Lunchbox contents fine for school but not holiday club

[TheLunchIsServed]

DD is 7, about to go into year 3 at school.

She doesn’t always have a school hot dinner so takes a packed lunch. Usually she has

• Ham Sandwich
• Cheese string or babybel
• Penguin bar or similar small type biscuit
• Cucumber and carrot sticks
• Apple orange or banana
• Water

Sometimes I swap the cucumber and carrots for a homemade yogurt (fruit and greek yogurt combined). School have never commented negatively on the contents of her lunchbox, only comment I’ve ever had about it was from the headteacher the first time she took a lunchbox and I asked if it was (she’d gone in late for a reason and was taken to class by the HT) who said it sounded fine.

DD is at holiday club while I work and is taking the same packed lunch with her. She’s been before to this holiday club but I had a call to say policy has changed and she’s not allowed the cheese, yogurt (even a homemade one) or the chocolate and that lunch has to contain two portions of vegetables. They’d rather I didn’t send sugary fruit – even though DD tends to eat that at morning snack time rather than with lunch.

They’ve suggested I leave in the sandwich, cucumber and carrots, swap the cheese for another portion of vegetables – they suggested some cooked and cooled sweetcorn or tomatos (which are fruit) neither of which DD likes. They said to leave the chocolate out completely.

It’s nothing to do with hot weather as the lunchbox goes into a coolbag thing when she gets to holiday club and DD says it’s still cold when she eats it (at school I put those iceblocks in when it’s hot to keep it cool and DD says it’s nice there too).

I can’t understand why her lunchbox is fine at school but not holiday club who I was expecting to be more lenient.

So AIBU to think as I’m paying £35 a day for the service they can ignore a bit of cheese and a small chocolate bar? Or AIBU?

And if so can you make suggestions that a 7 year old will actually eat?

Rules are:

• Two Portions of Veg
• No nuts or seeds
• No kiwi
• No tahini/hummus

Sounds like dairy allergy in setting. Lovely alpro dairy free greek yoghurt that would be a great replacement

The no yoghurt and cheese is very odd. Surely if dairy allergy it would be no butter or spread cheese like dairylea too.
Cheese sandwiches are ok?
I’d definitely clarify. It’s very restrictive eg they can have carrots but no hummus to dip in. Or you could send pasta salad but if there was yoghurt in dressing that’s not ok.

That packed lunch is identical to the one my boys take to their holiday clubs. We use two different companies to mix it up a bit. Absolutely no problem at either. They sound a bit mad.

It must be linked to another child having allergies. Anything else would be madness.

Blimey they'd have had a shit fit at DD's packed lunch for holiday club yesterday.... i'm a softy and give more treats for holiday club (she will only go a few times all holiday) than I would in her school packed lunch...

she had..
cheese sandwich,
jelly with fruit in
blueberries and raspberries
wotsits
yoghurt raisins
barney bear cake

soooo they'd have banned her whole lunch?! :P

Looks like someone has a nut allergy (kid or worker)

As those items listed can all cause anaphylaxis

Most choc bars/biscuits are not guaranteed but free

Not sure about the cheese and yoghurt though!

Blimey OP, you( and everyone else) would be buggered if a child has a nightshade allergy. This would rule out peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, aubergines , blueberries and a few other things.

I run a childcare setting and although we do have children with dairy allergies I don't ban cheese or yogurt and we serve milk at snack time. We just make sure the children don't share but we do that anyway.

I would tell them plainly that I would not be taking fruit out of her lunch box...ridiculous.

£35 a day (totally misses the point of the thread). Wowsers. I'm paying £10 for 5 hours

Oh I should point out that children with dairy allergies provide their own milk alternatives...I dont serve mil to dairy intolerant children!

I've heard of nut free settings but never dairy free...they will have a bee in their bonnet about processed cheese. I have more important things to ponder than how much a babybel has been processed personally.

So for holiday club today mine had:

Sliced pitta
Cheese (the horror)
2 x packets of raisins (if they hated apples I imagine raisins would be bad)
Strawberries (would this be a sugary fruit?)
Apple (again the horror)
Yogurt covered rice cakes (probably banned)
Carrots (think I’d have got a tick for that)

Not brilliant as no protein and high sugar but probably quite typical and I wouldn’t be removing fruit from a lunchbox.

3scape You have got very lucky there with £10 for 5 hours. All the full day ones near me are £35-45.

