I only worked through about half of the comments on this thread if I'm honest. I'm a head teacher, and in my experience the correlation between low income and a lack of knowledge about nutrition for children is as weak as it can be. This case has taken the headlines because it's so unusual (although I've read plenty of threads on here about children who will only eat chicken nuggets and how to combat this....perhaps on this day, this parent was simply at the end of their tether and wanted to put something in that their food refusing, perhaps autistic, perhaps anxious, perhaps a million other things, child would eat. Who knows?) but in general, the number of parents who do not want to feed their children well is minimal. That includes the poor parents, the parents without an education, the parents who have little regard for education or their own health... because the overwhelming majority of parents love their children. Their home may not be the same as your home. Their standards may not be the same as your standards. Their ideas may not be the same as your ideas. Does that make your home, standards, ideas better? No, it simply makes them different.
Packed lunches and the rules surrounding them cause no end of headaches. For example, I know many schools who have banned chocolate. However, Kellogg's Winders are generally allowed in my experience. A fun sized Dairy Milk has a lower glycaemic index than a Winder which is pure sugar that will not only raise blood sugars and cause a crash but will also merrily stick in teeth all afternoon. We have multiple children who bring this 'healthy' snack to school for break and then have another in their lunch box. There is a school quite close by who banned crisps, but vegetable crisps are allowed as they are vegetables? (I know. I reiterate-not our school!) The same if not higher, generally, in salt and fat than your common or garden pack of Tesco's own. Squash is banned in some schools which does, inevitably, lead to children not drinking all day if left to choose, rather than drinking a sugar free squash to hydrate them. The lists are endless (best not to start me on Smoothies....)
Our rule is simply that the packed lunch that is brought in is 'nut free and balanced.' The children all have the chance to attend our cooking club and packed lunches and picnics are always on the list, with a budget lower than a school dinner and a fact sheet to take home.
I am not saying a Happy Meal is balanced. But neither is a lunch box containing three bits of fruit and a smoothie, or with only a piece of wholemeal bread with marmite and some wasabi peas or a dry pitta with roast chicken and nothing accompanying it (as Peter Kay would say 'have you got owt moist??!) yet I have seen all of these lunches as I have eaten my own lunch with the children this term. I also see leftovers of last night's dinner (often makes me v jealous), bits of cold barbecue in the summer and so on. In general, if a child has a lunch, they have a parent who is trying, who cares about their welfare, who wants them to eat and be nourished. We help to educate all families through a number of activities but the one thing that I wish everyone would embrace is that parenthood is a most wonderful challenge, but it is not a competition.
I'll stop being a sanctimonious twat now and get back to catching up Masterchef.