Please help with the school food bank!

[Superplanner]

Mumsnet hive mind,
Please can I ask for your help with a school food bank? I’m working in a secondary school in the minute and there are a number of children in need of top up food. There is a breakfast club and they get free school meals, but we’re trying to build up a dry store of filling snacks and dinner substitutes.
School have suggested pot noodles / super noodles which are great because they’re “just add water” and we’ll get protein bars.
What else would your hungry teens appreciate after school? Only stipulation is that it’s non perishable.
Thank you in advance, wise women of mumsnet!

I wonder if you could set up some kind of agreement with a local food bank, where you drop off the items once every month, but they’re earmarked for your school (and you give the students an authorization slip) ?

That might also help the larger quantities buying, saving money for those who don’t have heating facilities especially, as they will be the ones both costing and needing more.

So…. giving careful thought to what is
provided is wholly in the best interests of the teen. rather than always going for the short term quick solution

But what is the long term solution? And what's for dinner whilst they are waiting?

I've had a six year old in my class who gets no breakfast or dinner. We give him double lunches and we give him toast when he arrives. Obviously social services are involved. We would all love it if he was taken into care and looked after by a lady with a Volvo. But that hasn't happened.

But I'm not going to deny him toast as it's a short term solution. He needs a short term solution. He's hungry now.

Perhaps this cupboard is in an area that can only be accessed by the children who need to use it? Perhaps these children in need don’t shout about the cupboard to everyone else? Perhaps there are staff in an adjacent area who can loosely monitor its access, etc etc etc.

OP, didn’t ask for security detail on the cupboard. Stand down from cupboard reconnaissance.

I think people need to be realistic about what a teen would be prepared to accept and carry.

The op said its a couple of bits in their rucsac that wouldnt stand out from the things others teens carry around.

My school has a 'snack bar' its actually open to all kids regardless of income and parents donate heavily to it (but stuff is put by to ensure those that need it definitely get it) its a younger age group though. Lots of breadsticks in it
Perhaps food bank is making people think 3 days shopping for a family.

come again? what’s for dinner whilst they’re waiting?

i am saying there is nothing wrong with striving for better than pot noodle? there’s alternatives to pot noodle that don’t require “waiting”

Of course the nutrition element is important! A pot noodle will fill you up for maybe half an hour, a porridge pot will be more like 2 hours. It’s not being said for no reason

exactly

I know a man who doesn't have ( or use?) a hob or microwave and only has a kettle. We give him cereal ( shreddies etc which are filling) and long life milk ( small cartons) Fruit tubs and cartons or tubs of custard, oatcakes and peanut butter, and cup a soup and cheesy pasta.

Spot on CompanyisComing.

When you are poor , cold and hungry pot noodles/cup a soup/instant pasta meals are an absolute godsend.

I know the posters suggesting “healthy” options mean well but calorie dense hot food is much better for these situations.

Middle class food ideas and tastes do not fit well for people living in poverty.

If suggesting tins make sure there’s a tin opener too as not all tins have ring pulls.

some of the "fancier" pot noodles have a bit more protein in them and they are not that dearer than pot noodles, so you could maybe get those if you wanted a bit more nutrition.

We have a cupboard at work. Cup a soup. Individual pots of porridge. Tins of fish.

Some suggestions
Hot chocolate sachets
Pitta pockets
Bagels
Fruit (satsumas, grapes and apples mostly get eaten in our house, along with pineapple chunks and watermelon slices)
Cut carrot batons
Pepperoni
Dairy Lee dunkers (not sure if have to be kept in fridge)
Cheese slices ??

You can usually also eat things like chickpeas and cannellini beans from the tin if pre cooked. But most teens I know wouldn't know what to do with them without some tips (eg have with tuna )

My DDs like toasting waffles as a quick after school snack... quite a few brands come in little packs of two within the bigger pack. Can be eaten hot or cold. Maybe not the most nutritious but a relatively filling snack.

Flavoured rice pouches that can be microwaved.

Porridge pots, Mugshots, Noodle Pots - if they definitely have access to boiling water.

Soreen Bars, nuts, dried fruits, Tuc cheese biscuits, Oatie Flapjacks/biscuits, cereal bars, Weetabix drinks, bananas/oranges/pears, peanut butter and breadsticks/peanut butter sandwich, long life flavoured milks, tuna in cans, oatcakes, brioche buns, mini rice pudding/custard/jelly pots- potentials if no access to hot water/heating.

I'm so glad you're helping these teens but so sad you have to.

