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?

Isn’t this one of the issues with childhood obesity in this country (and also adult obesity) that we have lost sight of what a healthy portion of food looks like

a 5 yo shouldn't normally be eating more than an adult, however busy they are. He certainly won't be that active during school hours.

Ultimately, if he is indeed not overweight (I say that because I've certainly had friends saying their kids weight was normal when it definitely wasn't), and he just burns food very quickly, then he is likely outside of the norm. Maybe you can discuss with school about him getting a bigger portion of his meal at lunch.

But no, I don't think portions are small, the size will be specific to what NHS Public Health are considering a normal average size but the kids' age.

That is a very big packed lunch for a 5yo. I think that maybe your DS has a big appetite for his age.

My 5yo is always hungry when she gets home from school but I think that's to be expected. She can only really eat enough in one sitting to keep her full for a couple of hours. A 5yo's stomach is small so they should eat small portions but often.

Given that more primary school children are overweight / obese than are a normal weight, I would suggest that the school portions are actually more in line with what is deemed to be a suitable portion for a child of that age and that most children are normally overfed at home.
What you described is actually quite a large packed lunch for a child of that age. A roll with some protein (ham, egg etc), a piece of fruit and a small yogurt or cereal bar is plenty for a 5 year old child. Snacks, if given (only really needed if your child is very active - like at sports camp) don't need to be much.

Obviously the packed lunch is made up of kid-sized items, so it's a sandwich with the crusts cut off or a mini wrap, kids yoghurt, tsp of hummus and 1/2 carrot, one or two breadsticks, kids cereal bar (I think they have 60 calories, so they are tiny) rather than full-sized adult versions. It's more than I would have a lunch (but then I'd probably make up for it with all the wine and chocolate after they're in bed ) So, I suppose it sounds massive but really it's just a variety of small things iykwim. It fits in a normal kids sized lunch box. I've also packed an extra snack because he's literally running around all day at this sports club.

It's honestly not that massive, which is why I'm a bit surprised at just how ravenous he is after school. I can only assume he gets very little during a school day.

That's a massive packed lunch for a camp???

OK read update. Very small cereal bar etc.

I’d be tempted to weigh and accurately calorie count what he is having. It’s a lot unless it is half his intake for the day.

The circa seven hundred calories is based on quite small portions (two or three breadsticks and about ten grapes).

@suspiria777

The portion sizes are tailored to children's stomachs, which are about the size of the child's fist. Of course they would seem small to adults. Especially because adults' perception of portion size has been warped by the culture of dietary excess that is ubiquitous.

If your child is returning from school hungry then it is probably a combination of a) not eating all of their school dinner, perhaps because they don't like it/they let it get cold/they are too busy chatting/playing and b) it has been several hours since they last ate and going for several more hours until dinner is too long!

If lunchtime finishes at 1pm and they have to wait till 6 or 7pm for dinner, it is perfectly NORMAL for them to be hungry in the interim. In fact, your child NOT being peckish 5+ hours after the packed lunch you send suggests that your portions are too much.

This. I always had a healthy snack waiting for me after school and so does my DS now (who has a packed lunch). I’m not ready for dinner at 4.

@Ponoka7 where are you getting “a lot of sugar” from?
OP doesn’t state what kind of yogurt in the packed lunch (could be plain or Greek like breakfast example), or whether the popcorn is sweet or savoury. Just the cereal bar then.
Possibly slightly lacking in slow release carbohydrates but again OP doesn’t say what kind of bread or vegetables so that would be a big assumption.
Whole fruit and whole grain carbohydrates do not equate to “a lot of sugar”. Both contain fibre which slows the release of sugars to the blood stream. Likewise a cereal bar, while likely to contain added refined sugar, usually also contains oats and nuts (Fibre).

I think it depends on whether the school has their own kitchen or caterers.
When I was a school governor, I was concerned about the complaints we’d had about the meals.
I ‘volunteered’ to help them serve and was regularly told off for dishing up too much rice (no more than half a ice cream scoop) or too many chips (no more than twelve).
I know budgets are involved but I feel that this can often be the only hot meal children get and this is forgotten.