@Bunnycat101 I think the only acceptable item there on these rules would be the carrots

Last holiday club I used, their only rule was no fizzy drinks to prevent kids bringing Coke or similar as their drink.

If you are paying £10 for 5 hours, PP, someone is subsidising it.

Ok I’m back. Sorry for delay DD wanted to go to the park with her friend from holiday club because running around and hula hooping isn’t enough

Manager said it was across all their settings and had come from higher up (it’s a company that runs a holiday club at about 14 different places across the county) and he had no idea why the policy had come in as most parents sent packed lunches similar to the one I sent for DD.

And yes they do have their own lunch they offer for extra cost which started this year too so I reckon it’s due to that.

Their lunch offer is very similar to what I packed but no chocolate

Ah - so they want you to make your child's lunch box so boring and tasteless that they beg you to let them have the club's own lunch.

I'd carry on sending her with what you normally give her - maybe minus the biscuit, she needs calcium, vitamins, fat and carbs - she's a growing child.

So it’s a money making scheme then? Just send whatever you like and tell them your daughter can eat any or all of it if she so chooses.

I'd ask them what nutritional qualifications the person who came up with that nonsense has.

@TheLunchIsServed

Ok I’m back. Sorry for delay DD wanted to go to the park with her friend from holiday club because running around and hula hooping isn’t enough

Manager said it was across all their settings and had come from higher up (it’s a company that runs a holiday club at about 14 different places across the county) and he had no idea why the policy had come in as most parents sent packed lunches similar to the one I sent for DD.

And yes they do have their own lunch they offer for extra cost which started this year too so I reckon it’s due to that.

Their lunch offer is very similar to what I packed but no chocolate

Hmm. So they probably haven’t had the take up for lunches that they anticipated and are trying to push parents over to it.

I think I’d probably point out that it’s similar to their own lunch offering and say that, given the conflict of interest I didn’t think the policy was made in good faith and if they try and enforce it I’d take legal action. Though, obviously, in as friendly a way as possible if the site manager is pleading that it’s all come down from on-high.

Have they queried whether you use butter or a margarine with dairy in it?
& if they give chocolate as a prize ....
Do children get milk to drink? or do they serve custard?
Send a letter cc ofsted in as well stating this ruling against dairy seems strange & unhealthy -especially for anybody who is Afro Caribbean or Asian who needs extra vitamin D - unless there is a child with contact allergy in that individual establishment - Vitamin D is essential for health & to prevent rickets
Send in a soya yogurt & see what happens

@mumwon

Have they queried whether you use butter or a margarine with dairy in it? & if they give chocolate as a prize .... Do children get milk to drink? or do they serve custard? Send a letter cc ofsted in as well stating this ruling against dairy seems strange & unhealthy -especially for anybody who is Afro Caribbean or Asian who needs extra vitamin D - unless there is a child with contact allergy in that individual establishment - Vitamin D is essential for health & to prevent rickets Send in a soya yogurt & see what happens

No chocolate as prizes as such, they give stickers and then the stickers can be swapped for a prize at the "shop" and one of the prizes is a small chocolate bar, so not technically. The shop is only opening at the end of the club while parents are picking up.

No drinks are given except water, they give out small bottles throughout the day or you can provide a water bottle.

Their lunch offering isn't hot, it's a packed lunch so no custard or anything.

The previous poster predicted it, its about trying to encourage more take up of their own lunches.

I'd tell them to sod off. But as I've previously said I can buy the argument about yougart potentially turning in a lunch bag and chocolate melting esp if they are on a outing without much shade.

YANBU

Good you got an answer but not sure they explained it really

This makes me angry. My dd has eating issues and needs every calorie she can get, I send her with cheese sandwich, crisps, chocolate and a banana and if I got wind they had been telling her she should only be eating what you posted in the OP I would go ballistic. Not every kid needs to lose weight!!

Oh that's ridiculous. Ignore them and send what you want.

If they mention it again say that you will change the lunch when they can provide you with the nutritional reasoning behind their policy together with the qualifications of the person advising the change. No way they can justify the removal of fruit and dairy products. Id include the chocolate on the pretext that their own shop supplies it well.

By the time they have put something together the club will be over.

If this is a commercial rather than an allergy related directive, as it appears to be, I'd just be ignoring it to be honest.

The dynamic here is totally different from school – you are a paying customer OP, and your DD is 'allowed' whatever you, her mother, deems she is allowed. They're not the food police.