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?!

That’s basically what the Free From Pesto in the supermarket is, it’s still delicious. Also if it’s only nut allergies and not seeds then pine nuts can be used (with vegan ‘Parmesan’ if necessary).

The school will tell you if it needs to be nut free. Surely there isn’t a need for the nut obsessing if nobody on the coach has a nut allergy.

pine nuts are not nuts but a lot of companies used tree nuts such as cashew and walnuts instead.

Read the OP.

Likely to give your kid cancer........ just how do people survive life?

To be fair, peanut’s are technically classed as a vegetable. I copied this from google:-Evidence suggests that there is a low cross-reactivity between pine nuts and other types of nuts. However, people have reported cross-reactivity between pine nuts and peanuts, so it is possible that a person with a peanut allergy may also have a reaction to pine nuts.
I think it is best to avoid both if you have a peanut allergy!

This is such a non-issue. It's a one-off - don't think of it as 'breakfast', think of it as an exceptional meal that needs to be made to reflect exceptional circumstances. Why does it have to be 'breakfast' food? Just make some sandwiches that won't go off, it's not that hard! Lots of dried fruit, carrot sticks, cereal bars, apples, chocolate for snacks...

Have you ever had to cater for DofE? Similar thing really. It's not impossible to find food your child will eat that doesn't need to be kept cold. Stop thinking in the 'breakfast/lunch/tea' box - it's just food.

Can you imagine having to shepherd a coachload of school kids into a service station for meals?! They'd all want different things from different outlets. Half would go awol. It's very different from a quick toilet stop where they're funnelled by staff to the loos, queue up, out again.

Can you imagine having to shepherd a coachload of school kids into a service station for meals?! They'd all want different things from different outlets. Half would go awol. It's very different from a quick toilet stop where they're funnelled by staff to the loos, queue up, out again.

And chuck in a different language. 😂😂😂🤦‍♀️

Do people really think that pasteurised, often very processed cheeses like bog standard cheddar and BabyBels are going to go off after 24 hours without refrigeration? A lot of cheese does better kept out of the fridge, in fact. Cheese, OP, is already 'rotten'. It might get a bit sweaty but a cheese sarnie (without mayo) will be fine.

Personally, if it were me, I'd be avoiding packing any sort of pasta salad in a hard-to-clean-out vacuum food flask - your child is 9. That flask will return in a week or however long the trip is, unwashed and fetid.

your child is 9. That flask will return in a week or however long the trip is, unwashed and fetid.

I'd avoid fresh fruit, except possibly an apple, for similar reasons. It may well not get eaten, and will lie forgotten and festering at the bottom of the bag until the child returns home.

I went on a trip like this many years ago and we had all eaten our food before we even got out of Scotland 😂

which are not nuts. Sometimes it has cashew nuts in too - these are indeed nuts so have to check the label carefully

For god sake what’s the big deal. Cheese sandwiches, crisps, fruit, cereal bars, popcorn, croissants - there’s any number of things. Do you expect the school to look after a bus load of kids at a service station - twice?

They’re fortunate the school the school they attend is prepared to take them on a trip - don’t see problems where there aren’t any.

Either choose any one (or more) of the multitude of shelf-stable options available in any supermarket for the second meal, and I dunno, some frozen milk and some cheerios in a bag for the breakfast.

You're being ridiculous.

A couple of chocolate bars and a can of coke!

This is exactly what happens on my kids school trips that are overnight and/or abroad.
Would mean the teachers would have to do more than say 'open your packed lunch/tea' though.

I'm sure the teachers do a lot more than that.

The attitude of some parents towards teachers is terrible. So ungrateful. Trips are hard work.

@Theimpossiblegirl they don't seem to be doing more than that, in relation to meals in this particular case though.

Surely as a food scientist you would know that keeping moist food lukewarm is actually a food poisoning risk whereas a cheese or ham sandwich will be absolutely fine?

Planning, organising and supervising the trip for the children so that they have a safe and enjoyable experience is probably enough.

This is exactly what happens on my kids school trips that are overnight and/or abroad.
Would mean the teachers would have to do more than say 'open your packed lunch/tea' though.

Pretty sure they do.

they don't seem to be doing more than that, in relation to meals in this particular case though.

Nope. Parents have to put in the actual leg work of shoving some bits in a vacuum bag and pulling a juice box out of the freezer.

Shocking isn't it.

I would pack;

dried apricots
individually wrapped chocolate brioche
Cereal bars (no nuts and can be homemade)
Chocolate spread sandwiches (again not nut spreads)
Sweets to share with his friends (soft/chewy to avoid choking)

It is one trip, he will cope with a lack of normal nutrition.

Except informing parents they actually have to take responsibility for feeding their children, taking phone calls and replying to emails for feckless parents refusing to feed their children, checking all children have food when loading the coach, sorting out emergency supplies for those that "forgot" (more feckless parenting), going up and down the coach with bin bags to clear rubbish, holding sick bags/holding hair back/clearing up vomiting from the kid(s) that ate 2 bags of haribo in 10mins, cleaning the coach toilet after the kids down their 2l bottles of fizz, administering medication at the right times before food, after food or anything else, making sure there are no allergens on board, ensuring everyone has eaten, drunk water and had sufficient, dealt with the hyperactive twatery that comes with 9yos loaded up on sweets, cleaned up the squashed mess on the fabric coach seats, opened all the windows because somebody packed tuna...

x by how ever many kids...

Then add all the other tasks that need doing on the coach...

Plus the rest of the trip...

And the organising...

And the 24 hour working for 7 days straight (which would be illegal in any other job)

But yea, they're doing fuck all.

Add the fact these teachers are volunteering to take the pupils away during half term….