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.

[Pebbledashery]

Saying that, the first nursery my daughter ever went to.. I noticed their food delivery was Iceland value frozen chicken pieces, chicken curry ready meals, and angel delight.. Subsequently she was taken out after a few weeks!

[Worstyear2020]

DD's breakfast club only provide either toasts or cereal with milk and cost £2.50. I thought it's quite reasonable as that is included childcare, food preparation, clean up etc.

Our day nursery include everything in the fee so daily rate is high.

[Ava50x]

Glad my child is not at your nursery, OP. YANBU at all!

My child's nursery has a no-birthday-cake policy. They do make a big fuss of a birthday child but no cake. I personally am delighted about it. Dessert is only fruit, i've never seen any cake/cookies/ice cream/custard on the menu and again, i'm extremely pleased!
DS gets fresh soup, protein, whole grain starch and fresh/cooked veggies for lunch, with things like hummous and breadsticks, etc etc for snacks.

I'd be really annoyed with beans on toast for lunch. For tea once in a while its more acceptable.

[AperolWhore]

How old is your LO? It is nursery before they start school or day care? Sorry if I’ve missed that bit. We pay £58 a day for our LG to go to nursery and they provide a nutritionally balanced menu, we’re also a vegan household and they cater to this without any issue. I think you need a new nursery.

[Bleachmycloths]

YANBU. Nutritionally poor lunches. I’m not surprised you’re upset. Do you know what any of the other parents think? Could you provide a united front?

[teraculum29]

£2.50 it's not to bad.
3years ago when my DD was going to nursery I had to pay £3.50 per lunch plus provide my own lunch.
It was called supervision during the meal.
but apparently other snacks during the day were free.

[Ilovemaisie]

Pebble Iceland don't sell a 'value' range. There is nothing wrong with their food.

[Yourcatisnotsorry]

Our daily top up is £10 and £15 for my kids so I’d be happy with £2.50. It’s to sub for the funding which doesn’t really cover their costs. I wouldn’t be happy with that sort of food on a regular basis though and would speak to the manager.

[clarehhh]

It is the cost of staff you pay most for . Sounds pretty hood price to me.

[Harmonypuss]

@SophieGiroux

You pay £5.50 for meals, is this per day or week? I'm assuming op means that she pays £2.50 per day which is exorbitant, if you're paying that per day is be expecting gourmet meals for a 2.5yr old at that price!

[askgoogle]

I used to cook for a nursery and this is normal. I changed our menu over to a 3 weekly cycle, 2 days a week vegetarian food and always the option. The rest was usual healthy food, pasta with veg, chilli, curry and even late afternoon snack mackerel pate with pitta etc. All doable in a budget , do the nursery have cooking facilities? I had a tiny kitchen and temperamental oven

[TokenGinger]

I'm not sure if it's already been mentioned, but £2.50 won't get spent on the food alone.

There's the cost of food to budget for (in my local authority, the catering service has 65p per mea allocated), the cost of staffing, insurance, machinery maintenance, upkeep etc.

So many schools and nursery settings are moving away from the local authority's catering service to private providers who can offer more than 65p per meal, because kids are being fed meals like this!

[Mum2b43]

I work for a nursery and I would never let my child eat the food we offer. My manager buys the cheapest nastiest products to feed the kids while lying to parents saying everything is homemade with quality ingredients. We serve macaroni cheese from a can, the cheapest sausages/chicken nuggets ever. It’s disgusting and processed rubbish. A colleague and I suggested we take over the menu and make homemade macaroni cheese and nuggets. We were reprimanded for questioning her judgment and told that there was nothing wrong with the food.

Point is.... never would I let my child eat nursery meals. I would switch nurseries if I were you or tell the manager you refuse to pay for lunches and will sending in packed lunch wether they like it or not

[Anotheruser02]

@Mum2b43

I work for a nursery and I would never let my child eat the food we offer. My manager buys the cheapest nastiest products to feed the kids while lying to parents saying everything is homemade with quality ingredients. We serve macaroni cheese from a can, the cheapest sausages/chicken nuggets ever. It’s disgusting and processed rubbish. A colleague and I suggested we take over the menu and make homemade macaroni cheese and nuggets. We were reprimanded for questioning her judgment and told that there was nothing wrong with the food.

