Schools aren't feeding children enough

[Squashpocket]

DS (5 years) has always come home from school ravenous. We have had to give him a 2 course breakfast and full meal sized 'snack' after school to get him through to dinner time. Then sometimes supper before bed as well.

I just thought 'oh well, he's busy at school', but now I'm wondering exactly how small are the portions of food at school?!?

I have sent him off to a (very active, sports based) holiday club this week with a normal packed lunch (popcorn and fruit for snack, sandwich, yoghurt, fruit, veg sticks, breadsticks and hummus and a cereal bar for lunch) and he has come home full and able to wait for his dinner. Breakfast this morning has just been a bowl of fruit and Greek yoghurt and he's fine.

So, AIBU or is school obviously not providing enough food? I'm shocked because this is not how I (fondly) remember my school dinners at all! It was all massive portions of mashed potato and puddings with custard (those were the days...). Does anyone else find this?

For pp providing comparison lunchboxes, I guess we could also compare activity levels for the full picture?

DS gets up at 6:30am, does a Joe Wicks HIIT workout for 20 mins, goes to school, after school he has either 1 hr of football, swimming or plays with his friends in the park. He then comes home and chases his brother round the house, swings from every available surface, turns the living room in to soft play etc. until dinner. After eating he'll go and do a workout or a run/bike with his dad. After that he and his brother normally dance/do ninja moves to YouTube videos until bedtime at 8pm.

He basically doesn't sit down - I put the tv on, but he doesn't sit and watch it. He's starting to show an interest in writing, drawing and crafts, so will stop to do that for a bit, but not for long.

I've seen people posting on other threads querying how you get kids to do an hour of activity a day. I want to know how you get them to stop?!

@Squashpocket

DS (5 years) has always come home from school ravenous. We have had to give him a 2 course breakfast and full meal sized 'snack' after school to get him through to dinner time. Then sometimes supper before bed as well.

I just thought 'oh well, he's busy at school', but now I'm wondering exactly how small are the portions of food at school?!?

I have sent him off to a (very active, sports based) holiday club this week with a normal packed lunch (popcorn and fruit for snack, sandwich, yoghurt, fruit, veg sticks, breadsticks and hummus and a cereal bar for lunch) and he has come home full and able to wait for his dinner. Breakfast this morning has just been a bowl of fruit and Greek yoghurt and he's fine.

So, AIBU or is school obviously not providing enough food? I'm shocked because this is not how I (fondly) remember my school dinners at all! It was all massive portions of mashed potato and puddings with custard (those were the days...). Does anyone else find this?

I have not read all the thread yet. I think maybe it depends on the child. My 6 year old won't eat breakfast. But there's fruit in the class room if he wants it . I don't know if he eats it or not . He never finishes his school dinner either. But apart from breakfast he eats reasonably well at home . He's not under weight. So I don't worry to much if he's eating enough I guess he musr be as he's not under weight so that's what I go by.

Definitely agree. I had to call the school kitchen just before the end of term to check what my son said was correct. He is on free school meals and was coming home hungry every day, so I started giving him a bit of money for break.

This is what the kitchen staff told me. He is allocated £2.30 a day and children are only allowed to use the canteen at break or lunch - not both. With his 2.30 he is given a 'filled' roll (2 slices of cheap, really thin ham with no butter) a biscuit and a bottle of water. There is not enough money for anything else, the roll is £1, the water 80p and they chuck the biscuit in to make it a meal deal. He is in secondary school, leaves home at 8.20 gets home at 4.15

I asked in what world is that enough food for teenagers for 8 hours? I was told they could give him a hot meal instead but that meal alone would use all his money, nothing left for a drink.

He has packed lunch now, or I give him money, which defeats the object of free school meals, and
The money he is allocated is now going where??

squashpocket most of mine were similar though, including one who was a swimming competitor at a high level and started in the pool at 5am several mornings a week plus after school, did other sport during lunch and never sat still. Another has extreme hyperactivity as a component of ADHD and while medicated still raced around at top speed all day, which we tried to channel into organised activities, long morning run, organised sports or martial arts after school, another run after that etc. Even those ones just had a vegemite sandwich for lunch. Part of it is actually prioritising activity/movement over food. Food gets in the way and caused them to have to stand/sit still for too long . They are still exactly the same as adults. They don’t go out and buy lunch or eat something in the lunchroom and chat with colleagues, they use the time to go for a run or do a gym session and then quickly stuff in a sandwich while getting changed/on way back to desk. Neither of them ‘snack’ either, definite breakfast, lunch and dinner people. I have another one who snacks endlessly but is never hungry for lunch/dinner and then another more in between, it’s not as though all kids in household have similar styles/patterns even though they all grew up the same way in the same household.

