To not understand how it's cheaper to send dc to school with a cold happy meal than a packed lunch?

[bobstersmum]

In the news this week, an article about children in deprived areas being sent to school with a cold happy meal. Then parents in another article defending the reasons for it, saying that sometimes it's all they can afford. I just can't understand it? A happy meal is 2.99 I think? But a cheap loaf of bread is 50p, a cheap pack of sandwich meat or cheese is less than a pound, bag of bananas a pound multipack of crisps a pound, that's lunches for the week for around the same cost?

Sleephead1 someone earlier in the thread asked what you’d do if you were completely skint, in a specific scenario, and found a tenner blowing down the street, as if to say it’s inevitable you’d run out and blow it on a takeaway. Like it’s impossible to grasp that even in the poorest of circumstances people are still capable of weighing up their options and making a decision for themselves what to do with an unexpected windfall! Similar thing happened to me several years ago when I got an unexpected £10 tip at my (sub NMW, zero hour contract) job. I was that skint, the prospect of being able to feed myself more easily for several days was far more seductive than a pizza and chips within the next hour. I looked up some cheap recipes by Jack Monroe and batch cooked a load of (from memory) dhal, and veggie burgers and spent the remainder on some of those packets of dried flavoured cous cous that only require boiling water and some ambient milk and a value box of cereal. When you’re actually, properly living in poverty, you don’t see a spare tenner and fuck around. You see it in terms of how long it can keep you going. Doubly so with kids to feed. Sick of this feckless poor narrative being used to explain away all manner of child neglect when in reality people from all income brackets neglect or abuse their kids, you’d never get hordes of people trying to justify and rationalise away failure to provide adequate nutrition to children if it came from a more well to do family.

After sll if Tarquins mum sent him in with a serving of Risotto or ehayever from the prrvious evening she would be congratulated on her zero food waste.

Because risotto has more nutritional value than a cold hamburger and chips (or whatever else was in the fabled happy meal 😂) and it isn’t vile cold. Tbf a lot of the revulsion around this article is from the fact that you’d barely expect a dog to eat cold soggy French fries, it makes me feel physically sick to imagine trying to choke one down. If a kid is sent in with leftovers from the previous night that are actually fine to eat cold or can be reheated at the school that’s a normal, fine thing to do. It’s not the fact it’s leftovers.

The ‘what’s acceptable to eat cold’ point is very subjective.

I’d far prefer to eat a cold burger than cold risotto.

And as for the nutritional content, the processed bread, ham, cheese, crisps alternatives suggested on here are no better.

As for risotto, depends what’s in it.

Its left overs.

Like if your family treat is a Sunday night McDs, but the kids don’t finish it - it will still be food safe as a lunch next day.

The ‘what’s acceptable to eat cold’ point is very subjective.

True, good point. But would anyone willingly eat cold McDonald’s fries? And even though the article doesn’t stipulate what the leftovers were, kids being sent to school with those happens.

I’m tired of people making excuses for shit lazy parents to be honest. I live on a big estate part bought / part council owned (right to buy) and there’s two families that care and look after their children properly and the rest don’t give two shits. It has nothing to do with money.

But would anyone willingly eat cold McDonald’s fries?

Not me personally, but having seen what my children and their friends like to consume over the years I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that some children do.

I just don’t get this idea that a cold happy meal is the lowest of the low when ...

Other kinds of left overs are fine

and

Plenty of the much more acceptable lunch options are no better nutritionally

For context, my kids have never eaten in MaccyDs. However, I did send DS1 into school with leftover pizza last week (which is on the reasonably restricted list of acceptable lunch options produced by the school).

But it was from the chi chi pizza place round the corner that gets glowing reviews from quality newspapers and I’m achingly middle class. So that’s ok.

@Sleephead1 I would do that. That’s why I stick to salaried (monthly paid) jobs and why I could never be self employed. But because I’m well paid, no one would notice (it would be the pension contributions not happening or the credit card debt rising rather than the children going hungry)

The luxury of earning more I guess

But would anyone willingly eat cold McDonald’s fries?

My 9yo niece prefers them cold! And whenever I visit McD's, I get a share box of nuggets and often eat them cold for lunch the next day.

