Free school meals, so much waste!

[Twoweekcruise]

I've recently started as a midday assistant at our local primary school.
I would say most days around 70-80% of the pupils have a school meal, obviously most of these are the free school meals offered by the government.
These meals look and smell delicious and are cooked by scratch by the cook and her assistant.
However, I have been taken aback by the amount of waste. Most of the children eat a tiny fraction of the food and then most of it gets thrown in the bin.
This must be happening all over the country and although I don't know what the answer to this would be, AIBU to think this is a shocking waste if food and of tax payers money?

When I had the lunch it was something like one small slice of Quorn, one tiny overboiled potato and a few overcooked green beans. Not what I would call a satisfying meal! Though to be fair they can pad it out a bit with some salad and the pudding.

I really like the idea that unicorn have sparkly poo! sorry to detail!

Pinot that's sounds like the perfect solution. I wonder if schools could find a way to do this? It's also much more of a family experience and teaches them so many different skills.

Wayfarer that's a brilliant post. It's so true, I was on a very low income when my children were younger, still don't have much money now like... anyway my sons are picky and it was a huge stress trying to feed them well with foods they will actually eat rather than the cheaper and more nutritious meals that I would have preferred to cook and experiment with because I like trying new things

. I just could not afford to make say a lentil and cheese bake with salad or a big pot of vegetable soup and then cook a completely separate meal if they decided not to try it. I mean I still did try things as my daughters will try any food once, but close to payday my cupboards were doing an Old Mother Hubbard. My step daughter now works in the food industry, trainee chef

I think the whole issue of free school meals is crazy anyway...

I also think a huge meal with dessert at midday is far too much

I really like the idea that unicorn have sparkly poo! they do, it's Rainbow coloured and full of glitter and gems because unicorns are just that magical.

Schopls should hbe playtime before goinf in to eat. Most kids just want to get outside.

Mrs I am from a working class background and my mum cooked amazing food for us too. But we were expected to eat what was there unless we genuinely had a problem with something. My boys were truly fussy eaters, I even worked with social services for one ss to try to get him to eat anything at all.

Also, looking back, my parents were a lot better off than I was was. My dad worked, my mum worked part time, we had a big garden with fruit growing and a lovely big house and I can't remember there ever not being enough food.

My situation as a single mum was true poverty, food poverty mainly. It turned out that I had not been paid all the benefits I was entitled to for years, and I got some backdated for that. But I think you are underestimating just how broke some people are nowadays. There is a wide gulf between how my working class parents lived and how I have had to live. That's my opinion anyway!

Oh wayfarers I was referring to your post about middle class families being in a better position to absorb food waste if that wasn't clear. I don't know how to quote on my phone!

Secondary schools work much better because if the kids don't like it they don't buy it, which promotes the company to do better (or tastier at least) food

Our school has excellent meals, healthy wholesome and varied. I'd prefer it if they didn't provide pudding every day but the kids love it. Home made ice cream, brownies, lemon cake, yumm.

"And I am not targeting anyone here I am talking about the general waste of a great deal of uneaten food."

In this case why not name your thread more appropriately
Primary school meals, so much waste.

To me it sounds like you have an issue with the fact the government is funding food for very young children. Conservative Britain isn't exactly generous to families in terms of benefits. Free school meals were so popular that Theresa May's attempt to ditch them went down like a lead ballon.

Oops. Don't open that can of worms again OP.

I am so pleased dd has agreed to go back on to packed lunch. She decided she wanted to be a vegetarian (who hates cheese) and since starting year 4 has had jacket potato and beans when available, every day almost, but the other day when there were no jackets left, she told me she'd had chips and peas for her lunch.

I wasn't prepared to pay £50 a month for that.

We see a lot of waste in our school too. Ours smells lovely but i've had a few puddings and they don't taste as great as they look. The amount of kids that won't eat the mash, or the chips and the days it's mince related I reckon 80% of it goes in the bin.

The kids don't get a lot of choice though. There's one main and a veggie option (which has to be pre-ordered). They choose which veg (must have at least one, there's two on offer) they can choose salad and bread if they want it and get a choice of puddings. They aren't rushed to eat at all (unless it's almost the end of lunch and they're spending more time yabbering than eating).

There is definitely more waste from the younger children. Some of this will be because they just eat less. Some is I think younger ones are still a bit picky. If a child refuses to eat I'll often suggest they let their grown up know they didn't like that days meal. Some have said they are made to have it so there's no point. Whether this is because parents genuinely can't afford to pack them up, or whether its because they don't want to when they can get a free meal we obviously have no idea. Hot dinner uptake for yr 3 + is generally lower and there tends to be less kids who refuse to eat.

....

Our school has 5 options for main meal and 4 dessert choices, preselected by parents on a paper menu. Children must have a weeks worth of meals or pack up no mixing in the week. Kids are all desperate for fish Fridays and lots like wednesdays pizza so most allow free school meals due to this and the kids eat very little of mon-tue-thurs meals. Paper menus are so long (selected a term in advance) and time consuming most parents opt to tick the one box for the whole term so children often don't get their prefered meal choice. School also gives larger portions to older children, my y5 would struggle to eat even the reception size meal. Kids are overwhelmed by the amount of food and so many options, your mates meals always going to look better than yours.

Old school had two options and kids had equal portions with 'seconds' being offered to those who were hungry enough to re-queue. Much better IMO, less waste and those hungry got enough but also small eaters weren't overwhelmed with food.

I'm not sure what to say other than your schools aren't following the rules. There are clear guidelines in place that state portion size for infants to juniors is vastly different. Cakes for example, when making a tray bake sponge we are to cut the cake into 16 pieces for juniors (4 rows of 4) where as with infants we are to cut into 32 (4 rows of 8)
Same with the pizza. Chips wedges potatoes etc are also meant to be served differently for infants and juniors. Salad is allowed as much as they like. Most waste is because kids often don't like the main dish (however most will eat the sides-potatoes carrots etc) often things like vegetable pasta will have one item in it the kid doesn't like and it's the whole thing not eaten. But with the portion size I'm afraid that's simply the schools not following the school guidelines.

My 4yo DD cannot finish all her food at lunch whereas my 10yo (VERY tall) DS complains that he is still ravenous after his lunch.

I dont understand the need for dessert. Lots of DC at DD's school eat the pud and go out to play.

Theres a lack of supervision for actually encouraging table maners, using a knife and fork etc and trying new things.

The lunch staff are great but they cant be everywhere.

When I was little there was a teacher/ adult to every about 12 children on long tables. If you got Mrs Stars you had to eat double icecream scoops of mashed swede as it was her favorite. I guess to fund supervission of eating would be prohibatively expensive.

Formally is quite right about the waste in the NHS. We throw so much food away it untrue! Makes me really cross. We do try to give spare meals out to parents/siblings.

There must be variation between the providers - at dts school the periods are teeny tiny which isn't a bad thing.

Ripple In a school I once worked, every staff member got the choice of a free dinner- the only rule you ate with the kids! That school probably had 1 adult to 12 kids! Given the price in cost of a meal it was a very clever move!