Shocking state of school dinners!

[dottiedodah]

This week a headteacher asked how hard it was to cook a potato? Really grim offerings .Sad part is that some children only have that food.Do those old enough to remember traditional school meals feel they were better then ?

Incidentally, does anybody remember Scolarest? The company that pretty much hit the deck after Jamie Oliver exposed them and their turkey twizzlers and left their brand reputation in tatters?

A lot of schools switched from Scolarest to to Chartwells and were pleased to have made a big change ostensibly for the better. I don't know how many of them realised that the only difference between the two companies was a letterhead.

@Octopuslethargy are you an inspector of any type? The dinners we had when Ofsted came in were very different to our usual!

As far as baked potatoes go imagine ones that have gone cold in the tray sprinkled over with dry grated cheese. They were of a temperature where the cheese had no chance of melting and of course no butter. They used to go straight in the bin.

My favourite lunch I once saw was a child who had potato, rice and cake for pudding and because that wasn't much they were given a piece of bread!

You think it's British culture to feed our kids school dinner type foods? 😂

There is usually a choice so if kids don't like the hot offerings they can have a sandwich or baked potato.

Cold baked potatoes?! Bleeurch!

No I am not an HMI. I have the same food as the children- honestly. The sandwiches in some secondary schools are in line with Pret (but not £7 each!)

That is a good question@Kalevala . I was watching a couple of youtubers, and what they are feeding their families each week. To be honest I was watching more out of, dare I say, startled fascination. It was all, fish fingers, breaded nuggets, of one kind or another, sausage rolls, sausages, served with a potato shape, or waffle type thing, and very little veg. I fail to see how these children are going to be healthy, with a diet like that.

Have you met many 5 year olds who would reliably eat stew? I'm not sure I have...

Then schools could offer more nutritious one pot, or one pot plus carb, dinners and children would eat them then?

This doesn’t sound great (at all) but not all dc will have this

Portion sizes are calorie controlled to meet govt requirements.
Prices of everything going up. So sad that schools are so pressured to get em in get em out so quickly. Kids need time and a rest in the day - glad I'm not in school anymore.

In my son’s school, the juniors get to go up for seconds. My (very athletic) 8 year old goes up for extra dinner and double pudding every day 🤣 so I definitely get my moneys worth.
My 6 year old isn’t a massive fan. Next year when I’m paying for both I said they can have pack lunches on a Friday as they don’t really like the fish options.

Do those old enough to remember traditional school meals feel they were better then ?

I have little experience of modern school meals but those I have seen seem pretty beige and unhealthy.

My experience of school dinners is from the 1960s and 1970s. The meals were traditional balance of protein, carbs and veg. Chips were served about once a month and the only meal choice was eat it or leave it. Nothing went to waste because if you didn’t eat it somebody else would.

My child has never liked separate food, especially not when he was 5. He would only reliably eat veg in something like a stew or bolognese or curry. It didn't need to be hidden, just cooked together.

The food at my primary school (early-mid 90s) was great. Home cooked, not a huge amount of choice/variety but tasty and filling. There was always a queue for seconds!

Secondary school was rubbish in comparison. I lived off chips, cheese and gravy for three years. They actually sold Pot Noodles when I joined in Year 9!

The food at the (independent) school I work at is phenomenal. Every day they offer:

Baked potato, baked sweet potato, or pasta with cheese/beans/tuna/two sorts of topping (e.g. vegetables Provençal or Moroccan lamb)

Vegetarian main

Meat main

'Street food' (e.g. jerk chicken or jerk aubergine - always a vegetarian and meat option)

A full salad bar

A hot pudding

Yoghurts

Fruit (apples, pears, satsumas, plums, pineapple, melon)

Jelly

Tray bake (flapjacks etc)

That said, the number of kids who just have plain pasta with cheese every day is depressing. I eat like a king, though!

Our pupils have a main choice, or vegetarian alternative, or jacket potato alternative, with a pudding.

