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?

Mine wouldn't have thanked me for hummus, breadsticks or veg sticks.
I'd do 4 quarters of sandwiches in granary bread (2 different fillings) plus salad in a pot with dressing + plastic fork, plus wedge of quiche or home made individual one. Home made fruit salad in pot and a pre frozen choc bar + paper napkin and face wipe.
Sometimes I'd swap sandwiches for slices of chicken and salad with a buttered bread roll or tuna salad or pasta/pesto with spinach and pine nuts.
Teachers would always comment on the variety.

At my children’s school the catering is in-house and the food is really nice and a okay portion for their lunch, I know they have around £1 per child a day budget. However I work in a school kitchen and a separate catering company runs the kitchen. We have a budget of just over 80p per child per day. Dinner and pudding. Also when you look at the invoices from suppliers it shocking to see much of the stuff would be cheaper in a supermarket. Area managers are constantly in our backs about costs and we rarely feel like we give enough food. It’s very hard as I work in a school in an area where for many children it may be their only hot meal of the day.

@Scatterbrainbox

I'm a primary teacher and the portions are tiny. E.g. a quarter of an apple if they choose fruit. My colleagues and I frequently notice this and are cross about it. If we know kids are on free school meals and won't get anyyhing else, we make sure they get a piece of toast at break... it's just not enough. As a reuslt I have given all my kids a packed lunch, even when they could have had the free meal in KS1. Mine take: sandwich, crisps, yoghurt, piece of fruit. This is much bigger than the school meals.

A quarter? Good Lord, even Oliver Twist got a full bowl of gruel. That's inhumane...

I’ve worked in schools for many years and the dinners that I’ve seen lately makes me choke !
Small portions, unappetising, tasteless food… I send my son to school with pack lunch and refuse to pay for what they serve now.
Not fault of the poor dinner ladies that do their best with what they have. The school put minimum effort on serving decent food for children now a days, yes the portions are very small and they rarely can repeat, is sad to see, trust me :(

I worked as a lunchtime supervisor at a primary school. Yes the lunches were smallish but the real issue was children barely eating their food and throwing most of it away. Believe me, only a small minority of the children cleared their plates! For that reason making the portions bigger just wouldn't work - they'd end up throwing more away. It was quite normal to see children eating half a sausage and maybe half a small potato before wanting to go outside. I don't know if it's because they dislike the food or because they're in a rush to play - but either way 90% of the children on school dinners ate very little. I noticed the children with packed lunches ate significantly more. I've heard parents say they might only give their child toast for dinner because he'd had a roast dinner at school. I always thought they wouldn't be doing that if they knew how little their child had eaten!

They don't seem to give them much. When my son had a school dinner, he had a sandwich, yogurt and a bun for pudding. That was it, he was starving when he got home had wanted a cooked meal, but he doesn't like cheese and they love to put cheese on all kids meals. So I packed him up and told him, he couldn't have sandwiches from school, as I paid £1:95. I packed him up for less. Drink was a problem and still is, I give him a water bottle, but he always come home, from school thirsty. Now because of covid, they restricted toilet access, so a lot of the time, he comes home, not having touched his drink, as he cannot use the toilet, without asking permission.

This happened in my kids school. I actually rang the school (first time I've ever complained about anything), the secretary who is also my friend said I wasn't the only one who had complained either. However, nothing changed so I had to put mine on packed lunch.

@Squashpocket why don't you just provide a packed lunch daily if your child isn't satisfied with what school provides? Seems the obvious solution if your dc is managing better on what you're providing for holiday club surely?

I'm quite surprised at all the comments saying to just give your child a packed lunch if you're not happy. It completely dismisses the fact that schools aren't providing enough food to (often) disadvantaged children.

You can make 5 rolls for the price secondary schools charge kids for 1, and a bag of apples for the price of their 1 apple.

If a child complained to a teacher that they were hungry all summer holidays because they were only given 1/3 baguette, a yogurt and water for 8 hours every day, I guarantee they'd be reported to social services.

@Squashpocket

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?!

You don't have to justify your child's packed lunch size or their weight and activity levels. Children have varying appetites and they do eat more when they are having a growth spurt. My son would eat so much and then other times he would pick at food and my youngest loves a variety of foods and always has supper yet they are both tall and slim.

My little one has had a packed lunch since year 3 as she didn't always like the hot dinners and was always hungry when she got home. Now I can see what she has eaten and I pack her a similar size to what you provided your son.
Yes portions are rubbish (I have worked in primary schools and they are not valid for money) and schools cajole but can't force children to eat. So if you are concerned it might be better to send a packed lunch, but for the love of God ignore the people trying to shame you on here. There is no such thing as the perfect parent and yet on this forum so many people think they are it.

*value for money.

