Kids snacks at school - white carbs twice before lunch

[prettyflowersinthesky]

DD is in y4.

I seriously don't want to be "that" parent so am wondering on the consensus on this.

DD's school has started giving the whole school's kids stodgy white carbs with jam twice before lunchtime (bagels).

Once when they arrive in the morning, and then again at break time.

DD is coming home with most of her lunch uneaten.

I fully appreciate about food poverty and that giving the kids food in this blanket way is a way of addressing that without singling out or embarrassing hungry children or families.

But I question

1. Whether or not the white carbs plus jam is appropriate nutrition
2. Whether or not most kids really need this
3. Whether or not two snacks between breakfast and lunch is excessive

There is no requirement for the kids to take and eat the snacks but to say to my child not to take them when the other kids are seems unfair.

I'm a bit torn, and certainly don't want to deny hungry kids access to food. But also wonder if the school needs to give this twice and also maybe the nutritional content of the snacks could be improved (e.g. fruit, whole grain snacks or something instead). I do appreciate that kids need more carbs than adults.

What does everyone think? Is this appropriate? I feel for the vast majority of kids without food poverty issues this is not necessary, so by serving all the kids a snack it is enforcing bad snacking habits, poor food choices as well as encouraging childhood obesity.

In many very healthy countries no snacking is allowed although I appreciate for very young children it may be necessary.

I am wondering whether or not to speak to the school about my concerns about them finding a better way to address the issues for the hungry kids.

But I do not want to speak up if I am seriously misinformed about all of this, hence interested in your responses. Thanks.

Yanbu = this is not appropriate / YABU - give the kids the snacks

And if I decided with my newfound powers to take that away from him you’d object pasta and rightly so. You are his parents, not me.

So in other words @rainyoutside you think THIS idea is bad because ... reasons you can't back up... but you have no other alternatives to suggest.
Thanks for playing.

Not quite drs - I don’t think there ‘needs’ to be a ‘back up’ in all honesty.

Schools should and do provide lunch to children, free for some. Many will also offer breakfast. If my child has a packed lunch then they won’t have a school lunch. If they have breakfast at home then won’t have breakfast at school. My view is quite simply that assuming children are starving is a daft way of going about things.

Well, apparently, the school (who knows their pupils) does think there needs to be.
Like I said, thanks for the contribution. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

The school has absolutely no way of knowing which children get breakfast and which don’t. They know how many are eligible for FSM but beyond that, they do not know.

Riight, you just carry on believing that, and leave the school to do their job. Enjoy.

The schools “job” is not to feed children who have eaten already.

My friends very cosseted and loved six year old told his teacher he had not eaten breakfast last week he wanted some snacks.

Schools cannot possibly know. They don’t know who ate porridge with organic milk and who ate a packet of Haribo and who ate nothing. A child claiming FSMs is not the same as a child who is starving and neglected.

And I work in a school, thanks.

@rainyoutside

The school has absolutely no way of knowing which children get breakfast and which don’t. They know how many are eligible for FSM but beyond that, they do not know.

I'm sure they suspect. But obviously they can't actually KNOW.

Before we offered free breakfasts for all I could tell which kids in my tutor group hadn’t had breakfast each morning, but this got harder when they moved tutor time to after lunch as kids weren’t bothering to come into school at 8.30 for tutor time!

But I could tell and send them off for breakfast subtly.

Well quite but that suspicion may also extend to the sort of example above. In terms of chaotic home lives there’s often little difference between a packet of haribo and a can of Coke before school and nothing to eat before school.

I’m not remotely unsympathetic to the challenges many face but the sort of diet as described by the OP is not the answer.

@OverTheRainbow88

Before we offered free breakfasts for all I could tell which kids in my tutor group hadn’t had breakfast each morning, but this got harder when they moved tutor time to after lunch as kids weren’t bothering to come into school at 8.30 for tutor time!

But I could tell and send them off for breakfast subtly.

Well that's amazing and I'm genuinely impressed. I have 4 children and I can't tell if they've had breakfast or not . I'm being genuine not snarky.