They seem well received but there are clear favourites. I can see why a pp suggested a one-pot meal but we have very low uptake for those. To make a kitchen viable, on less than £3 per meal per day, you need a lot of children opting for a school lunch.

I've had a couple (school governor and have had days where we've gone into schools) across different schools. One was really really nice... the other was vile (unfortunately DD2's current school) but the atmosphere during the meal was lovely as the older kids lead in supporting their peers serving out their portions and interacting.
DD1 seems to love the ones at secondary school but I suspect that's more the ability to choose combined with the fact they have a slushie machine (which is "well peng" apparently).

I'm in my mid-40s and primary school dinners were literally inedible. And you weren't allowed to leave the hall until you'd finished. I went onto packed lunches the day after I sat in there for well over an hour.

Secondary school wasn't much better. It was either chips, pizza, cheese sandwich, ham sandwich or tuna sandwich. Yoghurt for dessert. I think there might have been cake but I was only given £1 a day. I had school dinners as I didn't want to carry my lunch especially as my mum insisted on infant school style lunch boxes

Sixth Form hit the jackpot. Food was great there.

Anyway, I'm a teacher and we occasionally get to sample school kitchen fayre. Last INSET had more undone carbs on one plate than I thought possible. When I do a lunch duty I do despair at some of the portion sizes. Plus, the FSM allowance really doesn't go very far - it's all so expensive.

I feel so sorry for the cook at the school I work in (primary). In the 12 years I’ve been there and been eating school dinners myself, she’s become so disheartened by the reduction in portion sizes that Chartwells insist on, and the poor quality of ingredients that are sent to her. She tries her best and the food is actually still fine, but DD1 comes home starving and she’s only in reception. As soon as she’s in KS2 and meals are no longer free, she’ll be on packed

The minuscule portion sizes are very handy for a teacher on a diet though! My lunch yesterday was a handful of pasta and a couple of spoonfuls of peas and sweetcorn.

Please RTFT. This was already responded to. Obviously yes, at home.

As above.

I am a catering manager running an in house catering operation in a secondary/sixth form.

It is very difficult to run a break even service AND meet the School Food Standards.
http://www.schoolfoodplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/School-Food-Standards-Guidance-FINAL-V3.pdf

The standards set out portion sizes for each of the food groups for both primary and secondary aged children which is why a 5 year old is served the same as an 11 year old. The food will be costed on this portion size and as the government pay £2.41 for each free school meal (universal and means tested) it is hard to meet the standards they set out.
The £2.41 is to cover both food cost AND staffing costs, it will also probably include some type of buy into a food safety management system and support from the local authority or a private company, mine costs £1500 per year.

there are a number of fantastic catering managers/supervisors/assistants out there who do the best with what they have got and it is a profession that people unfortunately look down. It takes a great deal of skill to run a good service to budget while both meeting the standards and providing food that children actually want to eat.

The Food Foundation does a lot of work around FSM and school food, also LACA if anyone is interested

https://www.laca.co.uk/
https://foodfoundation.org.uk/

I have now RTFT. It is difficult to do so, then to go back and find a comment you want to respond to, easier as you go.

I work in an Argyll & Bute School (think Mary's Meals scenario) and so we have much better meals in school.

We have one main, one vegetarian and one baked potato/sandwich/baguette option every day. The meals are cooked fresh by the kitchen staff every day, and they're free to all children bar P7 now I think.

They're so much better than when I started there 20+ years ago.

DD gets fairly decent school dinners. Everything is homemade and the staff also provide tasting sessions of the food for parents evening. The school I work in, everything is microwaved (including the toasted paninis!). We just can't hire catering staff which isn't surprising given the cost of the local area vs the poor pay.

My DC only ever have hot dinners once in a blue moon if I am too poorly to prepare their lunchbox. I have seen their hot dinners and they're dreadful. There's no way it's healthy for them to be having that every day. At least with their packed lunches I know what they're getting (or leaving!). Both primary age.