To think that not all school dinners are nutritionally balanced?

[Schooldinner1]

I often see posts with people saying how schools are held to strict guidelines etc but I’m not sure that’s the case if the school is an academy!

some examples (primary school):
-pizza, chips and beans
-half a jacket potato with no butter, a pot of tuna/beans and cauliflower

They have to be chosen in advance so you know what your child is going to get. The options are limited e.g. on pizza day, it’s cheese pizza or chicken pizza with chips and beans. No other option.

I am not criticizing the school as if it’s part of a child’s wider and balanced diet it’s hardly a big deal, I’m merely musing over the fact people often say that schools must follow such strict guidelines but this has not been my experience!

If your child is in an academy and lunches are not cooked by the local authority caterers, what are their lunches like? (Friends with children in schools with local authority caterers seem to get a lot more choice and balance!)

I can't see what's wrong with either of the above options?

Ours are balanced over a week. With a third of the needed calories and nutrients per day. Even the pizza is healthy - wholemeal dough made on site, and the dessert even if they are cakes etc are low sugar recipes. This is the local authority caterers though. Honestly given the budget they are working to per meal its a miracle what they get out!

Is there fruit and salad available? Are there hidden vegetables in the pizza sauce? Is it a wholemeal pizza base? Is the dessert something like a sugar free muffin made with beetroot, as another one of the 5 a day?

Whilst it looks fairly basic, there may be other elements that combine to make it fulfill the criteria.

Just wait until high school. DD's school has 10 chicken nuggets, wings, pizza, sausage rolls...on rotation. You have to pay extra for wedges and there's not a vegetable in sight. Bacon rolls and waffles daily. It blows my mind

Friends (staff) and friends with children in private school eat very well. And together. Setting them up for meals in restaurants.
State school dinners are poor. And a conveyor belt. Setting them up for fast food outlets.

Technically those are balanced meals - carbs, protein, veg.

I work in a LA funded primary school and they defintely follow nutritional guidelines. The food available represents a balanced diet - other than protein and carbs, there is always veg, fruit for dessert and a salad bar. But the vast majority of children either choose not to take the latter items or have a couple of pieces of cucumber. Many throw away a proportion of what they do take, especially the older kids who are more interested in getting outside to play.

So whatever is on offer, the child can't be guaranteed to actually eat it. If you're worried, you could give your child a packed lunch but again, that's no guarantee they actually eat everything in it. (There are bins in the food hall that any child can use...)

I think they just have to be balanced in terms of fat, carbs and protein. They are not really thinking about vitamins or micronutrients.

Does anyone remember Martha’s blog? Where kids around the world posted photos of their school dinners? It was pretty clear from the photos that the British and Americans had the worst school food.
we just don’t have a culture of valuing kids food here.

Many throw away a proportion of what they do take, especially the older kids who are more interested in getting outside to play

Thats because we give kids very little time for dinner at school, and school is very sedentary that doesn’t suit children’s need to move. The system causes the problems.

You're right. I went to state school and have never eaten anywhere without disposable dishes. I sometimes take dd to look in restaurant windows and gawp at how our betters use things other than their hands to eat.

I work in an independent school and the meals are definitely not balanced every day. Lots of chips, sausages, burgers etc. Always cake and custard for pudding. I wouldn’t want to have to eat the school dinners available to the kids every day. I agree local authority schools are often better in terms of the meals, I used to regularlY order a school dinner at my last LA school but never would at my current one.

I know you think you're being amusing, but you're being dismissive of the basics of culture capital. From the age of five the differences are evident.