Your reception child does a high intensity interval training workout every morning at 6:30am? Why?

I asked in what world is that enough food for teenagers for 8 hours? I was told they could give him a hot meal instead but that meal alone would use all his money, nothing left for a drink.

I don’t understand the conundrum? Why wouldn’t he have the hot meal and take a water bottle to drink? What’s he drinking?

I just spoke to dd who's just left year 6 she said the meals are the same Size right through school but she said the meals are definitely big enough as she often leaves some.

Ds who's in secondary said its really rubbish. Same as what @Mumblebee20 said really pretty disgusting really. I often read on line local papers etc that the FSM is the only food some children get that day . If that's the case then the so called meals they are getting I'd disgusting.

Am I right in thinking you can get a 3.00 meal deal in tesco where you get a sandwich drink and a small snack. So of tesco can do that then surely the schools can do simlar..

He does the HIIT because he likes it. I imagine he'll be sporty when he's older - he is generally drawn to all kinds of physical activity. He also likes to emulate his dad who does a fair bit of sport. Not uncommon at 5 I would have thought. Joe Wicks is the current favourite, but we've had phases of other things.

It's two and a half hours between wake up time and school - what do your kids do? Once he's fed and dressed there's another 2 hours to fill 😂

The portions in the school I work in are small for the younger children, some will eat it and ask for (and get) seconds, but the kitchen do try to give extra to the yr 5 & yr 6s.

Eg you get a decent slice of pizza, but a teaspoon of veg and a few wedges.

We got round it by over ordering for the last term at registration as recently food has arrived dished up in boxes to be eaten in class. It'll be trickier when we go back to pre Covid dinner times.

One of the other MDSA's is always photographing the small portions to take to the office, who then complain to the company providing the meals.

Ours schools free meals are plenty. The kids just don't want to eat it - they whine for pizza and sausage rolls, go home to mummy crying they "didn't get fed anything", mummy comes storming into school/ranting on the phone about "starving her baby" where in reality time and time and time again little Jonny just doesn't want to eat the cheese roll, salad, fruit, yoghurt, hummus dip, veggie sticks, (but will eat the sole muffin), little Johnny wants chips and chicken nuggets.

Well, obvious he can, and he does. That's not really the point, though. He is just 1 child, and although he is getting free school meals for a reason, I'm still able to top it up/provide a bit more. What about the parents who aren't able to do that? Or the parents who aren't that bothered/assume their kids will get food and drink.

That is not enough food for 11-18 year olds for 8+ hours.

“It's two and a half hours between wake up time and school - what do your kids do? Once he's fed and dressed there's another 2 hours to fill 😂”

Crikey even I only get up an hour an a half before I need to be in school! Up at 6.30. Shower, make up, blow dry hair, get dressed. Try to wake up college aged DS, grab a cup of tea. Make my coffee and lunch for work and out the door at 7.30. I have breakfast while sorting stuff before my day “officially” begins at work. DH is then left to get DS out if the door by 8.15.

It's two and a half hours between wake up time and school - what do your kids do? Once he's fed and dressed there's another 2 hours to fill

What time do you get up? 😳. Stay in bed a bit longer! We have to leave at 7.50 so are up at 6.50. No way in the world I'd get up at 5.20 am and lounge around for 2.5 hours (although it doesn't take longer than half hour sadly to get up, fed and dressed

Well he's 5, so getting him to stay in bed past 6:30 is a challenge. His wake up time is unrelated to the time I would ideally like to start my day. I'm sure others are familiar with this scenario.