@Mominatrix

I see that PP were extolling the quality of Italian school meals - are they referring to the same Italy which has one of the highest child obesity rates in Europe?

Well said. Italian kids have cake or very sweet biscuits for breakfast, and at breaktime at school will have at best, a white bread roll stuffed with salami and cheese, or at worst, a family bag of crisps, more cake, etc. Trust me, kids are kids and none of them opt for the spinach smoothie over the Maccy D. They've just opened a KFC next to our station and it's rammed. The cake and biscuit aisle in our supermarket is twice the size of the fruit and veg and if you want wholemeal anything you have to go to the vitamins bit. TV adverts are non stop processed sugary snack ads. And biscuits are advertised as "wholesome" because they only contain natural ingredients like, er, sugar.

@Ryerossy - can you explain why white carbs are good for us? What are the nutritional benefits?

I have have been a single parent on benefits since ds was 6, when we first started I had £30 a week to feed both of us. Ds never went to school without breakfast, I shopped at places like Farm Foods, bought basic own brand items from supermarkets. There were no food banks, but I always managed to make nutritious meals somehow. Even though we were entitled to free school meals, after seeing the quality of the food served, I sent him with a balanced packed lunch every day, even if it meant going shopping when foods were marked down at the end of the day. Stop demonising parents on benefits.

I have tried to get tap water used in my kids school to no avail. Bottled water and strawberry milk.

Public dietary provision for kids (and in the local hospitals too) where I am is a disgrace. Individuals get nowhere.

@Nat6999

I have have been a single parent on benefits since ds was 6, when we first started I had £30 a week to feed both of us. Ds never went to school without breakfast, I shopped at places like Farm Foods, bought basic own brand items from supermarkets. There were no food banks, but I always managed to make nutritious meals somehow. Even though we were entitled to free school meals, after seeing the quality of the food served, I sent him with a balanced packed lunch every day, even if it meant going shopping when foods were marked down at the end of the day. Stop demonising parents on benefits.

Nobody is demonising people on benefits.

People are trying to help them, and by having schemes like this universal it actually does the opposite of demonising because if anyone can access it then there is no stigma or judgement as to who needs it and why.

Fantastic that you where able to make ends meet like you did but having been in that position I am sure you are more aware than most how hard it can be and why some families in a similar or worse position won’t be able to achieve what you did

I don’t think people on benefits are being demonised but assumptions are being made that are both unhelpful and untrue.

It's the assumptions made on threads like these though that if you don't feel comfortable with such schemes you are from privilege yourself or incredibly heartless, such ignorance, etc.

That's what is so predictable and annoying.

@prettyflowersinthesky

If you are still watching op,

Fwiw I think I'd take the view that if there is breakfast being offered at school, let your child take it as she pleases.

Primary school is a social experience above all.

Then I personally would just give her a drink of milk in the morning or maybe an egg if she fancied it. But I would not be bothered making her eat porridge followed by two bready snacks to be followed by an half eaten lunch!

Or if home breakfast is non negotiable reduce lunch sandwich size.

@TheOneWhoWalksInTheSun

It's the assumptions made on threads like these though that if you don't feel comfortable with such schemes you are from privilege yourself or incredibly heartless, such ignorance, etc.

That's what is so predictable and annoying.

And that you are "incredibly naive" not to realise that "most children" don't get breakfast at home in the morning.

Which is obviously not true.

But in some areas it possibly is a large number of children going hungry, and that is usually where these schemes are targeted.

A lot or very neglected children will never go hungry. Neglect takes a variety of forms and one of the most common is when children are given a diet which is nutritionally inadequate.

So again @rainyoutside what do you suggest?

ineedaholidaynow what do you think might be nutritionally better than a bagel with jam?

Thing is, sometimes maybe it is not just about the nutrition. If you are a child who has a shit life at home, maybe an apple would be nutritionally better for breakfast club but actually a bagel and jam may make them feel a little happier too.

Schools with no funding, no kitchen and no staff are going to struggle be able to rustle up a fully nutritious breakfast for children