To be pissed 3YO had beans on toast for lunch

[Zachary143]

Annoyed that I pay £2.50 for lunch for LO.

I initially wanted LO to have packed lunch when starting nursery full time however was told that this was not an option and that children had to have nursery lunch however I was reassured that it would all be fresh, wholesome and home cooked.

In the past LO has been given thing like packet noodles and sweetcorn. Pudding is usually angel delight or fruit. Also when it's a child birthday the cake is given as pudding so their not really having pudding that was part of the paid for meal.

The cheap lunches are pissing me off, I can provide him with better quality packed lunches and it'll cost me less.

Yanbu...

Change nursery then . Some of it does sound crap although BOT is a fairly health meal, but presumably there are loads of fussy eaters.

Do they give you menu for the week? When mine when to daycare, we got full menu the week before with veg hidden in the meals.

£2.50 is a rip-off for a slice of bread and what, half a tin of 30p beans?

Are the nursery charging this to make up the fees on 30 funded hours or is it a full time day care nursery?

@Hankunamatata I have asked for the menu before and was told this will be changing but still not given anything new yet.

@HarrietHardy

Yes, my point exactly!

I wouldn't have a problem with beans on toast, but charging £2.50 for it is a bit steep.

I wouldn't be annoyed with the content of that meal. Beans on toast is healthy enough. I would be annoyed at the price of it. I would expect there to be fruit and yoghurt and milk provided as well as the beans on toast for £2.50.

@RandomMess
To make up the fees on top.

Its a daycare nursery

I can see why they wouldn't want any packed lunches, for allergies etc.
I don't think that beans on toast is a bad lunch, on occasional rotation.

Beans on toast, fine.

£2.50 is a rip off.

I don't understand the logic behind no packed lunches.

Reduced sugar/salt beans on wholemeal toast with fruit and yogurt would be fine with me on occasion, though I’d expect a proper cooked lunch most of the time. Absolute crap like angel delight and packet noodles, if you mean supernoodle type things, would have me making a written complaint, regardless of cost. It’s not an unreasonable charge and it’s not unreasonable not to allow a packed lunch, but that stuff hardly follows a healthy eating policy, it just sounds like they can’t be bothered. I bet they wouldn’t serve it on an Ofsted visit day....

@MrsTophamHat
Its because of allergies as pp mentioned.

What I dont quite get is what about people on low income

You aren’t paying for the lunch you are paying for the childcare, surely that’s obvious.

Wow I'd be happy to pay £2.50, I have to pay £5.50 for ours!! Granted they are cooked from fresh but still a lot considering the pudding is quite often tinned peaches with custard or yogurt.

It's not a blanket policy for all nurseries though. My children both take packed lunches to nursery and my own daughter has a food allergy. I informed them as soon as we realised and it wasn't a big deal.

Parents are told not to put nuts obviously. Each morning, the staff take the packed lunches to store and give them out at lunch time. If there was anything concerning they could remove it in the meantime. The children are supervised to ensure they only eat their own food.

I would expect a cooked meal too, beans on toast or similar is normally given for the tea meal at 3:45 ish. However the price of food normally includes the two other snacks that they would be given at mid morning and late afternoon, plus lunch. £2.50 is a good price.

I wouldn't be happy with this at all , DD today at nursery had breakfast , wetabix , lunch roast chicken , fresh veg and mash and she has pasta bolognese for her tea
She has fish , cottage pie , cous cous , I pay 50 quid per day for nursery so wouldn't be happy with beans on toasts

I think beans on toast is okay if it is once a week. I would expect it to be served with yoghurt and fruit too. I would be more concerned with packet noodles & angel delight tbh. Depends on the rest of the menu whether YABU really.

@Sjdmcfeet if you £50 per day for nursery that is how you get good meals.

Nurseries don’t get sufficient funding from the Government to cover their costs when offering the 30 free hours, so have to come up with ideas how to cover their costs without closing. That is why many don’t let you bring in packed lunches so can try and recoup some money from lunches.
I know it’s not school, but the ingredients cost of a school meal usually average about 80p the rest of the money parents are asked to pay or what is covered by FSM is for labour and other overheads.

Choose a nursery that has a fresh / home cooked lunch policy.

I'm more shocked at packet noodles, sweetcorn and Angel Delight. I can see how £2.50 might translate into simple meals when you factor in all the other costs, snacks etc but I can't see how they justify foods with such low nutritional quality.

Note, I'm excluding beans on toast from that as it can absolutely be a balanced meal!

I think if you are happy with the nursery in all other aspects then I might choose your battles. They are obviously using the margin to top up their funds but they are not making the prices ludicrous or insulting.

What are their cooking facilities actually like all of the meals mentioned sound like hob and toaster style stuff rather than oven? Do they have proper facilities because if they only have kitchen facilities to heat up or mix up processed packet, tinned or dried food then the nutritional content is always going to be poor.