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!

Spreads and crackers?
Nut butters, jams etc.

Unfortunately there are parents out there who don’t feed their children, I actually had a mother say to me that her son was given free fruit at morning break and a free cooked meal at lunch time, that was enough for him he didn’t need anymore!

during the school holidays a few of us were aware that he would go days without anything more than some crisps if he was lucky, so would feed him between us. He got taken into to care eventually.

im happy to say he grew into a lovely young man, and is married with a beautiful little girl.

Give your local Trussell Trust Food Bank a call, they should be able to give you decent advice as to what to include, otherwise any of the local food banks.

I am aware that a number of school pack up extra lunches and say to the kids, "we know this is your favourite, the kitchen made too much today, can you do us a favour and take it home with you."

Thank you for what you and your school are doing

Cup a soup
mug shots
instant porridge
cous cous
ceral bars

i don’t want to throw another issue into the mix - but be careful of tins, these teens are very vulnerable and self harming is more common than anyone could imagine. I speak from experience trust me, and a tin or even a foil container can and will be used.

I'm not arguing that it's not important to feed the kids but this is beyond the realms of poverty and squarely into neglect - not feeding your child at all. So I hope any child in this position is on SS's radar.

It worries me how all these initiatives are basically a sticking plaster over a huge, ugly wound. But that's another debate.

I can't think of any suggestions for foods that haven't already been made but def anything with protein will keep you full for longer.

oh @Grumpynan thats incredibly sad and not something I'd ever considered.

Agree how sad that you have too but how great that you are. All of my sons ate like horses at around 15-17. I’m talking six roast potatoes plus three or four Yorkshire puddings or 200g of pasta. These kids definitely need filling up first and nutritional niceties later. Peanut butter has lots of calories and is filling and can be spread on crumpets or thicker pancakes. The brioche buns with chocolate filling were always hoovered up for an after school snack. Lots of pasta/noodle/soup cup options on sale in places like One Below/B&M/Poundland. Longerlife bread (seen this in Costco) plus tins of tuna

you know sometimes adults/parents struggle and giving a little bit extra to some teenagers is just the humane thing to do.

Obviously not commenting on the issues with the parents at OPs school but children can be neglected/not fed for a whole host of reasons - lack of money (for food and/or energy), parental mental health and/or addiction issues, or even wilful and intentional abuse.

instant oat pots (Aldi do a great protein version of this). Probably a high sugar content but given the circumstances it’s the least worrying thing. You mix them with boiling water. Cost effective too.

protein bars or cereal bars. Kellogg’s (I think) do these rice Kristy bars with marshmallows mixed in - we taken them after a big gym session for a sugar/carb hit. Again not healthy but besides the point.

crackers could be good. Even powdered protein shake that they can mix them selves (if the school can provide protein shakers, it can be made with water or buy pre-made ones.

I'd look at local businesses in the area and ask for a donation of meal vouchers. I worked for a charity and local pizza, kebab shop and chicken shop gave us meal deal vouchers.

Eccles cakes (the ones in the yellow plastic wrapper are long life) are v high calorie and lots of dried fruit.

Why not ask the kids? There is no point filling a cupboard with porridge and couscous if that's not what they would eat. Cheese portions and peperami/jerky would be more beneficial than dry noodles.

My teen loves pan au chocolate. Lidl do a multi pack with each portion being individually wrapped.

Cheese string things or any cheese that is available in individual portions.

Packets of crackers (to have with the cheese)

Can you get to a catering shop like Booker? Could get the individual packets of Nutella etc that you find in B&Bs/hotels.

I think people forget how many calories a teen (boy in particular) need. Particularly if they walk to school and do PE. You can hit 3000 for a boy and 2500 for a girl at peak growing teen. I dont need that as an adult.

Some parents might be able to offer an adults or childs calorie intake on benefits but maybe not a growing teen.

@Mrsjayy nobody's saying its not, are they? But having your child reliant on school for their entire nutritional intake is more than "struggling a bit". It's full on klaxon sounding "family in crisis".

We normalise poverty and neglect far too much in this country atm. It's very much not OK that people either can't or don't feed their children. Something is very, very wrong.

Home Bargains also do these cheaply.

Mince pies are also very filling, you probably need alcohol-free and I guess the suitability depends on the cultural background of your students, too.

If it’s a top up, calorie-heavy milkshake. One of my DC is severely underweight (and ALWAYS hungry) due to an underlying health condition, and the nutritionist recommended shakes, milk-based smoothies, porridge, cheese, soreen, etc, as they’re really filling.

I think that it's posdible that interventions are happening in terms of the child's long term welfare, but there's also an immediate need to feed while that happens.

Small jars of peanut butter with pack of breadsticks. PB can also be eaten as is off a spoon or stored into porridge pots. Lots of protein.

Unfortunately most schools are strictly peanut free.

@Grumpynan Glad he’s done well for himself 😊

It’s actually quite scary reading this thread just how blind some people are to these issues. I can absolutely guarantee there will be children in similar situations to what Grumpynan describes living near each and every person on MN.

For some parents they are simply not able to provide. And some simply don’t have the knowledge or ability to do better due to issues of their own.

There are children out there who do not have access to heating/hot water/electricity outwith school hours.

For the food store:

• the tuna “on the go” meals
• soreen bars
• belvita oaty bakes
• nature valley oat bars
• oatcakes
• crackers
• biscuits
• tins of custard/rice pudding/fruit

All can be eaten with no heating.

• porridge pots
• pot noodes etc

These can have hot water added and eaten straight from the tub

• mugshots
• packet couscous

Filling and light to distribute to kids but require the hot water and something to prep them in

Well I'm sure the school is aware of individual children circumstances and yes it is a full on crisis I agree with you it's a terrible state of affairs that schools are running food banks yet here we are but isn't it better a school runs these things than not ?

BabyBel cheeses have a pretty long shelf life

As do Peperami sticks

More expensive are things like protein balls (often sold for runners as a post-race recovery snack) - small, calorie dense and as name suggests, high protein.

Lots of long life cakes to choose from - try Soreen bars (some dried fruit, and pretty good for fibre)

And try to find a way round a school nut policy - because for size they pack a lot of calories, fibre and good oils. They're bound to end up eating far too much UPF, so even small steps towards including things that aren't might be worth it.

If they are seeing school staff individually (because there are known welfare concerns) make sure those staff members have a fruit bowl - with plenty of bananas - and encourage pupils to take one or two (eating in the meeting?)

Ah, I did wonder. They do other nuts though. Although maybe there's a blanket ban on nuts?