No food left for older children at school

[Kacee29]

I’ll probably get told I’m moaning about nothing here but here goes.

I have a Dd in infants and a dc in year 5. Dd gets free lunches as they all do. We pay for DS’s lunches as over the years he’s really enjoyed having school dinners. He’s willing to try a lot more food there (he has asd and issues with food). Plus he doesn’t really like packed lunch foods. So yeah he’s always had the cooked lunches.

Now he’s in year 5 he’s the second to last in to get have lunch and on a few occasions he’s not had much for lunch as there’s nothing left - he’s ended up with something he doesn’t like or something like a sandwich which I could make for himself anyway (nor do any of the other children as it’s the last things left 😫) I know I’m sounding precious but he will simply not eat anything that’s given to him.

Aibu to think they should make enough so the children in the older years can eat once they get there? We pay for his lunches but some children get their lunches free if on a low income etc. It’s even worse for those children receiving free lunches as it might be the only substantial meal they get in the day. I know that DS can come home and eat, others might not.

But then I think we pay nearly £45 a month for him to eat. So it’s not really good enough not having enough food?!

They know how many children in the juniors are going to be having cooked food in the morning.

So yeah aibu to be annoyed. Thinking of sending him packed lunch but he generally loves the cooked lunches. This has been an ongoing problem since September. I think the issue lies with that before covid not all infants would take up the free lunches - some took packed lunches. Now the school won’t allow those who get free lunches to take a pack lunch because of covid plus he’s one of the last in!

It makes me so sad when he comes home and says he hasn’t really eaten much so packed lunch it is! 😭

It's bugger all to do with the pandemic. As another poster wrote, it's a planning issue.

Years ago, when DD was at primary school, she and the other older ones kept finding there was little to eat when they got to the front of the queue. Turns out the older ones were always at the end of the queue, the dinner staff were giving more than the standard portion to the first ones up, the little ones were allowed up for seconds before all the children had been given their first meal, etc. It was poor organisation.

I had a meeting with the head and said I'd be taking my DD off school dinners if this was allowed to continue. Because there were even times when the main meal had all been dished out and my DD (and others, she said) had potatoes and veg as their meal. One day she came home and had had a jacket potato and butter, nothing else. This was confirmed independently.

It did improve after that meeting, so I suspect I wasn't the only parent to have a meeting with the head to complain.

We also have a system where they pick one of 3 options at the beginning of the day. Then the right amount of each is cooked. I'm struggling to think of a reason why some schools are able to work like that and others aren't.

Our school do a dinner register in Reception and Years 1 and 2, everyone else has to have ordered by 10pm the night before. There's only been 1 incident of them running out of the food that I know off since my DD started 2 years ago (now year 2) and that was because the power went out half way through meal prep.

DD doesn't always get the vegetable she wants but she always gets her first choice of hot meal - so she might ask for carrots and be given peas instead but I can live with that. On days she won't eat anything though I send a sandwich because she doesn't like the school bread.

They have reduced options down to Meat or Vegetarian due to covid but there's still choice. This a state primary.

Your school isn't good enough and I'd raise it, especially as your son is ASD.

It works so differently here. You have to book what meal your child wants before 9am online so they get the meal you've specifically booked. So much less waste and kids getting the meal they will eat. That's if you pay or are free school meals.

Our school solves this problem by having the children select their entree as they enter the classroom each morning.

@WillSantaBeComingToTown how is this a pandemic issue? Surely they would have this issue regardless. The only reason this wasn't a problem before was because some with free school meals opted to take packed lunches in. So the school must have been using some of the free school meals to feed other children. The issue here is planning and/or portion control.

OP I would definitely be that parent, please complain to the school.

We have to preorder food (by the Sunday evening for the week ahead). Makes things a lot easier all round... Less waste, parents know what they are being served, allergies catered for etc.

Running out of food isn't on. (Esp for children on FSM)

Don't be that parent

Don't be that parent...that wants their child to get lunch?
Don't be that parent...that expects to get what they have paid for?
Don't be that parent....that acts like a parent?

DO be that parent. Ignore the idiots.

Yanbu, if it's numbers or planning they are struggling with, they need to send the menus out in advance and get the kids to pick, then cook the right amount. I would be livid if I paid for hot lunches and all they were given was a sandwich (as it was I refused to pay for the poor quality lunches and mine always took packed lunches, no free infants meals then)

The same thing happens at DS school.
They pre order at 9am...however class 1 goes to lunch first, they often forget what they ordered so when the older kids come for lunch, they get what is left.
Infact they invited us to sample the school lunch, the same thing happened to me..I ordered lunch, and what I ordered wasn't there.
So now he takes a packed lunched.

amp.theguardian.com/education/2020/nov/18/exodus-of-exhausted-headteachers-predicted-in-england-after-pandemic?__twitter_impression=true

Don't write to the school- they have to write back.
Schools are at breaking point

This isnt the time to raise concerns about lunches.

