School demanding packed meals for 18 hr bus trip

[Snoopmummy]

DC is off on a school trip involving an 18 hour coach journey. School is demanding we drop children off in the evening having fed them (fine), equipped with nut free snacks (makes sense). We have also been asked to provide TWO meals: a packed breakfast and a packed lunch.

That means breakfast will be consumed 13 hours after they set off and lunch will be something like 17 hours later. Is there any food that can safely last for that length of time in an insulated bag or flask? DC does not like dried fruit or cereal bars.

AIBU to consider asking for the risk assessment over this and suggesting we equip them with money to get food on the way as they will need to stop anyway?!

My teenager has been known to carry around the same lunch for a few days before he actually eats it. Not refrigerated, just banging around in his backpack. Your kid will be fine.

Cheese sandwiches would not technically be safe after 17 hours surely? **

Sweet Jesus.

croissants have practically zero nutritional content.

And? He'll have probably swapped them for a packet of Haribos by then.

For their length journey I assume the kids are at secondary - that length of time waiting is fine.
As for food , pre packaged croissants and pain aux chocolate .
Think you’re being a bit OTT if I’m honest
. If it’s an extra curricular trip eg optiknal
, withdraw your child if it’s that big an issue.

Yes, freeze any sandwiches - cheese is the safest, but if you are doubtful about bread. crispbreads? There are UHT yoghourts. Fruit, crisps (My DS could live on crisps if I let him). Hard boiled eggs. Cake bars. I love a peshwari naan or brioche for a travelling breakfast. B&M sell UHT cheese triangle. Teens are not known for loving veg, but celery and carrot sticks. Bread sticks with a salsa pot.

Fruit pouches. Custard and rice pudding pots that are on supermarket shelves. Jelly pouches. Brioche, croissants, Soreen individual fruit loaves. Rice cakes plain or with yoghurt or chocolate. Crisps, corn cakes, lentil crisps. Apples. Baby bell cheese. Baby youghurt pouches.
Might not be the healthiest of meals but they’ll survive. Savoury crackers. Mini cheddars.
Have a walk around a supermarket and see what survives on a shelf without refrigeration.
Google for suggestions of what to pack.

You could send a flask in and a pot noodle/instant past/cup a soup type thing? Even the porridge pots. Freeze some capri sun type drinks which can be used as ice pack and then consumed so nothing to bring back. Same with water. Decent cool bag and they’d be fine with all the other suggestions. Definitely avoid ham/meat. I went by coach over to Ireland once and we took a packed lunch. Didn’t know about stiff going bad and I was hungry after arriving and ate my ham sandwich and was so ill through the night. That wasn’t even an over night thing.

I’ve taken kids on a coach to France. We did used to ask for a packed lunch and we costed in being able to give them money at the service station for one meal. But that’s when services strains and food in general were extortionate and could get a meal under £5. Nowadays it would be expensive buying 2 meals and unless costed into the trip for teachers to hand out money then they’d likely get some kids without money. Also service station queue are awful when coaches get in.

This and adding in feta and olive = most middle class/Waitrose packed lunch ever!

It does sound rather nice though.

Also if going for pesto get a nut free one. My daughter has a specific allergy to pistachio and cashew nuts and her dad gave her pesto not realising that some cheaper versions contain cashew!! We also hadn’t realised a lot of Indian food contained cashews as well as she eats curry at school but they must do a not free one so when her grandma offered her some curry she had it without thinking until she had a reaction. Luckily she’s not anaphylactic with her allergies but bad enough to make her poorly.

HRTFT

Freeze cartons of fruit juice rather than using ice packs. They serve the purpose of keeping food cold and also mean that they have a chilled drink.
Brioche buns (Aldi does them individually wrapped) and fruit plus fruit juice for breakfast. Supermarkets sell John West tuna salads on their shelves; that with crisps, biscuits and other snacks would be lunch.

They have calories so I'm sure the kid will be fine with the calories to keep them going and no nutrition for a few meals on holiday.

YANBU. No ice block will last that long on a warm stuffy bus or a thermos food flask. These food flasks never stay as hot as they say. That is not good food safety. You are right to question it. They could easily organise a packed lunch with a motorway station on the way.

YANBU. No ice block will last that long on a warm stuffy bus or a thermos food flask. These food flasks never stay as hot as they say. That is not good food safety. You are right to question it. They could easily organise a packed lunch with a motorway station on the way.

And it keeps giving.

I just have died a million times over as a child, given that we weren’t well off and did lots of long car and coach trips and my mother would somehow manage to pack enough frozen cheese sandwiches that we were still eating them several days later

Easily ? Really ? Ever done it ?

Perspective klaxxon, OP. Nothing bad will happen to your princeling if he doesn't eat anything at all for 18 hours. His tummy will rumble for 10 minutes, then stop rumbling. That's it. Possibly the safest option, given the nightmarish dearth of Michelin-starred dining en route.

Islandgirl68
YANBU. No ice block will last that long on a warm stuffy bus or a thermos food flask. These food flasks never stay as hot as they say. That is not good food safety. You are right to question it. They could easily organise a packed lunch with a motorway station on the way.

A long life Brioche in a packet, a packet of popcorn, a flap jack, some baby bel and and apple will though.

Honest to god.

freeze a drink carton and use that as ice pack.
yogurt pot as well.
maybe a few blocks of cheese
and a tub of pringles (tbh not worse than a plain sandwich)

No need at all for a risk assessment. I’d be thinking of fruit (if your child likes it) bananas in particular would be perfect. Oatcakes, breakfast bar, don’t forget water and any other drinks they like. I hope they enjoy wherever they’re off to 😊

But releasing a coach load of 9yr olds into any service station to go off and choose lunch would be a risk assessment all on it's own.
Doing that when they are in a foreign country, with different language and different money, would be a ludicrous suggestion. Plus of course adding 90mins on to their journey.

But releasing a coach load of 9yr olds into any service station to go off and choose lunch would be a risk assessment all on it's own.
Doing that when they are in a foreign country, with different language and different money, would be a ludicrous suggestion. Plus of course adding 90mins on to their journey

But sweaty cheese ?

The OP didn’t mention the children were 9 years old, I was explaining what happened when my son was in a similar situation. When they stopped at services they were still in the UK after travelling for almost 8 hours, food stop, pee stop then they continued.

"Demanding" They really 'demanded' it or politely requested it via letter? You really made it that much more dramatic there didn't you!?

If you don't like it just take your DC yourself?

Jeeeeeez no wonder there's no teachers left

OP, have you asked what the teachers will be bringing? Might give you some more ideas if you kid won't (not unreasonably) eat sweaty cheese.

Post like these caused me to stop running school trips