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Original poster

Costs of school meals

56 replies

LovelyBath77 · 07/07/2018 10:14

I've just topped up Parentpay yet again, another £60..it's costing around £30 for under two weeks and it's not even like they are eating lot. Some water, lunch and a snack per day. I'm thinking of doing packed lunches on some days. Does anyone else find this too?

OP posts:
Ylvamoon · 07/07/2018 11:41

I give my DD (secondary) £10/ week. That's enough for a main meal or large sandwich. But she has to budget & take drinks/ snack from home if she wants other stuff like treats or fizzy drinks. It was a learning curve, but it's working really well now.
DS meal s (primary) are £2.50 / day. He's having pack up...

DrDougieHowserMD · 07/07/2018 11:44

Our primary school meals are £1.85 a day. And the High school? £1.95!!!! It's great. Anything else DD's wanting I can give her extra for.
Hearing my Dsis complain that her primary charges £2.50 a day, I do wonder why ours can be done so cheaply (and it's really delicious, healthy food) and elsewhere in the country costs a fortune.
Some mismanagement somewhere perhaps?

brummiesue · 07/07/2018 11:47

@Ghanagirl, what would you call it when people make a comment about something synonymous with a race or religion and people immediate jump on it and take offence when often none is meant?

user1490465531 · 07/07/2018 11:50

I don't eat halal because I don't want to not because I'm racist ffs

Ghanagirl · 07/07/2018 11:55

brummiesue
So you say something offensive then accuse anyone who disagrees with you of playing this mythical race card
I find that people who use that expression have no interest in equality

Lalalala3 · 07/07/2018 11:57

I chose not to have a lunch card at secondary school. I took packed lunch. Sometimes I wouldn't fancy something in my lunch and a friend who had a lunch card would swap my lunch for something they bought me with their card.

madeyemoodysmum · 07/07/2018 11:58

Make them take their own water. It's free and better for the environment inna reusable bottle. Stick it half full in freezer night before top up and lovely ice cold water.

FluffyHippo · 07/07/2018 12:04

Ghanagirl, she didn't say anything offensive, so jumping on her like that was playing the race card. Stop being so bloody hypersensitive and stop being so wokefully offended!

Ghanagirl · 07/07/2018 12:12

FluffyHippo
What a load of rubbish

HaroldsSocalledBluetits · 07/07/2018 12:13

Ffs the only people"playing the race card" are the ones supposedly objecting to halal meat on welfare grounds.

newsthump.com/2015/11/05/non-halal-meat-cuddled-to-death/

ElectricSeal · 07/07/2018 12:14

Both my children have a school dinner but they take their own drink.

Any drink they buy whether it's water or a fruit based drink costs a standard 65p. You can buy bottled water for less than 15p a bottle. My two take water or a fruit based drink.

They are allowed to drink water in class so tend to opt for that. We have a no snack policy, so main meal only. In year 7 this was enough but in year 10 Ds1 sometimes opts for a dessert but that comes as a meal deal.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 07/07/2018 12:16

My DS is allowed £2.50 a day. That buys a £2.20 meal deal (meal, drink and something like a cookie) and some toast at breaktime. The meal is somethink like curry or pasta or pizza. He's a growing lad who does lots of sport and we eat very healthy at home.

DS would be quite happy to take a packed lunch though because they are allowed to eat it in the dining hall all together.

However DS has mates from primary who are going through £5-7 a day and just buying loads of crap: cookies, cakes, toasties etc. A couple of them have massively gained weight. I don't know why their parents don't take some control over it.

Twofishfingers · 07/07/2018 12:17

We do packed lunches twice a week because of lunchtime clubs, and on the other days it's £2.10 for the meal (chicken, chips, veg and a desert, or pasta and a desert). Pretty good value for money I think. Have you been shopping lately? Have you not noticed how much food costs? And there is also the fact that now dinner ladies have to be paid minimum wage, which goes up at regular intervals?

brummiesue · 07/07/2018 12:18

@ghanagirl please tell me what I said that was offensive?

