Is this menu healthy enough?

[Gershwining]

My daughter attends the local primary which is a designated "healthy school". We aren't allowed to take in cake or sweets for birthdays. She's in KS1 so gets free school meals at the moment. But I had a good look at the menu this week and I just wondered AIBU to think this is really unhealthy?

Yeah, that's not healthy.

This pissed me off so much when my kids were in school.

School dinner kids eating brownies and pizza but my packed lunch kid wasn't allowed a kit kat 🙄

It's not great. But I'm sure there are guidelines about sugar/salt/fat that they'll be held to and that's all that matters (to them).

I bet it tastes awful too.

That's pretty crap. It wouldn't take much tweaking to make it halfway decent either, so I assume they actually just CBA!

Yep that is totally bog-standard (i.e. unhealthy) school dinners, with an extra dose of weird (why does the ham roll come with a random pizza slice) - and it's dressed up in a weirdly pretentious way that looks like it rates itself. "Seasonal vegetables" my arse. Asparagus and sorrel, is it.

I’d agree that’s not healthy; my DDs school menu is healthier than that. It’s very carb heavy and fatty meats.

As someone who has worked in school kitchens i can tell you that even when the menu looks healthy it really isn't! Its all about keeping the cost down so cheap mince etc to make " homemade" burgers etc! School dinners are crap im afraid.

That’s fast food UPF.

Christ I think my school dinners in the 90's were healthier than that.

Not good if they're marketing themselves specifically as a healthy school.

I can remember dd's school praising itself to the skies in the local paper for not serving chips. They used to serve potato faces

On what planet are fried reconstituted bit s of potato any way better than a chip made from a whole potato?

No it isn't. My dcs school isn't great either.

Here’s a comparison to what my dc get. Yours sounds less healthy than what mine get

It's full of rubbish! All the desserts need to go, except fruit or plain yogurts and the rest is full of UPF. Yuck!

No - I wouldn't have fed that to my DC

Day one of this menu is all about the cheese? Fat galore (and dairy but that's my personal issue as a vegan)
Day two - pizza?

However I grew up in the 70s and school dinners were all made in school - and we had no options - it was the same for all. Homemade pie, with mash and lots of vegetables. Followed by a stodgy pudding and custard. No one went hungry.

Doesn't look great, but it depends a bit on the way it's made and size of portions. Eg a frozen pizza is much less healthy than one made from scratch, cakes can be made in healthier ways and smaller portions etc

Any way you can ask school for pictures of the food? Can you ask if it meets guidelines on salt, sugar, fresh fruit and veg etc?

DD's school is a state primary, but has a chef who grows veg and herbs, makes food from scratch, gets kids involved, does special menu items for religious festivals etc. I don't know how the budget works but it is possible.

It's not great. The sandwich with a size of pizza is just weird. Our school isn't great but it's not that bad. I never understand the puddings, I always think it should be fruit or yoghurt.

It’s bland food catered on a low budget and as safe options. As a former school governor I learned it’s always a balance between following healthy eating guidelines and actually wanting children to be fed; and ultimately, having a nice menu for outside observers to coo at was pointless when most of the food was being scraped into the bin. Overall it’s better that kids, particularly those who rely on school dinners, eat pizza or fish fingers than nothing at all.

If you know your DD isn’t fussy and will eat a broader diet then I’d just send her with a packed lunch.

I think it depends a lot on what is actually served. Pizza made on the premises from quality ingredients is a world away from a frozen UPF version, etc. But it doesn't sound very healthy and the fact they're making no effort with how they're describing it maybe suggests the food itself is low quality (I was struck by pp posting her child's menu and how many of the things on there are basically the same but sound as if more effort is being made).

The puddings don't sound great.

I believe you, and ofc there are children with legitimate food aversions.

But I have to say, of all the countries I’ve been to, Britain is the only one to so easily acquiesce to children not wanting to eat this and that. Or feed children some beige food at 5pm and cook real dinner for the adults only at 8pm.

It appears to be cultural and fully embedded by the adults…

Ham roll with pizza slice? Sounds more like one of those "movie night meal deals" in Asda, not healthy menu in school.

I think it depends. On the face of it I’d say it’s unhealthy but I could easily make healthy versions of the menu.

Pizza for example if homemade can be done healthy as can the burgers.

Yeah it's crappy

Ham Roll with pizza Slice 🤔

No it's not very healthy, nor very varied.

That's a bit rubbish.

Like a pp said upthread, It used to irritate me no end when my DS1's lunchbox had his packet of crisps confiscated once yet they were selling crisps in the dining room AND served mass produced jam roly poly with that fake cream for pudding to those having school dinners.

I agree but I think the desserts not being fruit and yoghurt might be an attempt to serve something hot perhaps for the kids who will have their school lunch as their only hot meal of the day. As someone who still loves banana and custard and rice pudding though, they could definitely make it a bit healthier than what they have on offer, at least in the sense that they have dairy/calcium/fruit in them as a minimum. I know custard and rice pudding are hardly health foods but I’d rather my kids have those than a more processed cupcake or something.

But I have to say, of all the countries I’ve been to, Britain is the only one to so easily acquiesce to children not wanting to eat this and that. Or feed children some beige food at 5pm and cook real dinner for the adults only at 8pm.

I've never understood it either. I was the fussiest child in the world and would have genuinely been devastated if forced to eat anything that wasn't beige. I've been vegetarian since I was 7.

I looked after some very young children in France and was surprised at how readily they ate everything. Raw veg, fish, strong cheese. I used to love going through their school menu and seeing what they were being fed there. One that stuck out was Jerusalem artichoke soup (because I had to translate it). There was also a salad des gesiers which translated to chicken gizzards (some sort of internal organ i didn't look too closely at the time!).