Actually, it's not the school that isn't providing an adequate amount of food, it's the governing not clamping down on the catering providers ripping schools and kids off... wonder why that would be 🤔

That's a huge packed.lunch. you'd never get that in a school dinner.
I haven't read the thread but give him sandwiches if you're not happy

@Mumblebee20

I'm quite surprised at all the comments saying to just give your child a packed lunch if you're not happy. It completely dismisses the fact that schools aren't providing enough food to (often) disadvantaged children.

You can make 5 rolls for the price secondary schools charge kids for 1, and a bag of apples for the price of their 1 apple.

If a child complained to a teacher that they were hungry all summer holidays because they were only given 1/3 baguette, a yogurt and water for 8 hours every day, I guarantee they'd be reported to social services.

Agree 100% but most schools catering is outsourced and contracted. Unless we have another Jamie Oliver or Marcus Rashford, no one will listen.

Sorry @Mollymoostoo I did just change that bit. I realise it isn't necessarily the school's fault. I do think they could do more in the way of keeping food costs down and that saving being passed on to the kids, though.

Jeez! that's like a family picnic to my DS (8) OP!!
Whenever I've asked my DS what he's had for lunch at school, he'll say 2 fish fingers, peas, wedges, stuff from salad bar and muffin or 1 sausage, potatoes, sweetcorn, stuff from salad bar and crackers (examples) and I used to think, why only 1 sausage? but to be honest, it's a LUNCH not a dinner - it doesn't need to be a massive meal - kids tend to eat little and often.
I was ALWAYS ravenous after school, so were my brothers - that's completely normal having run around on the playground 3 times a day.

I think you're fretting about nothing to be honest.

DS has always found school dinners skimpy long before becoming one of the oldest in the school. Fortunately he loves his veg and wrangles extra portions of that, but he still comes home ravenous (and often brewing fir a meltdown) and needs a light tea before evening activities and an evening dinner.

While he would benefit from a larger lunch, a school dinner offers more nutritional variety than is easy to organise regularly in a packed lunch especially when a number of healthy options are curtailed by the nut policy.

Back in his nursery days he nearly always had seconds and often thirds, and because multiple allergies meant that many meals has to be individually prepared, they were usually bigger than the standard portion anyway. He's just always been a high-metanolism, ravenous twig.

LoisLane66

Mine wouldn't have thanked me for hummus, breadsticks or veg sticks
I'd do 4 quarters of sandwiches in granary bread (2 different fillings) plus salad in a pot with dressing + plastic fork, plus wedge of quiche or home made individual one Home made fruit salad in pot and a pre frozen choc bar + paper napkin and face wipe
Sometimes I'd swap sandwiches for slices of chicken and salad with a buttered bread roll or tuna salad or pasta/pesto with spinach and pine nuts
Teachers would always comment on the variety

Well, well done you!

The portions are quite small but most children don’t eat it all. It’s worth pointing out that it’s not schools feeding children but the DFE / local councils and their focus is feeding children for as a little money as possible. They make company’s compete for contracts by offering meals at the lowest prices. The priority is money and cost cutting not quality / portion sizes. Still saying that the pizza, mac & cheese and tuna sandwiches are pretty good! They also love sausage and mash and fish finger days!

My daughter has school dinners when she likes the look of the menu. She has told me on a few occasions that the portions are so small. She is 7 but is tiny for her age… so I do believe her when she tells me because we always try to make her eat her dinners. Also at nearly £3 a day I think it is a rip off. I never usually reply on mumsnet but I was gobsmacked to read that people were suggesting you give your child too much sugar for his packed lunch.. honestly, I would never ask for anyone’s opinions on here… us mums have enough to do without being slated for sugar content of a cereal bar given for a kids lunch #getalife

Ps my kids packed lunch is usually.. white bread ( wouldn’t eat granary) with ham or cheese or jam. Packet of crisps, Kit Kat or similar, apple or an easy peeler or grapes. Shoot me now.

That's a huge lunch for a 5 year old! My dd has a sandwich and fruit, plus water, she's 20!

School portions are the correct amount for their age. He doesn't need a 2 course breakfast

Dds junior school always fed the same portions across the age groups. Dd was adult size by yr 6 and still eating portion sizes for a small 7 yr old. She switched to salad as it was unlimited.
She's pack up now at senior school as there isn't enough time to queue and eat. And she wants a meal not a quick pizza slice.

My kids are very tall. DS2 needed an extra half a sandwich to persevere with school lunches whilst they were free, full packed lunch from year 3. He liked the food alright, just tiny portions. He’s moved to a private school now and is fine with the school lunch, they can ask for seconds. DS3 has a smaller appetite and is still fine with the state primary lunches (finished year 3). As previous posters have said, portions unfortunately take no account of different sized kids and different appetites.

Lolz at the way food threads on Mumsnet bring out the absolute knives for the OP.

OP, I work in children's eating disorders. Children need wildly different amounts to maintain weight. We are all different. And yanbu school meals amounts are often not enough especially for the older ones. Trust your food judgement and do the best for your son. Don't let the thread undermine your knowledge and instincts and remember his needs will increase as he gets older.