Schools hands are tied by the council, who put out a tender.

The big school dinners of my school days are long gone as are decent council budgets for children’s welfare.
All you can do is complain and if possible packed lunch (although it seems the lunch box police don’t apply to the measly lacking veg portions of a hot dinner).

Children use excess calories to grow tall as well as to lay down fat - then we think they need more because they’re tall.

No they don't. Good nutrition can enable a child to reach their full potential height, poor nutrition can stunt a child's growth but you can't grow taller than your genetic potential by overeating.

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.

I've heard they're small but tbh my DS has quite a healthy appetite and he doesn't seem excessively hungry after school.

It’s difficult to know because all appetites and likes and dislikes are different. Plus it takes younger children longer to eat a hot meal with cutlery then it would to eat packed lunch food that is mostly stuff that is eaten by hand.

School lunches don’t take into account activity levels. Someone like your DS is going to need more fuel for all his physical activities then the child who doesn’t do extra sports and isn’t running around the playground all break.

At 5 most kids don’t want to be sat at the table any longer then they have to. Some kids are slow eaters and will stop eating if all their quicker friends have finished so they can go out and join them in the playground.

@QuarantineQueen

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. At 16, most of your female pupils would be fully grown, maybe but the boys but a growing male has an even higher calorie demand than a fully grown man would anyway. Although they would get the same portion size in a restaurant, maybe the school has to meet portion guidelines whilst they're still in education (?just a guess). And regarding the pricing, I pay the same for my size 10 t shirt as someone buying the same product in a size 24, even though theirs uses probably twice the fabric. That's just the way it is.

That packed lunch sounds huge for a 5 year old, OP. Maybe he has a bigger appetite than most kids his age?

If you're concerned then can't you contact the school to ask how much food they are giving for lunch? I'm sure it varies from one school to another.

If it's not enough for him then can't you just send him with a packed lunch?

YANBU, this is why we switched to packed lunches. Would pick kids up at 3 and have to feed them a big meal. Packed lunch, they are fine, just have a wee snack at 3. I know schools try to avoid wastage, so can understand that, but there are foods that keep that could be used to bulk up a meal if need be.

Used to work in school kitchen-hardly any child cleared their plate-so much was thrown away-most children wanted to be out playing than sat eating their dinner.The amount given was fine for the younger ones-everyone has lost sight of what is the right amount for a child.I was always told a good reference is their stomach size is the same size as their fist.

@careerchangeperhaps So catering staff are qualified to take a look at a student and decide how much food they need? Come off it. A portion is a portion, standardised, and if some need more then they should buy a snack to supplement it.

Imagine if you went to a restaurant and they gave you one sized portion and your friend another based on how much they thought you'd eat!

He eats way more than me (because I sit on my bum all day).

I hope that's an exaggeration because you must know that's very, very weird?

Going back a few years now but my DS had to give up school dinners in yrs 5&6 because they were too small. He’s very active but quite small / slight in build. It was fine up to yr 4. He liked school dinners and generally ate them all up. So I agree that it’s daft to give the same portion sizes to 4 yr olds and 10 year olds.

all kids are hungry on release from school
it is natural, hungry and tired

but they need a lot of fuel for all that activity

OP you said for holiday club your dc had fruit and yoghurt for breakfast. When mine were young that (whilst healthy and commendable) would absolutely not have been enough for breakfast. Kids need a different balance than adults - they need carbohydrates and protein to convert into energy and growth. School dinners are hugely managed re healthiness, portion size, calorific value etc. to support their needs, as pp has said.

Two-course breakfast is not unheard of in my house before a long day at school, assuming they eat everything at lunchtime too.

(I work on a secondary school, and I can't tell you the number of times I've seen kids empty lunch boxes straight into the bin. I bet their parents think they're like gannets when they get home from school)

For some children this will be their only meal. That it's tiny saddens me. Especially as basic foods i'e pasta when bulk bought are so cheap.