@YouJustDoYou

Ours schools free meals are plenty. The kids just don't want to eat it - they whine for pizza and sausage rolls, go home to mummy crying they "didn't get fed anything", mummy comes storming into school/ranting on the phone about "starving her baby" where in reality time and time and time again little Jonny just doesn't want to eat the cheese roll, salad, fruit, yoghurt, hummus dip, veggie sticks, (but will eat the sole muffin), little Johnny wants chips and chicken nuggets.

So true 😅. I asked school if my ds eats food she said he hardly touches it. I know he's offered food and they encourage him. End of the day they can't make him eat. Hence he might come out of school saying he is hungry. So I guess that means he will eat his home dinner.

My son is in primary school and they don't have clean plate awards, I'm amazed they are allowed! Way to contribute towards ever-increasing obesity! He is always starving after school but he is very very active. He has a big appetite too because of how active he is. He's not overweight so I know he isn't eating too much, it is what he needs to have the energy to be so active.

The lunch you describe is what I'd feed my 6yo but I'd remove the breadsticks and hummus and the cereal bar just because it would be 2 lots of bread things and cereal bars are very rarely bought here.

I think some schools are stingy with portions and some children have big appetites, sometimes it's both issues!

I can see that clean plate awards can be problematic for some children, but they could really help with others. My DDs for example, who very rarely finished their meals, either because they didn’t like the meals or because they wanted to get outside to play with their friends.

KS1 kids like stickers, so maybe a clean plate sticker could be given individually to a child for whom finishing meals is an issue? Rather than for kids like the OP’s DS, for whom it’s probably meaningless.

If it was a case of he isn't eating the food offered because it's too healthy/boring, that would be different. They dont have a salad option, or hummus dip with veg. Yogurt isn't even part of the menu, I've just checked their website. They can have a piece of fruit but would have to swap out his bottle of water or biscuit.

Like I said, I'm fortunate enough to be able to top it up or give packed lunch. Still doesn't help the others who can't. Still doesn't answer where his allocated money will be spent instead.

Send an apple. I just bought a bag of wonky apples for 60p in Aldi for my apple loving little 1

Lizzie It is indeed a sticker and I get the impression that it's now got to the point where he's asks the lunchtime supervisor for his sticker rather than her volunteering it. I'm sure she's no longer impressed by his ability to put away food.

Thankfully I don't think the clean plate award is psychologically damaging him at the moment. They seem to give out stickers for just about everything to be honest.

u could also send salad

Our school dinner portions are tiny.

I was like you @Squashpocket, and wanted to avoid the time and hassle of making packed lunches every morning, but I'm another Mum who was invited in to share lunch with my DD when she was in year 5. My DD had mentioned having small portions at school a couple of times, but seemed perfectly happy with a decent sized afternoon "snack" when we got home, but as she got into the junior school, these had become larger (going from some chopped fruit or a biscuit in the infants, to a couple of slices of toast, or an adult sized cereal bar by the time she was 10).

When I saw the size of the portions given to my 10 year old DD and her classmates, I was quite shocked! They really were tiny, like the size I would have served to a 3 year old! It was a roast dinner the day I was there and they were given 1 thin slice of chicken (almost as thin as a slice of ham), 2 roast potatoes (each the size of a ping pong ball), a tablespoon of peas, 1 floret of (very mushy) cauliflower, a small ball of stuffing and some gravy. Pudding was a small yoghurt. Some children did rush off to play, so didn't eat it all, but most completely cleared their plates within a minute or two.

I changed both of my DDs to packed lunches the next day! It sounds like you've decided to do the same, and given how much more settled you say your DS seems this week with a full tummy, it sounds like you've got the right idea!

I teach in a secondary school and discovered the catering staff were giving the girls tiny portions (as in, a tablespoon of pasta for a 16 year old) but the boys full portions. They pay the same...
I hit the roof.

To be fair, the calorie demands for men vs women are different. So you think a single tablespoon of pasta is plenty for a 16yos meal? There's always one

Thankfully I don't think the clean plate award is psychologically damaging him at the moment. I just think it contributes towards obesity. It's no different to the old fashioned attitude of parents forcing their children to eat every last scrap. It meas children don't recognise when they are full and can be and often is a substantial issue through to and during adulthood.

I understand it in from a financial point of view as we grew up poor and are still quite poor now. However to avoid waste I give my children a small portion if everything and they know they can and often do ask for more once they have finished that. It means all leftover food can be saved for another meal.