The handwringing on this post is because it's McDonald's. Like PP said, if it was leftover pasta/risotto from the night before, nobody would even bat an eyelid.

Plenty of threads on here about eating leftover chinese/pizza/curry the next day. Why is that acceptable but cold chicken nuggets aren't?

It's not just chicken nuggets though is it. The article says "cold leftover McDonald's AND chicken nuggets"

McDonald's is fatty and greasy. Once cold all that fat is going to congeal and be pretty rank. The thought of cold chips is enough to turn my stomach. Hardly compares to leftover tomato pasta does it.

Hardly compares to leftover tomato pasta does it.

What about cold pizza then?

Sorry what I meant to say is that what sleepyhead describes isn’t restricted to “poor” people- they just have less ability to cope living like that. If they had more
Money it wouldn’t be an issue. Plenty of people live like that

The thought of cold chips is enough to turn my stomach.

Yeah, but again that's your opinion. Different people like different things. And let's face it, the only reason it's causing uproar is because it's food from McDonald's.

The thought of cold, claggy risotto turns my stomach, yet upthread someone used that as an example of acceptable leftover food.

Children get free school meals up to Year 2 in the UK. Universally and not means tested. If you can’t afford to pack your child a sandwich I would think it likely that you are entitled to free school meals for the rest of your child’s school career too. If you think you aren’t it may be worth speaking to the relevant person at the school. There’s no need for any child not to have a relatively healthy school meal at lunchtime.

Children get free school meals up to Year 2 in the UK.

Again, no they don’t. Children get free school meals up to year 2 in SOME parts of the U.K.

Yuk! Cold risotto sound disgusting and it's also not very safe. Bacteria spread quickly on cooked rice, so any leftover rice you want to eat should be reheated so it's steaming throughout to kill the bugs. I'd rather take my chances with a cold MacDs tbh

To be honest, I don't think, say, cold chicken nuggets are an unsuitable meal.
I happily give my children cold cooked leftover chicken, or mini scotch eggs, or a slice of leftover pizza as part of their packed lunch.

They wouldn't want cold chips - but DH would happily eat them.

If I had some leftover chicken nuggets, I would send them in a packed lunch as part of a meal (but I would probably remove the packaging.) It hasn't ever happened, but I don't think it's particularly horrifying.

As a separate point, there's a voucher for a cheap McDonalds on the back of every bus ticket. It can be much cheaper than some posters are suggesting, and if you have a voucher it can seem like a bargain too.

Cold chicken nuggets gets served at parties all the time. There is nothing wrong with them it’s the McDonald’s part everyone is getting upset with.

It’s odd- I must admit I would never send my child in with a happy meal (even if it was say, cold nuggets, carrot bag and a milk) because of the judgements which are SO HARD

Not all parts of the country have bus tickets. Buses are cashless and no paper tickets are issued.

Also those vouchers are only valid at McDonalds that do not have a drive through.

Most McDonalds have a drive through, apart from the town centre ones, so they're only any use if you're getting the bus to a town centre and then planning to get McDonalds.

“It’s odd- I must admit I would never send my child in with a happy meal (even if it was say, cold nuggets, carrot bag and a milk) because of the judgements which are SO HARD”

Thinking about this a bit more I would be happy to send my child in with McDonald’s nuggets, carrot sticks and milk IF I removed the packaging and decanted into lunch boxes. Interesting eh

I buy McDs and takeaway food so infrequently that if there are leftovers my youngest asks to put it in the fridge for later. I think he'd like the novelty of cold chips at lunch time too.

I think the issue is more about the overall diet for DC. If takeaway leftovers are a once a fortnight thing, but other packed lunches are balanced it's not really a problem.

Have people actually tried cold left over chicken nuggets ? There,s a frozen food shop on my local indoor market that sells ,Frozen Mc,Donald ,s chicken nuggets too cook I buy them sometimes for the kids ,they are fine hot but vile cold ,I live in a deprived area I think a lot of this article is massively exaggerated and sensationalist and taken out of context .

Have people actually tried cold left over chicken nuggets?

Yep, I often save nuggets and eat them cold the next day. I think they taste fine.

Again, just because you dislike them, doesn't mean they're an inappropriate meal.