered? Sometimes kids will misreport. Saying something like "they only gave me half a sandwich and a grape", but that is actually what they ate, rather than what was on offer.

I would ask in a few weeks about their packed lunches.

So, how much was the packed lunch you paid for?

My daughter had a private education and I found most parents fed back on a lot of things, & this lunch would have been one of them. Healthy eating is important, & the school should be setting an example with the packed lunch in the same way as the cooked ones in school. It may be that the catering is outsourced, & the school may not be aware of the content of the packed lunch, therefore I would ensure I brought it to their attention. If they considered it acceptable I would provide lunch for future outings.

Agree with red sky. To be fair that lunch (depending on the size of the sausage roll but I'm assuming it wasn't a mini one!) would be enough for me if I had, had a decent breakfast.

That lunch wouldn't have bothered me, I can see from logistics point of view that sausage rolls would be easier than sandwiches.

When we went on school trips we always had some form of snacks hidden in our bags for on the bus. Maybe it's worth packing a little something extra next time if your worried

Think this is a little stingy (and not over healthy), my main concern though would be whether adequate drinks were provided through the day.. E.g. water (flavoured or plain) sugar free squash, milk etc.
Have to admit the sausage roll thing gets my goat as well.. At ds's school (and the menu is the same across our local authority) at least once (possibly twice?) on the three week rolling menu a sausage roll is the main meal provided (often with bread and/or chips) as the 'red' meat choice. I can't see how they can say this qualifies in any way as a healthy or balanced main meal! Think the OP has every right to complain, albeit politely as she has paid for this meal, also thinking there might be more chance of change being as this is a private school and therefore presumably fairly independent rather than what in my case is a council wide school meals policy (and I always feel that being in receipt of free school meals gives me less of a right to moan about them, and to be fair ds seems quite happy to eat them).

A lot of people are posting what they put in packed lunches, but I think they main issue here is that an inadequate and actually not very healthy lunch was provided, which they need to know. Raise your concerns! Otherwise, how can they improve?

Thank you all. Glad I'm not being toooooo precious. I've raised it with the class rep for the Meet the Head feedback meeting - other mums have agreed and clearly Mumsnet thinks it's not good enough too! Let's hope that something changes - last packed meal she had they forgot her sandwich (no one else's) so maybe it's just we are cursed!

I've checked with her and nothing else was offered, just in case anyone was wondering assuming she's not lying her little butt off to get sympathy

I love that a thread about the reasonableness of a sausage roll can run for five pages on Mumsnet. It's reassuring in a chaotic world

This is totally normal. My kids are also at private and their standard trip lunch is a sandwich/sasuage roll/something like that, crips or a flapjack, a little juice box and a kit kat.

It's one day. They get things like burgers and chips and pizza for supper too fairly often (boarding)

Just because it's private people can't expect abundant locally sourced organic polly precious type food all day every day . Running those places is expensive, again, it's one lunch. I would rather the money went into the facilities or teaching or boarding houses etc than making sure everyone had an extra special wecial lunch because they're too delicate for anything less than perfection.

My 11 and 15 year old take a homemade sausage roll, crisps and an apple roughly once a week.
I don't see the problem.

In short- for a private school where you pay the fees it's shit. It's not exactly a nutritious lunch.
I don't know why you need mumsnet to justify your position. Listen to your gut feel. You don't have to be aggressive or 'one of those mums'- you just have to say your bit - firmly and politely. Raise your concern. Any decent school would listen. You are not a nobody. You are looking out for your child.

Sorry - I probably should say that any school state or private where a lunch has been paid for by a parent or, a free school meal should be of a sufficient standard. Every child deserves a nutritious meal.

You really need to be that parent to save other kids from this packed lunch nightmare.