Point is.... never would I let my child eat nursery meals. I would switch nurseries if I were you or tell the manager you refuse to pay for lunches and will sending in packed lunch wether they like it or not

I've worked in places like this. The stupid thing is a macaroni cheese bake would cost less than so many cans. Food in bulk is pennys per portion. I'm a vegetarian and I batch cook and freeze food for my child, meat pasta sauces cost about 20p a portion if that when i freeze in muffin cases you get so many out of a batch for a young child it's unreal, a lasagne costs about 40p a portion.

[IbrahimaRedTwo]

Pebble Iceland don't sell a 'value' range. There is nothing wrong with their food

All Iceland food is value range, and there is a lot wrong with their food. Would you give a toddler a frozen kebab or a chicken tikka lasagne with a 12% meat content and enough salt for a week?

[Pebbledashery]

There's nothing wrong with Iceland food, yes I agree.. But I don't want my child eating it every single day at nursery.

[Ilovemaisie]

No Iceland food is own brand food the same as any supermarket own brand food which is different to 'value' range. Frozen chicken is frozen chicken whether it says Iceland or Waitrose on the packet. Infact Iceland were the only major supermarket not to have to remove own brand products due to the horse meat scandal because they monitor where their food comes from very strictly. Iceland also sell frozen vegetables, fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, fresh meat, fresh dairy products, branded bread like Kingsmill. Yes their ready meals aren't the healthiest for young children (ones aimed at adults won't be) but I seriously doubt they are giving a whole meal to one child. I expect the meals are shared and if they are also cooking frozen chicken then they clearly aren't eating ready meals every day.
Please note I do not work for Iceland. I just shop there. It was almost hilarious during lockdown 1 because the queue for Sainsbury's would be half a mile down the road with products selling out yet the Iceland practically next door rarely had a queue and I could stroll in and get my loo roll and branded bread and milk that comes from the same dairies as everywhere else (plus all my other shopping - most of which wasn't frozen as there wouldn't be enough room in my freezer).
People are so snobby over Iceland.

[Parker231]

One of my elderly neighbours discovered Iceland during lockdown due to their good delivery service and branded foods. She is a big Iceland fan now whereas she didn’t know anything about them before as she stuck to the major supermarkets.

[IbrahimaRedTwo]

The fact that you can buy shit food in all of the supermarkets as well does not mean that Iceland food isn't shit. Have you actually seen some of it? And yes, Iceland does have a value range, you can see it on their website under the heading "value range". You can get a half kilo lasagne (the main ingredient of which is water!!) or a fish pie for 1£, although why you would want to is another matter....

[dramaticpenguin]

true. I probably shouldn't have waded in here - the fact that the ratio doesn't change for Childminders when the children turn 3 does make the fact the funding rate drops so much quite difficult. Also as a lone worker, we don't have anyone else to do lunch, so quick things are useful. But I'm totally transparent with the parents, I ask what their little ones like and what they want them to eat and cater accordingly - the advantage of only a few children on roll and a more personal relationship I spose.

[sashh]

Of topic but I'm a covid convert to Iceland. There deliveries are free if you spend £40.

Yes they have ready meals but as a PP said they also do fresh food.

Some of their offers are good too, they did do a sort of Sunday roast, basically a frozen joint, options on potatoes, veg, yorkies and a pudding.

It's not the same as home made but as good as any pub meal

[Ilovemaisie]

I actually don't buy many of their 'ready meals'. I buy frozen products like Youngs or Birds Eye fish and chicken or Linda McCartney veggie range, branded products like Dolmio pasta sause, Kellogg's cereal, Heinz etc plus all the fresh stuff. In other words.... normal food.

[Nearly47]

I prefer beans on toast to frozen nuggets and similar. I think you are being a bit unreasonable. Unless he is fed beans on toast every day.

[PenfoldPenny]

Im sure I read a thread on mn in the last few days mentioning a nursery charging £8 per day for lunches? £2.50 is a lot but a whole lot less than £8!

[SophieGiroux]

[quote Harmonypuss]@SophieGiroux

You pay £5.50 for meals, is this per day or week? I'm assuming op means that she pays £2.50 per day which is exorbitant, if you're paying that per day is be expecting gourmet meals for a 2.5yr old at that price![/quote]
Yes it's £5.50 a day for one lunch plus snacks but I'm still about it although not so bad now DD is 3 so we get the free funded hours. Still have to pay it if she's off sick too