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?

I give DD a sandwich at tea time if she’s had school dinner at school. She doesn’t need two dinners a day she’s only 8.
She’s not complained about being hungry yet if she did I’d give her bigger meals.

Some kids simply have a preference for cold food. On school days DD loves what she calls a "snacky tea" which is raw veggie sticks with some combination of cold meats, cheeses, hummus, pasta salad, samosas, hard boiled egg, whatever we have in the fridge basically. She has a hot meal followed by a hot pudding every day for lunch at school so she doesn't want the same again when she gets home. I don't see the point in forcing the issue. As long as she's having the vegetables, protein, dairy etc that she needs then I don't buy into the idea that it's only a "proper dinner" if those things are cooked.

They still need an evening meal. Dinner is the evening here, mine always come home from school hungry regardless of what they have. But it doesn't have to be hot to be substantial

Cheese sandwiches or bread, cheese and bits is likely to have more calories than a lot of 'meat and veg' type hot meals for those saying it's 'just a sandwich' type comments.

Nope. I give my child a snack eg cheese toastie when they get home if they’ve had a hot meal at lunchtime and that’s about it. She’s never hungry as they eat very well at school (3 course meal with salad and fruit to accompany). Occasionally I put a plate of pasta in front of her and she only picks at it. If she wanted a hot meal after school I’d do it.
Is there really a right or wrong answer to this question though? Surely people do whatever is required?

I'm always a bit bemused by this "children need a hot meal" thing. Children needs a decent meal, preferably three of them, and the temperature is irrelevant

My children will alway still have dinner at home, the school lunches are very small. On the days they have a packed lunch I still cook them dinner. They are always so hungry after school.

1:3 Children in Britain live in poverty. Many of these will not have a filling meal in the evening hot or cold. These children go without food in school holidays. Sometimes MN is a parallel universe.

What my son eats at nursery has no impact on what he is given for his dinner.

If I allowed him to eat the food supplied at nursery today it would be a burger, bun, bit of cheese and potato wedges and a banana. Snack is buttered white toast. So carb loaded, lacking in fibre and only one of his five a day.

I send him in with food, so he will be having curried veg in a pitta which contains two portions of veg. For snack I have packed carrot and cucumber sticks with a pot of hummus, so another two portions of veg.

For our dinner tonight we are having butternut squash risotto and a fruit salad for pudding (apple, peach, mango and banana).

We don't feed our DC all that much during the week - DD in reception has a really good school lunch and either sandwiches and fruit at after school club or sandwich/beans on toast/pasta pesto on other days. DS has lunch and tea at nursery so often just has a weetabix. We eat after the DC are in bed during the week and only eat together at the weekend.

My in laws refuse to have two hot meals in a day. If you try to get them to eat two they look at you as if you have two heads - I have had them come to visit and refuse to eat the meal I have cooked because they had a hot meal at lunch. But they are odd with food anyway, FIL will often sit at dinner saying it doesn't matter what he eats because food isn't important to him. I don't make an effort for them any more! We now can have three cooked meals a day - and my husband has come round to the idea and thinks it's great! (Apart from the washing up). Besides, my toddler won't eat sandwiches.

I never get this hot meal thing either.

My kids have packed lunches (generally sandwiches / buns) most evenings in winter I will serve a hot meal.

But in summer I will serve more salads, cold meat, raw veg etc and less curries, soup, roasts, stews etc

Mine have school dinners. Apart from a couple of days in the 3 week cycle, I'm happy with what they have and the portion sizes are appropriate for them (KS1). As such, sometimes in the evening they have a hot meal, sometimes they have a sandwich, sometimes they have beans on toast- depends on how much time we have based on clubs/activities/working hours. I can't get over excited about it really, as long as it's nutritionally balanced and fills them up.

We were poor when I was growing up.

I had 5 decent meals a week - school dinners. The rest was bread and jam, bread and Shiphams "meat" paste (one little jar between 4 of us) or - on a weekend - beans or hoops on toast - on a good week we had eggs with it!

My parents are the same @rosesandveg and have been since they retired it is always meat and three veg for lunch & in the evening its ham, lettuce and tomato with bread.

As long as children are eating sufficient amounts of nutritious food, I couldn’t care less whether it is eaten hot, cold, home-cooked or not. Not my kids, not my business.

I have to say this. I can't ABIDE people saying "Mains" when they mean their meal.

"What's for mains?"

Wtf?

Mine don't need a big evening meal. The quality and portion size at their school lunches is good.

I am of Indian origin and grew up very poor - all of the kids meals were hot & there was a meal cooked at home. What people don’t seem to realise is that it’s often cheaper to cook from scratch than make cold food / sandwiches if you have a large family. Mum would make roti / curry / lentils everyday and eventually taught the recipies to my non-Indian friend’s mum too as she was spending double compared to us on food (despite only giving sandwiches in the evening).

I think it massively depends on what your child is choosing for their school meal. I know plenty of children who choose a plain jacket potato for lunch and I know one of these children then goes home and has a sandwich for tea. Is that remotely adequate? Not at all. But the parent thinks because they are paying for a school meal, they can get away with thinking the child is well fed at school.

If my dc have a school meal, I still ensure that their tea (evening meal) is decent and it doesn’t matter if it’s cold or hot- a cold meal can still be nutritious.

Yes, always do something proper (can be hot or cold but a decent balanced meal involving some veg) at teatime - me and DH have sarnis for lunch time so we are all in need of something nutritious by half five.

We all enjoy good food in our house. Not to say we don't make quick things like beans on toast now and again - a thing enjoyable and good for you in its own right!

I have to say this. I can't ABIDE people saying "Mains" when they mean their meal

I said "mains" to mean the meat and two veg because no-one got starters in school meals in the 60s, so I was trying; like, to relate it to to an aspect of modern expression.

HTH.

Definitely not, how do you know what the school lunch was like.
A proper hot meal, meat or fish and at least 3 veg for my dc tea throughout their childhood.

My DD has breakfast at school Breakfast Club, cooked lunch and then cooked dinner when she gets home. I once suggested to her that she could have a sandwich and she said "why would I want that?". She doesn't always have a full blown meal, but I always cook something for her be it chilli con carne, or burger and chips!

Definitely not in this house. I don't trust my kids to have eaten enough at school. I know they rush them out to make room for the next lot, and they are so desperate to go out and play they chuck a good chunk of it in the bin I'm sure.