Por noodles? A tim of Heinz soup would be better than that, though still not ideal. Baked beans? Canned fish? Dried fruit (not the best but some better than others)? Nuts snd seed mix? Oatmeal?

And individual cereal packets. My teens will eat Coco pops without milk as well.

I was wondering that - surely, after a free breakfast and a hot cooked meal at lunchtime, most parents can afford to give their children some tea? Even if just sandwiches, beans on toast type of thing.

I know benefits are poor - but they should provide enough for a basic meal to be provided at home.😗

This is a great comment.
Breakfast club and meals provided at lunchtime is definitely a better time to try and improve more complex nutritional needs because you can offer fresh food and you don’t need to worry about distribution or preparation facilities at home.

For dinner/supplementary snacks I’d offer students a choice of items that you have available so they can choose the things that are most appropriate for them (they’ll know what cooking facilities they have at home and also what their dietary requirements are/what they like).
For suggestions:

• Cartons of flavoured milk or fruit juice
• Sachets of flavoured couscous (like this https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/264130326) which can be prepared using just hot water from a kettle.
• Pasta pots/pot noodles etc that can be made with boiling water
• Shelf stable pots of rice pudding/custard/fruit jelly.
• Long life bread rolls/crackers and peanut butter or jam.
• Porridge pots
• Cereal bars/protein bars
• Dried fruit/nuts
• Microwave rice (like this: https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/292818970)
• Pasta and sauce that can be made using just water and a microwave (https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/284590136). If you want to give the cheese/creamy ones they often require milk so you could also hand out small cartons of long life milk with them.
• Premade, shelf stable tuna salads (https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/276616460)
• High calorie snacks like crisps, chocolate, nuts and biscuits.
• Cup-a-soup, instant hot chocolate/cappuccino sachets.

These things have the advantage to being able to be discretely kept in a normal school bag so the other kids can’t see.

If possible I’d also have a small selection of basic hygiene products (toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, wet wipes, shower gel, shampoo, sanitary towels) that they can also take if they need them.

Depending on how you distribute the food then you could also offer larger, heavier items that are more filling/nutritious but are less likely to fit in a school bag.

• Long life milk and cereal
• Tinned fruit, veg, fish
• Tins of baked beans, soup, curry, chilli

No no, don't eat that pot noodle it's not healthy, what? your hungry? Here you go have some nuts and seed mix instead 🙄How clueless can some people be ffs

Some of these replies are absolutely bonkers 😂 particular marks to the poster who suggested a kidney bean/green bean salad with a bit of dressing - get real! 99% of disadvantaged teenagers will have neither the time nor the inclination to start making weird salad combos, what’s important is calories over nutrition in these situations.

Having worked in a food bank I’d say pot noodles and flavoured porridge pots are ideal. You need things which are quick and tasty to a teenager as not all teenagers will have the equipment, knowledge or support to do anything more than very basic heating. Biscuits were also always well received and cheap.

We were told to get quantity over quality to feed as many hungry people as possible. Yes we should strive for better nutrition, but there’s a time and a place and that is NOT when children are going hungry.

thats not how poverty or neglect works though and all that really matters are the teenagers are fed or have a little bit extra in their lives.

Home Bargains sell Koka noodles 3 for £1.20, this is better value for money than pot noodles and they are really nice. I like curry flavour, personally, and have had them in the past when I was struggling for food.

They also have Nakd peanut bars that are very filling and also nutritious, 4 for £2.

Bananas are very filling and nutritious, yes strictly speaking perishable but can be kept in cupboard, same goes for apples. Try and keep bananas away from other perishables though as they emit something that makes other food go off.

Home Bargains also has those individual fruit packs mentioned above, fruit in little plastic pots.

Another great call for calories are peanuts, you get an enormous amount of calories for not much money. Home Bargains also has little 40g snack packs of these for about 35p and they will fill you up and give nutrition for not much money.

Peanut butter
Canned sweetcorn is also cheap in a 3 pack from Home Bargains
Crumpets are very cheap and filling
HB also has the individually packaged chocolate croissants and brioches mentioned above

Lidl do a pack of 28 own brand "Siempre" normal winged sanitary pads which I find the best value around.

Well yes, most can, but that doesn’t mean the ones who can’t should be ignored! Sometimes parents physically can’t provide an evening meal and sometimes they just won’t due to neglect. It’s perfectly possible that some of these teenagers have no access to food or money and they should not just be left to starve.

the fruit in pots are a good shout they don't need to be in the fridge do they?