I'm not actually trying to be amusing. I found your remark about state schools setting children up for fast food pretty offensive tbh

It is the lack of culture capital in the very basics of eating which tend to be standard in private schools which leave the vast majority of children who do not get these experiences always catching up. Not even the food, but the process of eating lunch. The speed at which they are expected to eat. The lack of seating. The lack of time to have a conversation as schools are far too small for the amount of students, that so many dont even have dedicated eating areas. They double as classrooms / assembly halls / drama rooms.

i home educate so have no personal experience but for our local school(village in south Wales valleys)its the quantity

next door kids are 5 and 8,yougest only started reception in September, he never did nursery
oldest came home Thursday saying he's starving, youngest also said he had very little on his plate

dinner works out as reception first and up a year every 10 minutes so youngest kids get there first, poor y6s

NDN enquired more in the what's app group(obliviously im not part of but was shown) and after asking, many found out they kids were as well
many kids have admitted this has happens a few times and was told by head and head dinner lady not to tell parents about it

tuned up to head on Friday as a group and it turned out they actually run out of food very regularly as budget was cut so much.
many parents actually pay for dinner

now i though free school meals were provided as a physical portion per child
but apparently its given in money not food

this is a small village primary.
ive been told 15-20 a class

head has been covering it up since start of term and said its going to get worse as the year goes on

loads have ganged together and written to the governors about the heads behaviour

NDN is a good friend so ive been told and seen the whatts app messages

2 parents were that outraged,1 chose to home educate and the other to the next village school

my son is 13(mentally years behind though) and would be in a special school
but every day posts on here and what ive heard the last few years how schools have declined so much validate my reasons for not sending him at all

this is mainstream schools, i dread to think what special schools are like

The food in our school is incredible, absolutely delicious and wholesome. Portions are generous and the food is locally sourced.
But, our headteacher adds funds to the food budget so much more is spent per child.

I think that the problem is parents who expect beige food to be served as school meals. A few years ago our council posted its primary school menu online and a parent replied asking what child would eat salmon; mine have eaten salmon since they were tiny (one won't eat white fish thanks to awful school lunches).
I was in the company of a 14 month old and her mum today. The wee one expects to eat the same as the rest of the family and won't eat nuggets/fish fingers unless everyone else is eating the same.

It's all just a load of highly processed, defrosted, reheated crap.

😄

It's just a lot of cheap processed junk generally isn't it - anyone ever seen a chicken thigh or a pork chop on the menu? Thought not. At ds's school they've really gone down hill since covid and they weren't very good before. I only let him have it once a week.

My children go to an academy and I'd say they're fine on balance. Examples: sweet potato curry, roast dinner, chill - always fish & chips on a Fri! There's a salad bar, all meals cooked on site.

To the poster who keeps throwing around 'culture capital', it's cultural capital and children eat 5 out of their 21 meals at school. Parents are responsible for teaching children how to sit at a table, use a knife & fork and so on. We can't keep expecting schools to step in and fill the void.

I have worked in many schools and can assure you it is not the case that they routinely run out of food so you don't need to worry on behalf of the rest of us.

It is the lack of culture capital in the very basics of eating which tend to be standard in private schools which leave the vast majority of children who do not get these experiences always catching up. Not even the food, but the process of eating lunch.

Oh don't be a twit!

The food might be foul but state school kids (i.e. the majority of children in the UK) use knives and forks. They don't put their snouts in a trough.

many kids have admitted this has happens a few times and was told by head and head dinner lady not to tell parents about it

One of the first rules of safeguarding - do not tell children to keep quiet about something. No secrets.

There was a taster event scheduled at our school as parents had complained about what appeared to be an unhealthy menu.
From the caterer/council perspective, they were offering a healthy menu in so far as there were healthy options. In their eyes it didn't matter if a child only picked pizza and chocolate cake. They had the option to pick salad and fruit too but it was their choice to take it. I disagree with this approach so ended up sending DC with packed lunches and have no regrets.

Ours is mostly fine - the issue is DS’s limited food choices, not the range of options. He generally has jacket potato with beans and cheese, but he really loves it and would choose it over practically any other option. There are about 4-5 options each day, generally healthy things like jambalaya, pasta, curries, chilli and rice etc. There is a salad bar and fruit available, but it is option. Also bread rolls and butter with each meal.

The one thing I’m not happy about is that on Fridays they have fish and chips, and because DS is vegetarian they let him have just a plate of chips. He’s more than happy with that, but I’m really not (there is a vegetarian option, he would rather have double chips). Having said that, they only serve chips once a week, so not really a hill worth dying on.