LuluJakey1 · 07/07/2018 12:24

£2.50 for a proper cooked lunch, pudding and drink isn't expensive in itself; it becomes expensive when children buy snacks at Break, or what to pick and choose eg in secondary school they prefer pizza for a snack at Break, or buy a deli sandwich, fresh orange juice and a piece of cake at lunchtime - in total probably £5-£6 a day. Also if you have two children that is very quickly £10-£12 a day, and then it really adds up. I am not sure how parents afford it. I can't imagine all parents having £60 a week to hand over for lunches.
Teenagers waste a lot of school food. When I would go into the dining hall at lunchtime (teacher) to see what was going on, I would see teenagers putting almost whole lunches in the bin, having just eaten the yorkshire pudding or potatoes. Salad, vegetables and fruit in particular were wasted and pizzas or jacket potatoes half-eaten. I think parents would be shocked to see how much of what they pay for is not eaten.
Many teenagers don't like to take a packed lunch as they get a bit older which puts pressure on parents to pay for a school lunch. Lots of secondary schools have closed sites now and students can not leave at lunchtime so can not buy food at a local shop or go home for lunch.

Twofishfingers · 07/07/2018 12:25

People can, and should be able to choose what they eat. If they don't want to eat halal food, they can and it is their choice. I can choose to try and buy products that contain no palm oil. I can decide to eat fish every Friday. It is a choice. It's a free country as far as I know. If you want to eat 15 bananas a day and nothing else, fine with me, or if you want to buy everything grown locally, fine with me. If you don't want to eat Halal food, that's fine as well.

NotAsGreenAsCabbageLooking · 07/07/2018 12:28

I disagree with non stunned halal meat. I won’t buy halal because it doesn’t say a method. I also dislike the meat trade in general because if the treatment of animals. However... I love eating meat. So I buy from my local butchers who in turn buy from local farmers. Bit more expensive and I’m not perfect by a long way, but that’s the choice I make.

Not wanting to eat halal personally doesn’t make anyone racist for gods sake. I wouldn’t eat a dog either, but I’m not saying some Koreans shouldn’t.

Personal choice.

HighwayDragon1 · 07/07/2018 12:29

At our school meal is £2.80, that'll get you a hot meal, salad (it has to fit in the container) a bottle of water and either a piece of fruit or the dessert of the day. We also have a £5 limit for each d

Fluffyrainbows · 07/07/2018 12:39

@flashnaaz I've no idea who Tommy Robinson is (which is probably ignorant I admit) but I'm not racist at all and my kids are mixed race.
The children at secondary school made the decision not to eat in the cafes at school as they didnt with the slaughter methods used in halal meat production (the cutting of throats) but they don't agree with any form of slaughter, that's why they are vegetarian.
I will ask for my comment to be removed as it was just an additional reason why they chose not to use the cafe, nothing to do with myself or being racist.

Costs of school meals
Ghanagirl · 07/07/2018 12:40

brummiesue
I didn’t make comment about you it was about another poster.
Anyway back to school meals...

Fluffyrainbows · 07/07/2018 12:41

*didnt agree with -which is up to them I feel, not for me to force my views. Personally my younger children do eat meat and I would currently purchase free range options in the vague hope they'd had the best life possible, but that would be my only specification, and as schools don't offer free range they have the vegetarian options in school.

HellenaHandbasket · 07/07/2018 12:45

If they're vegetarian the halal mention was completely irrelevant wasn't it?

Fluffyrainbows · 07/07/2018 12:47

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Fluffyrainbows · 07/07/2018 12:50

@HellenaHandbasket I can assure you it was an oversight on my part to include it, I was interested in their feelings on the school canteen serving halal (the younger one there was briefly not vegetarian when she started so had eaten some meat options in her first term) then they learnt about production of meat and she went back to being vegetarian. I can assure you I regret mentioning it, as to be accused of being ignorant and racist is not really a good start to Saturday.

Fluffyrainbows · 07/07/2018 12:54

@NotAsGreenAsCabbageLooking thank you for not automatically assuming I'm some kind of ignorant racist. We are a lot about what we eat but I would not force views on to teenagers who make their own decisions. I would not have known the school even served halal meat if it was not for them and their interest and choices.
I too source meat from local farms for the occasions we do have it because for us it is not about price it's about what we consume.