To think there must be a cheaper way of teaching Home Ec

[Ceramicpumpkin281]

On today's list:

A clove of garlic
Pinch of paprika
Table spoon of olive oil
1 chicken breast

This is an area where lots of families are struggling, Couldn't the school have store cupboard basics for the class to share that we all pay an annual amount towards. I know people will say these are the types of things families will already have at home but a lot won't!

The food also comes back inedible after kicking around all day so it's not proving a meal for the family either.

When you eat at cafe with those salt and pepper in little sachets of paper. Pick up a couple for when you have to send salt and pepper to school. They are useful for picnics too.

Yeh I think I will email the department and suggest the ideas on here

Good idea- perhaps you could also offer to do the admin to collect the money and chase those who refuse to pay - and then you could also chip in for the short fall as some kids will be left out.

Surely just about every parent would rather pay towards collective garlic, spices etc rather than have to buy whole packs of things they don't I use?

Obviously it will be an issue for those who can't pay, but if they don't have the money to pay towards school supplies, they're not going to have the money to buy full packs in the supermarket anyway.

Completely ludicrous for it to work like this and for it not to be changed. The school could just get a supermarket delivery of what's needed.

Memories of all of the girls wandering about with one of these. I moved to a school where they provided most of the ingredients and when I came to school carrying my basket the other kids looked at me like. 😧

Wicker basket.

I had one of those too. I wish I still had it. I did Home Economics at A Level (1973) so my parents had to provide a lot and it was only later I realised that they were quite hard up and struggled to provide ingredients sometimes. None of it was wasted though we could use the Home Ec room fridge and take it home.

And who pays for it if parents don't cover the costs? Will parents also cover the delivery costs? You're also not considering the fact that not all schools will have storage space to store a large stock of ingredients as not all classes will be making the same thing each lesson

I had one of those. I did O level and A level home economincs, and by 6th form we were doing practical assignments where we had to make up to 7 dishes. Balancing everything home on the bus was difficult. Fortunately my friend's mum used to pick us up after school when we had 7 dish assignments.

I've still got mine.
One of the cats tries to sleep in it given half a chance

Everything I ever made in Home Ec was either thrown in the bin (sandwich cake with melted butter cream because we ran out of time) or flushed down the loo (chilli con carne).

My mum often missed out things like spices because she didn't like spicy food. Nothing was ever left in the fridge after lessons (morning) just cling-filmed and left on a counter. By the time it got home about 5 hrs later was inedible or down right dangerous.

My 1970’s basket is now my knitting basket. It used to have a plastic cover if I remember correctly.
Im so old it used to be called cookery, then in the mid 70’s Domestic Science. By the time my children went to secondary in the 90’s it had moved from Home Ec to Food technology. I remember my dad laughing at the new name like resistant materials!

How much fridge space do you think the average food tech room has? If there are a minimum of 20 pupils per class and 5 period a day how do you expect to store all of those in a fridge?

Our school asks £20 for year per pupil they then bulk buy ingredients so its cheaper

Only 1 dc food ever made it home. Older dc ate everything as he said it was too nice

MarmiteCoriander - we had to take in every ingredient in the 90s. And my parents didnt have scales so I had to take in extra and then take home the finished product plus all the remaining ingredients. It was heavy work carrying it all backwards and forwards but I survived!
IreneJones - Why not? For all my primary and secondary school HE lessons we had to take in all ingredients. Just like we had to provide our own pens, pencils and calculators for other lessons. Totally standard.

I had a wicker basket in late 80s. We seemed to make mostly sweet stuff so ok not refrigerated. I remember the shortbread my classmate pricked Bros into (teacher said any pattern!) My dc only cooked a few times and they were expected to just put in bag. They used to share at lunch as cooking was lesson before lunch. Seems bizarre when a big part of home ec is food safety.
We do a lot of cooking and old style home ec activities in Guides (girls 10-13) eg we cook, we bake, give them a budget to plan a meal, food tasting brand v own brand and pricing (they all preferred the own brand biscuits and 3 packs for price of 1 amazed them). We usually provide ingredients if everyone doing same or if it’s a group activity they divvy up what to bring - we did a bake off style thing between groups recently.

I used to take ingredients in for Home Ec. back in the 90's.

At my DDs' school, I paid £20 a year for ingredients in years 7 & 8, when they only did Food Tech. for a term each. DD2 is doing Food Tech. for GCSE and we've been asked to pay £25 to cover the cost for the full year, which I think is a bargain - especially when you consider the alternative of having to buy whole pots of spice etc. just for a pinch, like the OP has had to!

Not really. I did Food and Nutrition O Level in 1971 and Home Economics (which was more than just cookery) in 1973.

Not really. I did Food and Nutrition O Level in 1971 and Home Economics (which was more than just cookery) in 1973.

They were still called the same in 1975 and 1977.

Crazy that the kids need to bring in all the food for class. I'm my school it was all provided, I guess covered by the school fees

À bit off topic, but I remember doing GCE DomSci or Home Ec in early 80's and it was honestly the most useful subject.
A part from actually cooking we learnt :
How to wire a plug
How to use leftovers
Kitchen design
Nutrition
Menu planning

I also did it for A level and an remember learning a lot about social reform.

We used to have to do this years ago when I was at school
Mine didn't as school covered it when they were all doing and we just had to pay a small amount
But those that went on to do as a gcse did have to bring the ingredients in as i guess cooking more conplex and expensive food

This was the text book we used!

My daughters school used to do it that way but changed, they now charge £20 and that covers all ingredients and a container for the year.

Apparently were getting a lot of children forgetting ingredients/container and also said this would be more economical for parents. It works well on the whole although they run out of things and it seems to be an issue if you need to adjust the recipe for any reason.

It is something i remembered when having kids as I always used to tell my mum on the morning what I needed and we never had things in
So I always had to go to shop by school and go in with6 eggs a bag of flour etc , i was always giving to those who forgot ingredients
My mum also sent me in with a small amount if wine in a bottle once for spag bol as she said it had to have it in , how I got away with that I will never know

The school providing the ingredients does seem more cost-effective, but there are two problems - getting the money in (and it does have to be voluntary) and that someone has to do the purchasing. Perhaps PTAs could offer a volunteer to help out with the purchasing, and perhaps a float to cover non-payment.

This is so interesting. Different country, the ingredients were provided with a flat fee, but more importantly, we ate the food during class. Sampling our creations was considered an important part of the process. The portions made were always very small so I don’t recall food waste or gluttony.