School lunches - reception - please help!

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Our DC will start reception in September, currently he is going to the nursery.

I am trying to figure out what is best - school lunches vs packed lunch.

I really don't want to go to the school lunches route (despite them being for free) as the quality won't be as good as a packed lunch. It will be full of sugars, processed bread, meat, fried things, frozen things, ready made chips, pasta and potatoes, puddings etc. which are not the best for a kid to have them every day. Once a while I get it but pudding every day? Why?

On the other hand if I go with the packed lunch I read everywhere that it's such a faff and a huge commitment and it will kill me. However, we all cook for ourselves once a day, don't we? I mean either when we come back home from work, or whenever it suits us. Most adults eat home cooked food every day either for lunch or dinner (some privileged for both). So, why not saving a small portion of whatever we are having for ourselves the day before and make a packed lunch with that plus some salad, fruit on the side? What is the faff about that?

It's an honest question as I think I am missing something!

AIBU - You clearly don't understand how hard that is
AINBU - It's not too hard , I think you are right

I doubt they're going to pander to no puddings, or tuna only once. week on their baked spud either. Schools don't have time for that for every child and if they do it for one they'd have to do it for all (allergies and medical reasons excluded obviously)

Exactly 🙄 carbs are not the enemy - growing kids need carbs! Wholewheat pasta is an option and it's tastier too.

School dinners are great here, the cake isn’t real cake, it’s beetroot etc. and pudding is usually fruit/yogurt. Personally I’d give it a go so your child gets to pick from the menu and go and get their food with friends. It’s a good little bit of independence for them.

This is an example of our school meals....lots of variety.
She still has her home cooked meal when she gets home.
The portions aren't big either.

A lot of meal times are about socialising etc. the people who eat packed lunch are in a different area...however in reception all children in the year have school meals

Oh, and if you go for a thermos style container to attempt to provide something hot - make sure your child can open it successfully unaided. Mine couldn’t get lid unscrewed as it tightened due to heat inside. When eventually she could get it open it took so much wrestling she ended up covered in contents.

The lunch supervisors won’t open anything for them.

This is 5 meals out of 21 meals a week. The standards around school meals are quite strict. I really wouldn't give this one headspace. Assuming you spend an average of 10 minutes per day planning/making a packed lunch, that's almost 32 hours over the course of the year that you could spend doing something more enjoyable. And your DC gets to eat with their peers.

I'm obsessed with food (but am sadly saddled with a child who has a range of sensory issues around food and disabilities and who eats next to nothing) so I have just had an enjoyable hour or so pootling around the various primary school menus in our area.

Things like courgette cake; cakes made with a sweet potato base; brownies made with mashed black beans all feature. Plus all the pasta is wholemeal in one school which sounds pretty revolting tbh.

But I've printed out some of the menus with the aim to follow them closely at home in the hope I can pique the interest into DS1. (He's 14, weighs 5 stone and is under a paediatric dietician).

Sweetcorn and courgette fritters served with tzatziki and salad is on the menu at one for Meatfree Monday. That sounds really good to me. Won't pass muster with DS1 but I'd quite like it.

Also all seem to have a roast day.

It's very different from my day in the country where I was brought up(Thank Goodness!)

Same here, the only 'crap' lunch is on a Friday where they have fish fingers and chips! They do dessert though, it's usually a choice between yogurt, jelly a cookie or a piece of cake, it it's not a big hunk of cake with custard it's just a little brownie or something (which baffles me, as these wouldn't be allowed in a packed lunch!) I'm lucky as natural yogurt is a firm favourite for my daughter so she usually picks that!

Packed lunches aren't as complicated as you're worries about to be fair, you will get a list of things not allowed and just work around that, a PP is correct lots of children have packed lunches due to allergies so the list will be non negotiable, but you could definitely have sarnies, fruit, veggies, cheese, yogurt etc.

No one has yet pointed out that even if you reheat last nights dinner in a thermos and send it in - your kid needs to be able to open it, and pack it back up again themselves.

There's often only 2/3 staff members trying to get 400-odd kids through the lunch hall in max 1.5 hours. If the kid can't open in it they probably won't be able to eat it as staff won't necessarily do it for them, and they'll lose the thermos within a week when they can't get everything back into a lunchbox again. You'll also need to fiddle with temps so it won't be too hot or cold when they do manage to get into it.

To be fair at work I never buy lunch, like sandwich or whatever else, I always bring my lunch box when in the office. It's an expensive habit buying lunch every day.

So I bring the food I prepared the night before, which many times I am not bothered to heat in the microwave.

Today for example it was steamed broccoli and cauliflower, two packs of boiled prawns (quite many of them to keep me full), a slice of bread plus some cheese and fruit.

I find the combo sandwich/crisps for lunch a bit unhealthy if it's an every day thing.

Of course, as with everything, in moderation it is ok!

I am not sure what profile I have been given in this thread but I am a normal person!

Yeah, I also always take my lunch but

A. I am an adult who can open tupperwares, and use cutlery, without pouring the food everywhere, or burning myself etc etc

B. If there was a free, nutritionally balanced lunch (because school lunches are balanced) available that everyone else was having and eating round the table together I would always go for that, wouldn't you?

