School Dinner = No Hot Meal at Tea?

[Skittlesss]

I’ve seen the debates re hot school meal vs packed lunch, and part of the discussion has people saying that having a hot school dinner means the parents don’t have to put as much effort into providing a hot cooked meal at teatime.

Is this really a thing? Do people think kids don’t need a decent tea after school if they’ve had a school dinner?

What concerns me is that people aren't eating as a family. Sitting down for a meal together is so important. The meal could be toasted sandwiches or a salad, it's the sharing a meal that matters

That's a nice idea but it simply isn't feasible for many families. DD(5) is ready for her tea by 5pm and is usually asleep by 7pm. I don't particularly want to eat my evening meal at 5pm and DH isn't usually home until 6.45pm. We eat together as a family on weekends. What about families where both parents work FT and no one is home before 6pm? Some children may be happy to wait until 6.30/7 for dinner but some would be ready for bed at that time and too overtired to enjoy it.

Our DS has cereal and a muffin or toast with fruit for breakfast

A hot meal at school

A snack when he comes home (usually cheese on crackers or a small wrap with meat or tuna)

The same meal, and a similar size, as we are having as DH usually gets home by 6pm

Fruit and something else like a small cake or pancake (sometimes two)

He's done that since he was about 5 years old. The only thing that's changed is portion size as he's now 12 and has adult size portions (almost).

Now he's at secondary school he's added a bacon roll or waffle or cookie to the mix at break time as well as the hot meal at mid day!

He's at the very lower end of normal weight. We can't squeeze much more food into him - he's constantly eating. I suspect he has hollow legs....

He has a heart condition so needs a few extra calories each day but still, he eats for England most days but has always been very slim.

So yes, hot meal or let's say large meal in the evening after school as well as a cooked school meal.

My son gets a really good school lunch where he is but we all eat a full meal in the evening as it’s the only time we get to eat together as a family during the week. However, if he had to have a snack of soup/sandwich/scrambled egg, it wouldn’t matter once in a while.

@cardibach on days when my kids have sandwiches it’s because we don’t have time to eat a family meal so me and husband eat after kids are in bed. I don’t have time on those days to cook before 5 when my kids want tea.

It depends on what the school provide for lunch surely?

Mine all go\went school dinners on a Thursday as we have a busy evening (all of the clubs and activities locally seem to be on a Thursday) and even the teens are happy with toast and beans, jacket spud and cheese or a sandwich for dinner after their school meal.

DS’s primary school was supplied by the high school so he was equally full. Now he’s moved school he takes a bigger packed lunch as their dinners are nowhere near as filling (or nice) as the other school [the teaching and discipline quality made the move worthwhile].

I would have sent them all dinners every day but it’s too expensive (even though it’s worth the £3odds)

Kids need a decent DINNER in the evening, it's also good for the family to sit around the table and eat together, discussing things, etc. We did that. It's mean not to provide dinner, my mother never did and I wouldn't eat school dinners, they were revolting, so all I had was bread and cheese when I came in from school.

I find this addiction to “hot meals” very odd indeed. It’s the size and content of the meal that’s important, not it’s temperature.

This comes up time and again.

I'm in my mid-60s and every school dinner was hot, mains and pudding. Every teatime, a hot meal too, but no pudding in the week.
I think it was northern working class thing. We were whippet-thin and healthy.

However, no soft drinks, except at Christmas because we were poor, milk/water/tea.

I think it adds a bit of a backup but I still cook most of the time 4/5 school days.

Obviously we could all eat healthily never eating a hot meal again, so I don't think it's somehow neglectful if someone doesn't ever cook hot meals. It's only whether the meal is nutritious which a cold meal could be.

It’s hard for a lot of families to always have a ‘sit-down together’ round the table meal most nights. Both parents (assuming it’s a 2 parent family) would need to be at home at tea time, my DH is often working beyond when the kids need their tea. I also work some evenings so even if he does get home early I have to shoot off to work.

Cardibach - we sit down as a family whenever we can but our work hours don't always allow it. My husband gets in at 6:45 on the days he works and the kids go to bed at seven so are done with tea and in the bath. We do all eat together at weekends and the days dh and I don't work we will eat with the children and the other will reheat a meal when they get in. To be honest that was the routine when I was a kid too as my dad always worked late so only mum ate with me.

I would have thought it was more unusual with small children that both parents are home to eat by 5:30pm....

