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?!

It will be fine, just tell dc to eat the caviar first.

Please tell me you’re taking the piss

Snacks you send snacks and cheese rolls.

freeze a water bottle or two to keep things cooler and for cold drinks.

I mean I guess you could send in a mini box of cereal and a uht choc milk to make breakfast if you really wanted 😂

Tell me this is sarcasm? Please?

While totally agreeing that teachers going on school trips are generally heroes, I did have a conversation today with one of my children’s teachers who told me there is a waiting list to go on the school ski trip. They fight over it, even though last year they spent 13 hours at Dover on a coach.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
or feed your own child ??

Having led numerous long school trips by coach and air, in my experience any food you give them will be gone by about 4 hrs into the journey 🤣
Don’t overthink this. Make sure they’ve got some cash so they can get something extra at the services because there will have to be driver rest stops at various points. Sorted.

They definitely don’t at my school

Threads like this always keep me entertained.

The school aren’t demanding anything. They’re just asking you to provide food for two meals on the journey.

If you’re worried about food not being refrigerated put an ice block in the lunch box.

But you’re seriously overthinking this. Just do a banana muffin and fruit for breakfast then sandwich for lunch with fruit. Dried fruit would be good too. Cartons of juice. Maybe chocolate bar as a treat.

Where are they likely to be able to get food on 18 hours of Autoroute/Autosnelweg/Autobahn/Autostrade? That can cater for a couple of kids and 55 of them, have all acceptable foodstuffs and be guaranteed to be open? There might be somewhere suitable, there might not, it'll add hours to the journey and extra risk depending upon the area - but everybody can find something their kid will eat mostly Haribo and crisps.

Just send in whatever he might reluctantly eat if hungry enough.

You don't need to see a risk assessment, if one is even needed for this at all.

Demanding suggests some kind of aggression or hostility. They're simply asking you to keep your child fed.

Pre packaged brioche, crisps, cereal bars, nuts, banana, apple, orange, graze bars, Huel drinks, protein shakes,

Are people suggesting peanut butter not reading the nut free part of the OP?

2 big bags of haribo and a bottle of lucazade would be fine for my DD. And she's the teacher.

Well, he had hopes of getting on next year’s one. Not guaranteed apparently.

Risk assessment for a packed lunch. Seriously? It's not that hard to pack food for the day is it

I remember doing jam sandwiches for a trip like this.

We always put ice cooler blocks in a small cooler bag. Also frozen water bottles wrapped in plastic bags in the cooler bag too. Unopened it stays cool enough.

My teenage boy went on a week long trip to France. He didn't eat his cheese sandwich on the way there, so he ate it on the way back. No harm has come to him.

When I was a kid we didn’t have a fridge, only posh people had them and home freezers weren’t a thing. How did we manage 🙄

Every year we went to the women's hockey finals in London ( not 18 hours by any means but anyway........) I had cheese and beetroot sandwiches every year.

Remembers fondly😊

Seriously, they'll be fine. Avoid egg. If you must, maybe send your DCs with an insulated bag with some ice packs, but expect teachers to roll their eyes.

Fruit won't go off. Packaged pastries won't go off. a cheese (or even ham) sandwich that is nice and fresh and maybe chilled beforehand won't kill them unless it's literally left unwrapped in the sun for 18 hours.

Bag of apples and Tayto sandwiches.

Of course not! I want to know how the school would go about this risk assessment. The PE teacher visiting the homes to check whether the food was correctly stored in sanitary conditions, the English teacher doing a nutritional assessment of all the items, the maths teacher looking for nuts, food that might break teeth, lactose, gluten, eggs and other allergens and then the French teacher collating the results and submitting the data to the head who will then contact the families with recommendations.

Brilliant.

If this trip involves entering the EU, don't forget you're not allowed to import dairy products.
I really doubt they'll be checking whether a bus load of schoolkids have finished their cheddar sarnies, but it's something to add to your risk assessment

We have frequently driven to Europe, taking breakfast and lunch for the next day with us.

Breakfast - we usually take scotch pancakes, cereal bars, apples and cartons of orange juice.

Lunch - wraps or baps, tuna in a ring pull can, cucumber, tomatoes, more apples, crisps. We do stop and buy coffees on the journey.

It's never been a problem.