Ok so.... I assist in a school kitchen and I certainly think that maybe your primary school isn't adhering to the guidelines.

We don't have a deep fat fryer - NOTHING is fried, ever.

Frozen chips are oven chips and once a week. Fishfingers are oven baked.

All potatoes ie wedges are cut freshly from baking potatoes

'Roast potatoes' are cut and oven baked with the smallest amount of sunflower oil possible

Pasta sauces and pizza topping sauces are packed full of blitzed vegetables

Chocolate cake is packed full of blitzed pears or apples depending what's there - kids don't even realise they are in there

Jacket potatoes are offered daily as some kids want that every day - the parent pre orders so if you don't want your child to have that every day, don't order it for them

Meat free alternatives like quorn are used as it's not healthy to depend entirely on dairy protein every day for vegetarians

Pizza dough is made from scratch

Carbohydrates are essential for growing kids so meals contain protein with a side of carbs (potato/pasta sometimes/rice) and veg

Fruit, organic yoghurt and salad are available every day to add to plates as the kids wish

The cook actually spends a lot of time and effort to make meals that fit the guidelines, are cost effective and things the kids will actually eat, which is probably the hardest part!

If that's the sort of thing your child will eat,send that.

But its ironice to say sandwiches ate unhealthy when you had bread with your lunch...

Is this your first child going to school?

That's ours for first week after the holidays for my reception child - lot healthier than when I was at school! . Packed lunches are an absolute faff and you'll get fed up getting a lunchbox back filled with squashed bits of uneaten food!

@PuttingDownRoots I make loafs at home , we have a bread maker. Just flour, water, salt and dry yeast. No emulsifiers!

@KomodoOhno Yes first kid... so I have no clue! It's just the pasta option, potato option every day sounds weird to be a healthy and variable diet for the kids that are picky!

I really miss having the choice of free school dinners now mine is in junior school. My youngest will be starting in reception and I will be encouraging him to have them. The options at his school are mainly healthy, chip day once a week, and a lot of the time the puddings are yoghurt and fruit pots. But to be honest he would have a pudding at home anyway so I don’t see the problem in a tiny cake.
My eldest has packed lunches now and as much as I can send in healthy veg sticks and fruit, he’s much more likely to leave that stuff than he would have done having school dinners. At the moment he’s not cottoned on to the fact he could throw bits in the bin and brings it all home so I can see what he’s eaten but he probably eats less healthier now than he did when dinners were free.

Bread maker bread tastes awful. If you're going to make it from scratch make it properly. I guarantee your kids will be obsessing over non-bread-maker-bread in their adult lives, they'll never want to eat it again.

The school dinners appear unhealthy but some effort goes into making them balanced. Pizzas will be wholewheat based, sausages will have a certain amount of meat content, puddings are made with very limited sugar etc - and the portions are very small so it’s not like your kid is filling up on junk.

most primaries will use an outside contractor so I’m sure the nutrition info will be available on their website.

as far as packed lunches go - making 5 packed lunches a day is not my favourite tbh. And we never ever have leftovers from dinner.

i advise a bento style box to cut down on packaging too. Mine have 3 pieces of fruit and veg, a carb option (pasta salad, sandwich or ham and cheese croissant) an extra bit of protein (yes, sometimes processed but otherwise cubes of cheese or something similar), a cereal bar (I find the cheapest ones often the best nutritionally!) and a pack of crisps or mini cheddars. Sometimes a sweet treat like a frube or chocolate bar. It’s definitely not much healthier than the school meal option but it’s much cheaper! Of course you will be able to do healthier options if you are just making one lunch, I can only dream!!

Oh and ours insist on an insulated bag for lunches. Just you wait until you get your first spilled yoghurt in one of those bad boys 🤣 it’s always when I open it up in the morning too!!

I eat school dinners and they're nothing like you describe. Sausages are once every three weeks. No nuggets. Chips are made from scratch. Sauces (bar ketchup, older children only) are made from scratch. Definitly too little salt from an adult perspective, just as you'd want for children. Same for the sugar content of the puddings. I'm more than happy for my dd to eat them every day

I just checked, the bread at our school is freshly baked from scratch on site too.

Cant even compare that to the lumpy smash, rock hard peas and gristly sausages or tinned ravioli I remember from school!!

I went thru this too for different reasons. But it was the only stress I had about starting school but it was such a worry for me because my child has to eat big quantities to maintain her weight which is still underweight, so I get it.

Try them both maybe for a week or two. There's pros and cons to both really. But you'll be better able to gage what works for him. He may enjoy eating the same as his peers or he may like having leftovers in a lunchpail. For what it's worth my dd preferred leftovers liked cold rice and veggies eww. Occasionally she will eat the school meal though.

There are school food standards that school lunches should meet.
Send in a foi request asking when the school/Governors last checked the menu against the DfE regs and what the result of this check was. Cc in the Clerk to Governors.
Do it now, be pleasant - don't rubbish their food - ask for response by end of Summer 1, gives them time to up their game and make changes if necessary - so all sorted by the time your child gets there.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-food-standards-resources-for-schools

I wouldn't really encourage time-wasting of governors nor staff with this. The OP thinks pasta and tuna are unhealthy, she is not interested in the actual guidelines.