Interesting post, my daughter starts school in September and I’m hoping they’ll at least show us the food on offer? If they don’t I’m not going to allow my daughter the school meal and I’ll provide a healthy lunch box instead.
I’ve seen a few of the lunch menus and they look really carb loaded, I’m concerned that with a tiring day already, such a meal might just make my daughter feel more tired and sluggish rather than energised.

For example beef stew and mash- I love this, it’s a tummy warmer but it makes me feel so sleepy after. Then there’s offering of jacket potato, cottage pie, quiche, breaded cod. With unhealthy desserts after. Sounds the recipe to an afternoon of sleepiness for me.

I don’t know how nutritious other schools meals are but after such a busy day I think all children need a good evening meal, a filling meal dorsnybnecc. Yeah definitely have to be cooked though?

• a filling meal doesn’t necessarily have to be cooked though.

No idea what happened to the bottom of my post there.

Egg and Chips, when I were a lad.

I like dinner time and almost always (unless we've been out all day and get back super late) make a proper dinner for us all regardless of school dinners. DH and I don't have big lunches and we'll want a proper dinner anyway. I don't particularly mind whether it's hot or cold. On a hot day I'm happy to have some cold salmon, huge salad, cous cous etc for dinner. As long as it's a balanced meal with some protein and at least a few different veg.

My children have cold tea on school days as they have a hot meal at lunch time. At weekends we all eat a cold lunch together (usually sarnies etc) then a hot tea. We both work full time though and given the age of the children there is simply not enough hours from when they get home from school (after 6pm usually) and when they go to bath (7pm) to fit cooking a hot meal in along side homework and other things like instrument practice or scouts etc. Not really understanding why this is a big deal. Lots of my kids friends have hot tea every day, but they are usually collected from the standard school end of day and home by 4pm.

Egg and Chips, when I were a lad

I remember that:
Sausage and mash
Liver, onions and mash
Lancashire hotpot/lobby

Nutritionally balanced supper is the most important thing. Hot or cold.

I have to say, the quality if the meal is more important than the temperature. But what people on here say all the time is something like "if they've had a school lunch then I will just give them a cheese sandwhich for dinner". I think that's a problem because a cheese sandwich isn't a nutritious meal. You need a salad or veg on the side.

Children shouldn’t be eating too much stodgy food, even if they are doing over an hours exercise a day. Children are less active than they were, so food intake should reflect the changes.

It depends if they have a proper dinner at school. When I was at school dinner was a proper meat and two veg type meal with a pudding (sponge and custard type), with seconds for those who wanted them. No one needed to eat that twice in a day.
Personally I think one main meal a day is enough, with 2-3 smaller lighter meals. Doesn't really matter if they're hot or cold as long as they're nutritious.

That's us.
Since they both have 'hot' school lunches (which are ok on the nutrition/balance side) - yes, we often don't 'cook' for dinner. We'll have 'bread and stuff' where the stuff can include eggs, beans, salad veg, lettuce, avocado, cheese, sausages, yoghurt, and fruit (not all of that every day!) Or wraps with similar sorts of fillings.

My kids eat veg raw, but tend to refuse when it has been cooked. I don't want to turn mealtimes into fights. So they eat more healthy, balanced meals when we have a 'light and easy' dinner.

DS eats as much of his 'hot' school meal as he is hungry for. DD barely touches it, and comes out of school ravenous. If I gave her another 'hot' meal for dinner, she'd starve! No, in fact she'd try to live entirely on snacks.

Sometimes the 'cold' meal is the healthier/more filling one.

We also come from a culture where the main meal is had as a family at lunch. Because children go home from school for lunch, and adults go home from work for lunch, in many cases. We've had to adapt hugely as it is simply impossible here for family life to revolve around lunch! But both DP and I tend to have a 'hot' lunch, we've kept that up, but the 'family' aspect of the meal has moved to dinner. Which is often not 'hot', and doesn't need to be.

I cook for mine. Dd2 has cooked lunch but started looking skinny so I assume she’s not eating it or the portion sizes are small (she has ASD so doesn’t tell me). Dd1 has cooked meals but often chooses something unhealthy from the school canteen and doesn’t always want a cooked meal in the evening.

My daughter's school lunches are amazing. They have a range of options, all freshly prepared onsite by a team of chefs. Decent portions, plus a salad bar and a pudding afterwards. That's her main meal for the day. She'll then have a snack at after school club, and something on toast late evening after sports/dance class.

Do I need to cook her a hot meal in the evening? Definitely not.