Cost of school cooking

[WindsweptEgret]

Just spent £9.19 for ingredients for a dozen chocolate muffins. Out of these, eggs and milk are all I would usually buy, if I deduct 4 eggs and 2/3 pint milk, then that's £8.19 I wouldn't otherwise have had to spend this week. The sugar and sunflower oil will eventually get used too (sugar is only used for tea and coffee for visitors), but my point is that this is an additional cost on top of my £30 weekly shop and I will be left with ingredients I didn't need. How would single parents on benefits would be able to afford it?

AIBU to think that the school could at least buy some of the more expensive things that the children only need a small amount of, such as cocoa powder and baking powder, and ask parents to send in a small amount to cover the cost for the term?

Due to intolerances we never have 'the staples' in, but generally the school don't mind a few weird and wonderful adaptations. The dc though hate food tech so will be pleased not to do it again. They cook at home anyway. I guess you can get ds to make you more chocolate muffins now!

My daughters school take a payment for the things you only use a little of and then they provide.l them for all. We just had to buy a few bits like fruit / flour / cheese

This used to annoy me as well, sometimes it was food that we didn't even eat and just went into recycling.
I agree it's best if the children send money in at the beginning of term (so Pamelax doesn't need to moan about parents) and the ingredients can be bought in bulk.

We made a contribution at the start of year 7 but I’m not sure what for as we’ve also provided all ingredients so far. We mostly have stuff in, just occasionally have to take a special trip to the shops like today to buy spring onions and a lime.

I would have had all those things in except for the choc chips. I'd either have substituted them for something else of bought some at Aldi for about 50p.

I bake regularly though and flour gets used for sauces and pastry and dumplings.

Really schools are criticised if kids do cook and criticised if they don't.

Not everyone has an Aldi, our “nearest” one is an hour round trip. We sometimes go but it does make me laugh when people tell others to go to Aldi as the answer to all their problems.

What kinds of food did you throw away * Surely you could have given it to a neighbour or friend?

Should say we can't buy in flour etc due to risk of cross contamination. We send gf but it does mean the recipes don't work. At home we use adapted recipes.

To be fair most people re close to an Aldi these days.

Our school also asked for £15 at the start of term for all ingredients. I thought this was a much better idea. Saved me trailing to the shop as well.

The school isn't criticised for cooking but for the way they handle ingredient costs

It would make more sense for parents to pay a small amount for all ingredients rather than everyone buying large packets they don't need. That way families who don't have the money can discreetly say so rather than have the DC embarrassed when they turn up empty handed.

What kinds of food did you throw away
Crappy food that no one wanted.

Luckily it's vegetable soup next. I don't need to buy anything additional for that at least, and it's something we normally eat. Took three days for the two of us to get through the macaroni and cheese last week, thankfully never again!

Doves gf flour is a straightforward swap for flour in brownies. I make them for my goddaughter occasionally.

Schools always want money, it’s just the way it is

schools NEED money, it's not quite the same. Parents pay next to nothing in this country!

Ours set the kids up to make things that they don't have time to cook thru. So have to take it out before it's cooked. Then they say it's fine as they Only need to know the method and it can always go back in the oven at home to Finnish it off.

My dd will want to do cooking as a gcse but at this rate there's no chance

What food though feelingverylazytoday? Badly made food or food you don’t like?

why should some parents subsidise others? It's much fairer for everybody to bring their own supplies.

If you end up binning the "master piece", just think of the cost as the price of class, not as the price of actual food. It's still very cheap

*I wish people in this country could lose the mindset that school must be "Free" - free childcare, free equipment, free trips, and even wanting free uniforms.

Yes, it's expensive to have kids, you chose to have them, you knew that*

This ^^

It's not just school that's expected to cost nothing as well.

Why should the teacher have to go shop for ingredients?

I am just glad they are doing cooking lessons (: But it bought back bad memories of hauling a basket full of ingredients on my arm on the school bus then bringing back a finished meal in a heavy pyrex . I still remember my favourite recipe which was toreador pancakes ( corned beef and onions , wrapped in pancakes and cooked in tomato soup) yum . But we also made pastry and sponges etc. I would have all those ingredients in my larder to be honest as I love cooking .

I agree it’s really expensive and it gets worse.

Ds has (over the course of 4 weeks) had to buy in at least four different kinds of flour most of which I’d never heard of before.

Most of the food produced gets thrown away too as it’s stuff we can’t/won’t eat.

I’d be pretty annoyed at school teaching children to make chocolate muffins.

If schools teach cooking, they really ought to be 100% focused on nutrition and health.

That used to annoy me too. Especially when they made something like a fruit salad where they needed a variety of fruits but didn't use all of each one, or where they made perishable food that they then had to carry around school all day so that by the time they got home it had to be thrown away.

Sugar is what 85p? Oil about a quid. Choc chips about 85p. Flour is a quid or less... what have you spent £8 on?!