You should definitely say something. You are paying for a hot lunch for your child and it's not being provided.

If people never speak up nothing gets changed, I cannot abide these people who say 'don't be that parent' as if it's absolutely fine for children to be hungry. The service isn't free you're paying for it!

Could you do a bento box with some hot food so he can have a warm packed lunch?

Also to add where we are in Scotland school dinners are chosen at the beginning of the week and the DC get a coloured token for their chosen meal each day.

In Scotland too, our kids chose their lunch at the start of the day and the kitchen prepares enough of each choice. The menu is published online so my two decide in the morning if they want a packed lunch or if they like one of the hot meal choices that day they’ll order that when they get to school.

It’s nothing to do with the pandemic and everything to do with poor meal planning and organisation. I’d certainly be “that parent” if my child wasn’t being fed a decent meal at lunchtime and I was paying £15 a week (the cost of school meals in my local authority) for the privilege.

The school or the catering company or both need a better system to ensure they make enough food, the pandemic is irrelevant. It’s well worth complaining about, the school needs to feed their children properly!

If I understand the problem correctly from your OP, it is not that there is no hot food left at all but that he ends up with something he doesn't like. That is going to be a problem for the school at the best of times: how much food would they have to throw away to ensure that every child gets precisely what they like? Or did I misunderstand your OP?

It is a catering planning issue

Definitely is, my mate works in a primary school kitchen. At their school each day a member of the kitchen staff goes to the door of each classroom, tells the children the choices of the day including veggie and a "light" lunch option. She goes down the register and each child says the option or says packed lunch.

No one goes hungry, there is a small amount of food left over each day as they slightly over cater it as it makes its way to the staff room so it is seen.

School need to ensure they are providing the meal that a parent has paid for. This has nothing to do with the pandemic. Some schools are preparing paper bag meals with sandwiches in etc as a grab and go service if the children are eating in their classrooms.

In fact because of the pandemic.
This used to happen in the dark ages when I went to school and still happened when my adult DC schooled.
It's a huge benefit to the children and not outside of schools control.

@WillSantaBeComingToTown

amp.theguardian.com/education/2020/nov/18/exodus-of-exhausted-headteachers-predicted-in-england-after-pandemic?__twitter_impression=true

Don't write to the school- they have to write back.
Schools are at breaking point

This isnt the time to raise concerns about lunches.

What a ridiculous comment. She should continue to let her child be hungry just because there are also other issues at school?

I do feel for teaching staff right now, and have many as friends, but I'm quite sure they would rather know that there are hungry children in their school, than someone stay quiet, as they don't want to bother them.

Yanbu, they should be staggering the food for the waves of children. It is what other schools do.

It’s not the school it’s the catering company. It’s not lack of budget. It’s all about profit margins.
The kitchen is expected to make a profit on the catering and therefore will not want much waste but they shouldn’t be running out of hot food.
You need to raise it with the ht who will raise it with the kitchen manager.

We have a different system, as other shave outlined here, where you book the meal you want by 9 a.m. The school doesn't offer choices as such, anyway, just a vegetarian option to the meat/fish main meal.

But as for being "that parent" - how are the school going to know whether the system they are using is working if they don't get feedback? I would certainly tell them. You don't have to go in all guns blazing, just highlight that it isn't ideal right now.

YANBU. If its a regular thing, they know theres a problem and are ignoring it. DD is very much like your child, even if shes really hungry, she won't eat anything that she doesn't like. I mean, I am the same really so can't fault her for that.

The only option here though fi school do not care is giving packed lunch instead. Maybe try a complaint first, but if they stick to it, packed lunch is the only choice, unless you are fine with your chld skipping meals regularly ,which I doubt given your concern here.

is he having NO food
or just the meal option he didn't want?

Most schools ask you to pay for your preference, not a set meal. Some meals are more popular than others, and it's impossible to estimate.

I understand that it's annoying, that's why my kids ended up having a pack lunch because it's the same issue in every school, state school at least.

But no school shouldn't guarantee a set meal, they should guarantee a MEAL and be clear about it.

Children with allergies or food restriction should have a separate, set and reserved meal obviously, and they tend to be served first.

Thanks all. It’s a relatively small school in terms of pupils and space. I understand covid is an issue but it’s always been the case that each year group goes in at different times (older years last) due to lack of space so it probably isn’t just covid tbh. The infants seem to get all the good food first (fair enough Dd is an infant). There seems to be popular and less popular choices! And all the most popular choices go!

When my kids were in primary school they also had to chose what they wanted from 3 or 4 options in the morning , then they got a band that they showed when they got to the front of the queue and received the corresponding meal option. It doesn't seem fair that the same children miss out every time. If anything it's the older/bigger ones who need more fuel!