I don't know what is acceptable in a lunch box today

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Due to my disabilities my children get free school meals and I, gratefully, haven't had to make a packed lunch for 8 years!
We have had multiple letters about what is not allowed in packed lunches over the years. Having never thought it would be applicable, I didn't pay attention.
The school can't provide a meal next week for my daughter, so I need ideas and tips please! I don't want him to have his lunch confiscated, so I am asking for help.

I know it is unreasonable for me not to know, I've just not had to know and I have heard horror stories of Miss Trunchbull -esque dinner ladies taking food from children - is that true?

KS2 btw

Some parents literally have no clue as to what constitutes a healthy lunch and the obesity crisis is worsening in this country, so I actually think it's great that schools have made a stand over lunches. It's not a punishment, it's ultimately for the benefit of the kid even if some parents don't like it

It seems to be that many schools / education authorities have no clue about nutrition and that they should not be creating rules or guidelines that have no scientific basis.

Nonsense rules do not benefit the children in any way, seem to stress out many parents and children and make life difficult for children with various SN or medical issues.

Packed lunch is a mine field, I play it safe today my son has taken ... carton of innocent kids apple juice, pasta salad with cucumber, peppers, sweetcorn and a French dressing then a yoghurt pouch for a dessert.

No crisps, no fizzy pop, no sweets or chocolate, no nuts must contain a portion of fruit or veg.

Our school has a no nuts policy so no pesto/peanut butter etc.

No chocolate allowed (not even in cookies, banana bread etc)

Only water or milk allowed for drinks.

I thought school had to provide lunch for children on FSM? No 'sorry, do it yourself today'.

At our school they order in packed lunches for children on free school meals if there's no hot meal facility. I'd query it, OP, if I were you. Bet they're not planning to refund the FSM funding they receive for that day.

Cheese and hounous wrap, mini fromage frais, satsuma.

I’m getting hungry reading about all these foods.

But cereal bars also have cereal and fruit. They are nutritonally richer than a kitkat.
I hate it when people say yoghurts and raisins are just sugar. No they are not. They have more nutritional value than sugar or sweets.

Only the youngest has a packed lunch now. We know what he likes and has that. He needs to enjoy his lunch. He's extremely fit and healthy, so that's good enough for us. We don't overthink it.

It seems to be that many schools / education authorities have no clue about nutrition and that they should not be creating rules or guidelines that have no scientific basis

I am no fan of the lunchbox police, but I don’t think that’s fair.

Schools may not be at the very forefront of nutritional knowledge and there are annoying inconsistencies.

However, they have the basics broadly right. And if their policies prevent fizzy drink/wham bar/bag of monster munch lunch boxes then the middle classes probably need to get over themselves on this issue.

Today I put pasta in a box with tuna and peas then some tomatoes and cucumber. An oat bar snack with no sugar and another little Tupperware with tinned sweet corn in cos my son loves it. Other days he’s had tuna and jam in pitta (one tuna, one jam!) and/or houmus and breadsticks with all the veg. My son loves tinned carrots! Whatever they like to eat :) Things that don’t work well in lunchboxes tho: rice (goes dry), couscous (dry and so messy), banana cut up - don’t know why I did this - it went so brown!!

And I bet the teachers are having a well healthy lunch! Judging by the size of some in my sons school, they haven't seen a healthy one for years!

Mine usually have a sandwich/pasta, a cereal bar, a yogurt, a piece of cheese and a piece of fruit

I was so glad when the youngest of my three went to secondary school and I could put all of this bullshit behind me.

It was enforced at primary school, but not at secondary school.

I found that generally steering clear of nuts and not going overboard with chocolate kept me largely out of trouble with the lunchbox police when they were at primary school.

At secondary school they were mostly making their own packed lunches if they wanted them. I ignored what they packed mostly, and never heard a word from the school. It was bliss.

The schools that ban home baking - how do they know? Because if they're expecting everything in a lunch box to be individually packaged then that's a hell of a lot of single use plastic every day.

Thanks for the answers about the home-made cake!

Gosh, I must be very old-fashioned, because I thought a moderate amount of eggs, butter and (limited) sugar for growing children - as part of a healthy balanced diet - was perfectly ok!

Where I live, DC regularly eat chips, waffles, drink hot chocolate etc, but none of them in any class of my dd's school are particularly overweight as far as I can see! (Admittedly they eat panfuls of veg soup and do a lot of sport as well!)

I brought my daughter a food flask so now its cold she has soups and a buttered roll/bread, pasta's, hotdog (side roll and ketchup), bolognese, chilli con carne with side of tortilla chips, stir fry, rice and chicken.

Then a fruit snack, yoghurt, cheese string, pepperami, crisps, hommous and veg or a small chocolate.

Not allowed anything containing nuts.

Some parents literally have no clue as to what constitutes a healthy lunch and the obesity crisis is worsening in this country, so I actually think it's great that schools have made a stand over lunches. It's not a punishment, it's ultimately for the benefit of the kid even if some parents don't like it

Ds was 5, non verbal with autistic diagnosis. Wouldn’t touch water, wouldn’t have food touching and very picky. He had no understanding of why his squash and snacks were thrown away in front of him and I’d rather he drink vimto with water and have a small bag of chocolate buttons or whatever rather than go nearly 7 hours with nothing.

Wouldn’t touch water, wouldn’t have food touching and very picky.

Presumably you’d discuss that with the teacher though?

Some years ago a school in our county tried to ban flapjacks because they might cause injury if children threw them!!

Yes, so might many things.

Our school's policy is: no nuts, no chocolate, no crisps or similar.

I pack: ham&cheese sandwich (or Wow Butter which is like peanut butter but nut-free); tupperware of cucumber or some other veg; tupperware of fruit; a cereal bar (no nuts!)/corn cakes/rice cakes/crackers; digestive or similar biscuits.

The reason my DC has a lunchbox was because the school meal was so deficient in nutrition.

An example of a real lunch provided by the school

Slice of pizza, thin scrape of sauce and few sprinkles of cheese. Thick base.

Garlic bread

Bread and butter pudding.

Slice of white sliced bread as a extra,

This was in one meal. Bread, bread and more bread. No fruit or veg or protein. Utterly useless

Why has this for anything to do with the teacher’s lunches? Schools have a duty of care to their pupils, so make these rules to ensure that, at least while on school premises, they get a healthy meal. It has nothing to do with the individual teachers, or what they choose to eat. ‘I don’t know why my doctor is telling me to cut down drinking, I bet she likes a glass of wine’...

Everywhere has different rules we are allowed crips ( not nuts or seeds due to allergy suffers) No sweets, chocolate ( though chocolate biscuits or cake are allowed) No fizzy drinks/juice. Big focus on reducing packaging at the school boxes they have recycling boxes for crisp packets. Homemade is definitely fine. Mine have sandwich , chopped carrot, cucumber and tomato and greek yog with some frozen berries. Maybe a biscuit or crisps if I know they are busy. They get a piece of fruit every day at school as well

@DobbyTheHouseElk if this is in the uk, there will have been fruit and vegetables available, which your child may have chosen not to eat.

Presumably you’d discuss that with the teacher though?

I did and they still chucked his food in the bin and tipped his squash down the sink, in front of him and all of the other kids.