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?

How would single parents on benefits would be able to afford it?

With great difficulty. There were four of us all in secondary school all at the same time and we didn’t have a pot to pee in. My mum definitely went without to pay for this sort of stuff, but if she didn’t have it in the cupboard and she had other stuff to pay for (if one of us needed new shoes etc) then we wouldn’t be cooking that week. There were no subsidies from the school. We would take in a note saying we wouldn’t be cooking that week and, depending on how evil the teachers were feeling that week (they really were vile) we’d get a telling off in front of the class about how it just wasn’t good enough and/or a break time detention. None of us were budding chefs, so were all very happy to drop it when we did our options.

One of my friends is in a similar situation now and not much has changed.

Like most people, I'd have had all that in, anyway, so I think it is a poor example for you to be saying that people would have to go out and buy but when any of my dcs needed to have unusual stuff that needed to be bought specially, that they would only use a fraction of, I used to get them to message their friends and say "I'll get the X this week and there will be enough for all 4 of you" or "Has anyone got spare Y so we don't all have to go out and get a ton of it when they only need a fraction?"

It would be easier to send in some cash and let school order it in, but surely part of the learning is that you have to prepare stuff / buy it in, in advance, and when you can / can't substitute or miss something from a recipe ?
Plus, of course, families bringing in their own ingredients makes catering around allergies a lot easier, as they know what they can / can't have.

Yanbu
Wish ours would charge us a flat fee.
Our ingredient list often has awkward amounts like 2 tbsp milk, pinch of chili powder and it's a pain trying to think of the best way to transport it all. Next week is Chicken tikka masala and the list is coriander, ginger, chicken breast, garam masala which I don't have in.

The only ingredient in there that wouldn't be in most people's cupboards is chocolate chips, i think.
I don't really bake much, but flour is in pancakes, Yorkshire puds, macaroni cheese, lasagne, white sauce, cheese sauce, cakes, biscuits, bread, cookies, thickening any sauce.
I agree it might be easier to batch buy unusual ingredients and pay a termly fee, but I don't think most of your list is unusual.

Flour is not just for baking though, I use it in sauces, I use it for when coating meats/fish with breadcrumbs, pancakes, etc etc. flour should be a staple to be honest. And like a pp has said not everything to do with school can be free unfortunately

I don’t coat meat I just grill or oven bake chicken and fish etc. The only sauces I make are passata based tomato ones as those are the ones my family likes to eat. Cornflour is used for gravy.

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

A homemade chocolate muffin, made with proper ingredients, is miles better than an industrial one.

I detest anything with cheese in and dh isn’t allowed to eat cheese now due to the salt content.

pikapikachu I wish ours were doing chicken tikka masala, those are ingredients I regularly use and it's something DS would eat. I consider ginger and garam masala stables! It is a pain when it's things you don't normally use.

When I was in school we had a cooking partner (usually a friend) and we split the cost of the ingredients and also split whatever food was made. So that made two houses to raid for ingredients, and then halves the costs. I was lucky that mine was my best friend who also lived next door. Maybe a partner and splitting the costs would be an option. Also my mum never had ANYTHING to do with the purchasing, we were instructed to do the shopping ourselves. This was for lots of reason including to build independence and to mKe is aware of product pricings.

Make us*

Our son's school normally provide the dry ingredients and we have to take in the fresh ones.

The worst was he made carrot and coriander soup and I gave him a bag of coriander, expecting him to use a tablespoon in his soup and he used the whole bag! The soup turned green!

How can you cook from scratch but never need flour?

Not all dishes require flour

DS1 chose Food Tech, which was fine, however he wasn’t organised and would often tell me at 8pm I need ingredients for tomorrow! Made for late night supermarket dashes, if the ingredients were to be split between the group, my son would also opt for the most expensive LOL.

When choosing DS2 options, it was a relief when he didn’t choose FT!

So feeling your pain OP.

How can you cook from scratch but never need flour?

By cooking things that don't require flour. So if you don't bake for example but make things like curry, spag boll, pasta bakes, stir fry etc. Not everyone uses flour in sauces or to coat meat either.

but flour is in pancakes, Yorkshire puds, macaroni cheese, lasagne, white sauce, cheese sauce, cakes, biscuits, bread, cookies, thickening any sauce. Neither DS nor I eat most of these. I buy biscuits and bread and thicken things with lentils. Realising we much be unusual then?

When I make a curry I grind spices from scratch and I buy use a jar of lazy ginger because we don't eat curry very often.

Last week he had to being in half an onion which is an odd amount to keep fresh.

We paid £25 for the first year that covered ingredients and containers to bring home. Further up the years did get more expensive in the exam years.

Flour is not just for baking though, I use it in sauces, I use it for when coating meats/fish with breadcrumbs, pancakes, etc etc. flour should be a staple to be honest.

Not for a less stodgy diet, tbh. I do have flour as a staple because I bake a lot and I do use it for sauces and gravy very occasionally.

But I don’t do breadcrumbs/coating protein in flour, and most of my sauces are tomato based or soy based. So if not for baking I would rarely use flour. Saying it ‘should’ be a universal staple is fairly silly.

I would imagine the majority of kitchens have flour in the store cupboard.

OP if he made macaroni cheese last week surely that uses flour? I know I do in a cheese sauce?

Cheese sauce can be made with corn flour

Saying it ‘should’ be a universal staple is fairly sill

Actually not really silly at all!! flour is actually the most staple food in the world (corn, rice, wheat, maize) they allcan be made into flour and are the basis of a hell of a lot of foods we use and make!!

'Realising we must be unusual then?'
I think so, yes, re flour.

A family member is doing gcse food. Her ingredients vary from £2-20 a week. Again if don't decant if cheaper products, they'll then get bullied.