To think my son's school dinners are pretty crap

[hottestmumonhere]

My Son is in Reception class and I'm not impressed.

His main meals seem okay. Bit standard like lasagne and pasta bake but his dessert are literally sponge cake and custard of a different variety every day.

He has fruit available and salad but it just looks a bit unappealing.

For those of you with children in state school, does this seem normal?

Could you tell me what your child's school dinners are like?

It's normal, there's hardly amy sugar or fat in them, they are bland and shit

Bring back iced buns and pink custard!

This is last weeks menu at school

When my DC were in state school they got a variety of main meals at lunch - Italian, Indian, Polish. Dessert was a choice between yoghurt and fruit, or jelly.

Yes this is normal where I live, and I'm not happy about the amount of cake eaten either.

I went to private school so our dinners were amazing! But then you were paying £20,000 a year for the privilege.

I did expect these to be a little better though.

It's fine. Portions are small as well

I don't know why the sponge cake features so heavily.

There's plenty of desserts to choose from. Sponge cake is old-fashioned!

Well I think the budget the schools get is about 10p per kid per day. That doesn't go far

Monday was choice of:
Mexican beef Chilli taco salad, macaroni cheese salad, houghton ham in soft roll with veggie sticks, BBQ chicken & rice salad, jacket potato with tuna mayo. Dessert was fresh fruit platter

Sorry 50pish not 10

It's cheap, and stodgy so it'll be filling.

Fresh fruit isn't cheap- specially if it's naice fruit.

If you check with the school/local authority/lunch provider I suspect you will find that the cakes have no sugar in them at all. They are usually sweetened with fruit/vegetable purée (or sometimes not purée. On one memorable occasion my son found a whole lump of parsnip in a piece of school cake!). That, combined with the tiny portion size, means it's not something I can get worked up about, even if they have cake 5 days a week.

My sons starting reception in Sept he gets 2 main options then they can have sandwich/ jacket pots if dont like mains. There is a salad bar and puddings are Cake/ ice cream/ pancake apple crumble ect. They also have yoghurt and fruit. We went to have a school dinner the other day and the puddung was small it was one pancake a small round one with some chopped banana. The meal was nice and they always get 2 veg with it so im not really worried about it.

It doesn't matter how bland the cakes and puddings are- it's setting all our children up to believe that a significant dessert after a meal is the norm, and you can bet that when they are able to choose for themselves it won't be so 'sugar free' (they say it like that makes it healthy...)

The private school near me isn't much better. Their regular cake based puddings got ditched after many complaints and now it seems to be jelly, yoghurt or cake- probably all just as bad as it was before. Veg is almost non existent, with beans being a regular 'vegetable' and they can go days with no fruit, especially if it's someone's birthday when it's another serving of cake.

Fairly standard, this is my dc's menus for sept onwards.

When I worked for a local authority 12 years ago the accountant I sat next to was pleased to get dinners down to 95p per head, so I would be surprised at that 50p figure.
At my DS's state primary school they have a main hot meal (e.g. Chicken curry with rice), vegetarian alternative (chickpea curry), or jacket potato with filling plus salad, or salad plus protein (e.g. Boiled egg) plus bread. Pudding is always something baked (e.g. Brownie or fruit crumble or fruit pie) or fresh fruit or yoghurt.
I've eaten lunch there and to be honest it was delicious, I thought there was plenty, and it was good quality.
But our school has opted out of the LA outsourced food option and employed its own chef.

OMG just seen at Smithison's school they get something called "creamy mouse tub". (Tuesday) The mind boggles!!!!

Given the budget that kitchens are given to supply 2 course you should be glad op that your DS is given anything edible

SunnySomer I would be surprised at 95p per head! I work in a school kitchen and our local authority have 64p per child for a 2 course meal. It is difficult to offer a varied diet & choice, especially when things like a yoghurt can cost 20p each leaving 44p for a main course/meat with potatoes & veg.

I think ours are ok tbh. Portions are small but a good variety - roast dinners, pizza, wraps, venison burger, curries, cottage pie etc. There's a dessert every day - sometimes cake but other things too - fruit salad, flapjack and milkshake, cookie and milk, cheese and crackers. Ds eats anything so I'm happy he's getting a decent meal every day

Dd-- at private school and they don't do any hot lunch at all. Does my head in. Would happily send dc for sponge here and there if I could. Instead of buying M&S sandwiches and wrapping them in foil so they fit in the lunchbox--

Sorry don't know what happened there..
Dd at private school and they don't do any hot lunch at all. Does my head in. Would happily send her in for sponge here and there if I could. Instead of buying m&s sandwiches everyday and wrapping them in foil so they fit in lunchbox.

It doesn't matter how bland the cakes and puddings are- it's setting all our children up to believe that a significant dessert after a meal is the norm, and you can bet that when they are able to choose for themselves it won't be so 'sugar free' (they say it like that makes it healthy...)

I don't agree. I think they're more likely to learn that at home if they learn it anywhere.

I was raised on school dinners with a daily dessert, as were most of my friends.

At home, we only ever had a dessert when we had guests over/birthdays/Easter/Christmas.

I know tons of people who stayed with that, including me.

My son in reception has pretty good meals tbh. He'll have a roast three out of five days, a pizza the other and sandwich/random selection the other (depending on week). Most days he'll have fruit pot for pudding and as he likes his veg he'll often get hot veg and salad and this seems to please his dinner ladies.

Also OP if you hate them so much you have a choice to give packed lunch.