Cheese sandwich and cabbage for school dinner

[LizyMint]

So my son has come back from school today saying that his school dinner consisted of a cheese sandwich and a choice of either boiled cabbage or peas and sweetcorn. This is not the first time this has happened sometimes there is a sandwich and boiled potatoes yummy On other occasions he has had chicken curry with one piece of chicken in it. So I know the budgets are tight but really this doesn't feel good enough we used to get a menu for the term but haven't had one this year so I don't know if the supplier has changed or if its just rubbish. Would you complain if so who to (guessing the head) or would you just switch to packed lunches. Seriously considering a thermos and a variety of soup / pasta things just so he gets something warm for lunch and doesn't come home starved. Maybe to be childish and make the point too.
Honestly though is this just how school lunches are now he used to actually enjoy the food on the whole now it's mostly either rubbish or just plain stupid

Greensleeves- with all due respect, the government can "commit" to whatever they want. The reality, however, remains that they are making promises they cant keep by continually underfunding schools and, unfortunately for those schools, the government is not the one that has to try and deliver on their promise. Frankly, in the economic climate we are in, my earlier post is far from nonsense.

Poor kid must be starving! Is there a parents committee? Can you ask them to do a ‘healthy eating audit’ or is there a pupil parliament type thing that could suggest the same?

Remember that little girl who photographed every school lunch and put it on social media?

If you're paying for it, I'd give him a packed lunch in future. I'd still maybe complain about the food though.

I think the way to go is to suggest that y5 and y6 are rotated for first sitting. Or even year 4 5 and 6. Over a three week period this would mean they were in one of the the first two sittings twice as often as the third sitting.

I take back my point about the chicken, one piece of diced chicken does not make a proper portion!

Crackerjacket you're right personally the only thing I ate school meals for was the chocolate sponge and green custard now there isn't even any ordinary custard makes me wonder why I have persevered so long.

Jaunty I did wonder if he would be allowed a flask and hot/warm food although I would be tempted to argue if their food was better he wouldn't need to take it in. Except I know he would be upset about breaking the rules and potentially getting in trouble.

Complain. His happened at my DS’s school. The catering contract was terminated at Christmas and a new supplier was found.

At the DC's school they go in numerical order, 2 years at a time, DD's in yr5, so last in, they usually have both options + seconds! It also only costs £1.80!

I'm well aware of the hypocritical and farcical practices of this government in funding their promised provision in terms of school food/free nursery hours etc thanks Jamboree. It doesn't follow that OP has no right to complain about the paucity and low quality of provision because she isn't paying for it - we should all be complaining, and loudly. A serving of curry with one bit of diced meat in it is fucking appalling, whoever is paying for it.

When I was at primary school the "free school meals kids" sat at a different table. I am glad that this is no longer the case, and I do not feel that any difference in entitlement is conferred by being in receipt of free provision.

The school meals at our infant school are bloody lovely - no chance of cheese sandwich & cabbage here! I know we're very lucky and other schools evidently don't provide as well - my friend's child's school meals are pretty awful and they're just up the road from us.

My DD always eats what she's given with gusto and isn't abnormally hungry when she gets home.

One of my DD's little friends once told his mum he had "nothing and chips" for lunch that day

Just found out that he told my mum his class were the last ones in and they actually ran out of everything except potatoes and vegetables and had to dash off and make sandwiches for the last 6 of them! I will definitely complain and probably go for packed lunches too. ----

Doesn't the office ring the kitchen with numbers from the registers? The DC's school does.

DS was sick of getting fishfingers and pasta with no sauce at primary school so he ended up on packed lunches.

Now he's at secondary with a huge choice and he seems to get himself the same thing every day

My DD’s school has a system where they choose their lunch at morning registration and get a coloured band showing what they’ve chosen at lunchtime. It seems to work well as the kitchen knows how many portions to cook of each thing. It can’t be that hard to do.

@BackBoiler my school dinners were pretty ok, but I do remember having swimming right before lunch on a different site and the teachers making us shower and get changed properly while saying there was no need to rush, we wouldn't miss lunch... and there being next to no food left. I think I had a slice of toast.

In our kitchen the kids choose what they want at morning registration and are give either a green (veg) red (meat) or blue (sandwich) band.
Alsothey have another band if they have allergies. The numbers are rung through so we know what to prep.
We also encourage (as best we can) them to have main and pudding, or to try the veg option.
Some of them have some strange combos of options. But mostly they eat the strange options.

Never thought I'd end up being a dinner lady but I enjoy it.

My dd said that she had plain spaghetti (run out of sauce) , cheese and 3 slices of cucumber today. £2.20!

PandaPie that reminds me of my Seventh Day Adventist primary school. After morning registration we paid 10p for dinner or 8p for soup and got an orange or pink ticket to give to the dinner lady. So simple.