Would giving all children free school meals actually safe the public purse money long term?

[Kendodd]

Really good quality, highly nutritional, tailored to children's needs and vegetarian. I know this would cost a lot, but if it improves the nations health long term, would it actually cost less?

And if you didn’t like moussaka the alternative was stir fried noodles, but that might not be beige enough for you either.

There’s an awful lot of fussy eaters out there. I just didn’t give DD sweets/chocolate/cake until she was about 3. So she had a good couple of years of eating proper food before she knew there was anything more exciting out there. Today a mum walked past pushing a buggy with a boy in of about 2, on the younger end of 2 that is. He was eating a swizzels lolly.

Most people are meat eaters. Meat is essential. Kids need it.

Why are you assuming that someone only eats beige foods, and even if they do, why are you passing judgment? Lots of people have food aversions and shaming doesn't help.

75% of the world population are meat eaters.

Aubergine is awful

Your personal dislike of aubergine is irrelevant though, surely you know that? I don't like mushrooms, I don't think they should be banned from lunchtime.

Why are you jumping into a question I directly asked a PP?
My comment is nothing to do with aubergines and everything to do with a PP assuming another PP only eats beige foods.

Foodshaming? I was referring to @Boomboom22 who would hit the roof if her kids or her had to try ANY vegetables, sausages or moussaka. That is not food shaming, that is just fucking sad. But you go with food shaming if that makes you feel better about your choices. Lots of people have aversions, but lots of people was also just served crappy unhealthy food and feed their kids the same, so they end up eating shit food for their rest of their lifes. It’s a huge problem. Thankfully some in the UK seem to wake up and agree.

but most of that is not edible for kids. I wouldn't even be able to eat most, super fancy with weird veg.
And the salad bar is rabbit food, completely unsuitable.
I'd be hitting the roof if they only provided veggie / complicated fussy food like this. Very very few kids would be able to just try things like moussaka!

Having read unprocessed, yes I think it would save a lot of money long term. As long as the meals are nutritionally balanced. Also I wouldn't be so sure that wealthier parents know what constitutes a healthy diet based on the lunch boxes at my DC's school.

Lol, says you. Nobody asked your opinions on moussaka in the first place.

If you think that menu is inedibly fancy then the issue is that you're an incredibly fussy eater, not the menu. I think it's actually quite embarrassing for an adult to say that that menu is too exotic for them.

Please remember that your opinion isn't fact, nor is it good to jump to conclusions.

This isn't about moussaka either, it's about you answering something I directed at another poster.

We’ll eventually we will all have to eat insects because our current food habits are unsustainable 🤷🏼‍♀️

Veggie sausages are disgusting like cardboard and terrible for you.nothing like real sausage. There is no meat! Meat alternatives are terrible

Parents have accidentally murdered their children by neglect through feeding them veggie or vegan diets so it's not actually a laughing matter. Meat and protein are absolutely essential for children. It's actually bad parenting to make your child veggie due to your wrong beliefs about veggies being healthier.

Still, there is a meat sausage as an alternative.

Veggie sausages are disgusting like cardboard and terrible for you.nothing like real sausage. There is no meat! Meat alternatives are terrible

Parents have accidentally murdered their children by neglect through feeding them veggie or vegan diets so it's not actually a laughing matter. Meat and protein are absolutely essential for children. It's actually bad parenting to make your child veggie due to your wrong beliefs about veggies being healthier.

@Passingthethyme allergies aren't being fussy. They can make you really ill or even kill you.

Yes, you said that already. I have said nothing about parents murdering their kids with veggie sausages. Muslim children usually pick this alternative. If not, as you can read in this sausage case there are alternatives every day. One veggie. One meat or fish. Good, right?

What about those who start work at say 6am/7am? That's them excluded from that wee set up, isn't it? Not everyone works 9 til 5 Monday to Friday.

Absolutely no one has accidentally killed a child with a vegetarian diet. There have been tragic cases involving very strict vegan diets but even then they have to be bizarrely strict (just fruit and veg or not giving a young baby suitable milk) and the parents have mental health issues. Any sort of balanced vegetarian diet is fine for kids; balanced vegan takes more effort but is perfectly doable. The vast majority of children who are malnourished come from meat-eating families - that's not to suggest at all that the meat causes the malnourishment, just that the two are unconnected.

I'd rather my kids were fed vegetable based meals than cheap nasty meat which school meals inevitably will be.

Yes to free school meals for all. It would certainly ensure all children get a decent meal every school day. I worked in a London Borough where this was standard and it really helped with take up for school dinners for the older year groups. It also made lunchtimes simpler as almost everyone had school lunch rather than pack ups so there wasn't all the lunchbox monitoring ect.

It would need to be funded properly and preferably made on site.

I don't agree with just vegetarian, meat is part of a healthy diet and in many low income homes is the part of the diet that is lacking due to the cost of meat. However, I am completely on board with the stipulation that the vegetarian equivalent should be as substantial as the meat main. It should not just be jacket potato or cheese sandwich. It should be an equally nutritional hot offer.

Are all of those Gs for gluten free food? Apart from being pissed off with only a carrot and pineapple salad on Tuesday, I'd be chuffed as nuts with that - our school can't even manage one GF meal (I saw the state of the coeliac child after they'd had their special 'gluten free' meal - a few months later, the kitchen manager tried to present a salad as gluten free by taking the croutons off the top of the serving bowl. and after some training, could then present their latest 'this is gluten free' ingredients list with barley at the end.