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 had a friend who's husband was a teacher, they and the kids just had sandwiches in the evening.

I never ate my school dinners as a child so I'd have been screwed if I didn't get a proper meal in the evenings

The idea behind school lunches is that they provide the nutrients and vitamins that a child needs.

Some people are so poor as to be unable to afford to pay for an evening meal other than bread and jam. (my mum was abandoned by a feckless husband with 4 kids to support, no job, no money and no hope)

They are unlikely to be on mumsnet, though my mum would probably have logged in for free at the library as it is a good place to keep warm at the moment.

I see school dinner as low quality, low in proteins and high on carbs. So the evening meal is really important and should contain fruit/veg and good quality protein.

That depends entirely on the school. One thing I learned from working in schools is that there’s no such thing as a standard school dinner. Quality, nutrition, quantity and cost varies considerably from school to school.

I think quality of school dinner is the key. My DD is in reception, when she has a hit lunch she is not hungry at dinner time so has something small.

They have small portions but as many servings as they want and a fab choice of interesting tasty food

Whether a sandwich is a snack or a meal depends entirely on the sandwhich itself and if it's served on it's own, surely? If my DD has a sandwich I make sure it's on good quality bread with plenty of fibre, that the filling is something rich in protein and she has salad or raw vegetable sticks on the side. So why then is meat, veg/salad and potatoes a "proper meal" but a sandwich with meat, salad/veg and bread isn't?

Previous posters saying a sandwich isn't adequate because DC need fruit, salad and veg etc. I wouldn't assume that because someone says their DC has a sandwich for tea that means the sandwhich is the only thing on their plate. That's very literal. If someone said they were having steak for their tea would you assume that the steak was the only thing on the plate?

My son has school dinners and a cooked meal. The school dinner portions are often tiny and after a full day at school he’s starving!! 🙈

If you don't cook a family meal in the evening I think a decent sandwich with fruit/veg is perfectly acceptable. I am German and eating cold in the evening was the norm in my childhood and still is the standard if children are eating a hot meal at lunch at home.

But, I cook anyway, so why should I do two portions for DH and me and just a sandwich for DD? I eat a sandwich for lunch at work most days and prefer a hot meal unless we are tight on time in the evening.

Saying that, thanks to commuting and childcare dinner time in out house was always 7pm and DD didn't die from eating late.

Haven’t RTFT but surely it depends what you define as a ‘proper’ meal. A hot meal can most definitely be less nutritious than a cold meal, I won’t give a specific example but it definitely can!

My kids both have school dinners. The older one doesn’t really like them and comes home hungry. The younger one eats almost everything.

Some days they have a ‘proper hot meal’ today is pasta with vegetable sauce and garlic bread. Other days they do have say a wrap and cucumber and carrots a fruit or beans on toast.

I don’t think it’s something you can apply one rule to!

Like my own children ,I used to have school dinner and a hot meal in the evening too.My own understanding of school Dinners ,was that they were brought in to check every child had a wholesome cooked meal at lunchtime.In 1946 along with the welfare state, free cooked meals were available to many poor families .

I had a cooked meal at dinner time whenever I had school lunches and I do the same for my DC. Sometimes it will be a "light meal" but we still have the same thing and I don't serve them up sandwiches if we're having cottage pie etc!!

Depends - if they've had one proper dinner already then I don't feel obliged to provide another. And we can then have something they hate without having to listen to them whine. That goes for home too like yesterday when we had a roast dinner, they just had sandwiches for tea. But I son't necessarily know what they will have had for lunch at school when planning tea, so sometimes they'll have 2 cooked meals.

My DCs often have sports clubs til late after school, so once or twice a week they get cereal or sandwiches for evening meal (with raw veg, fruit etc..) It makes me feel better thinking they at least had a cooked meal at lunch. Two cold meals wouldn't be great I feel.

The portions are tiny at dc's schools so I cook an evening meal as well. They're famished when they finish at 3pm so I'll usually give them sandwiches & fruit at pickup. Then our evening meal will be between 6:30 & 7 pm when dh gets home. The timings work well for us and as they're a bit older they go to bed a bit later so dinner can be later.

How long do kids go to school there? What time do they have lunch? My daughter goes to school for 6 hours a day, and she has lunch at 11:15. She has a snack when she gets home, then I cook dinner around 7. Her having a hot lunch at school doesn't negate her being hungry later in the day. Hot food isn't more filling than cold food, nor is it necessarily nutritionally superior. What an odd concept.

We have a friend who only ever gave her DS a sandwich for the evening meal if he had had a school dinner.
Another friend works at the school and no matter how often she said the dinners were tiny the other mum would insist that, as he had had a hot meal for lunch, he didn’t need more than a sandwich. Poor boy.
Mine would come home more ravenous after a hot school dinner that when he took his own lunch.

DDs always have a hot, homemade meal in the evening - regardless of whether they had a hot school lunch or not.

The thing I don’t get about it is that surely the parents will be cook,in a meal for themselves?

Not always. My friend's mum got by on coffee, fags, booze and crisps when we were young.
My friend was often at ours for tea & always had school dinners.

I don’t think there’s any need to have hard and fast rules. DS5 has school dinners and a snack at after school club three days a week.

Some evenings we sit down and all have a cooked dinner together, some days I make me and DS on omelette and some quick veg (his favourite) and DH grabs something himself (as he doesn’t like omelette). Some days when i’ve been disorganised, or if DS is tired, DS will have scrambled egg on toast, or soup and sandwich, so we can get him to bed early and we’ll eat later.

There’s no need to be rigid about meals

DS is about to start an activity which i’ll Take him to straight from after school club after i’ve finished work. Means he will probably need to have a packed dinner in the car on the way there. DS will be thrilled as he loves sandwiches!

We always eat Sunday lunch and dinner together and usually Saturday as well

I'm surprised that there are school aged children going to bed at 7pm. Why are they going to bed so early? What time are they having to get up?

I'm surprised that there are school aged children going to bed at 7pm. Why are they going to bed so early? What time are they having to get up?

In England, they do! And parents moan that they are up at 5am! But apparently even if they go to bed at a reasonable hour, they would still get up at 5am. Because English (possibly British) children are different to the rest of the world.

In England, they do! And parents moan that they are up at 5am! But apparently even if they go to bed at a reasonable hour, they would still get up at 5am

Well that's just silly if that's the case! 5 am in England is not 5 am around the world. We change time zones with kids frequently and sleeping and waking times are about getting them into a good routine. If they're waking at a particular (too early) time it's likely to be due to light or temperature - good blackout blinds are needed and the right bedding and clothing so that they're not too hot or cold at certain times of the morning. Or maybe they're waking up because they're hungry since they only had a sandwich to eat the night before!!

When I moved from England to Oz, I was horrified at how late the kids stayed up. Parties and BBQs always included a tonne of wild and mucky kids careering about the place....I soon relaxed about it.

They all seem to wake up at a reasonable hour and get to school on time during the week.

I agree it's silly, and it's actually quite sad, they miss the best hours of the day in the summer month.

The reasoning seems to be that "adults are allowed an evening". I prefer a lie-in

When dds have school dinners they then go to ASC and eat there, so when they get home they only want a sandwich. When they have packed lunches they get a hot dinner at home.