Jacket Potato Drama

[ANdiel]

So, I have 3 kids in primary school, today we received a notification on the school app about next years school lunches, where we live it’s universal very school meals in primary and packed lunches are highly discouraged.

Currently every day there are 2 mains (typically one vegan and one meat based apart from veggie Wednesday where both are veggie/vegan friendly), soup, Jacket Potato’s with toppings and some pre-packed sandwiches available. Yogurt, fruit and Jelly available for dessert.

The school has informed us that next year there will be no Jacket Potatoes. They reason being they want to encourage children to have more varied school meals and reduce food waste.
Next year the kids will have the option of either

• Soup and Main Meal
• Main Meal and Dessert
• Soup, Sandwich/Wrap and Main Meal

Well well well there is outrage … it was all that was being spoken about at the gate and several parents have informed the group chat that they will be sending emails as this isn’t good enough and now their children won’t have hot meals at all as they don’t like the main offerings!! (Someone should let them know soup is hot!)

AIBU to think this is crazy and no Jacket Potato is fine, surely the options there are enough? Would you be happy with this or no?

I don't understand at all

A potato is a complete food 🤷‍♀️ I eat it 5 nights a week

I'd sooner want the soup/wrap/sandwich dropped rather than the Jacket potato

Surely it would make more sense for all lunches to be ordered in advance ? Then there'd be minimal wastage. We have to order in advance for my children's lunches. Ironically the default meal for a kid whose parent forgot to order something is a jacket potato 🙈

What I think insane is this bizarre fixation on hot food some people have.

Our school has one option each day. No choices. Children registered as veggie/vegan/allergic etc get given a similar suitable alternative meal (veg curry instead of chicken curry for example), but children don’t get to choose this on the day just because they fancy it. There’s no soup, sandwiches, jacket potatoes, bread or salad bar.

It’s a school of under 200 pupils and this is the only economical way to offer meals - there aren’t sufficient numbers for choices. No one has yet staged a protest about a lack of jacket potatoes, they all survive!

There’s near universal uptake at KS1, probably about half have packed lunch at KS2, but that’s probably because those lunches aren’t free here.

I can think of better education related issues to protest about.

Oh yeah I didn’t think of that.

Many schools won't do a veggie/vegan/halal/kosher/coeliac version of the main meal and rely on those children eating jacket potato if the main meal is not suitable.

If the school is prepared to do some of all of these I suspect there will be less fuss.

I don’t think these could go, they are important for after swimming lessons etc, where lunch hour is moved or to work around trips.

Agree with this . Jacket pots are great for coeliacs whereas a lot of the soups / mains are not because of ingredients or x contamination. I know the answer will be they need to bring a packed lunch but frankly it’s already expensive catering for gf bread so I see no reason why a parent should miss out on free meals as well

Depends on quality of main meals. Jacket potatoes often nicer than mystery meat stew …

I work in a school and some kids will only eat the jacket potato. It’s also sometimes the hot food they have so I don’t think it should be taken away as an option. Yes it’s not very varied but compared to some of the packed lunches which are full of chocolate, sugary crap and crisps it’s better than that.

This would have been hard for us. I've got a DD who doesn't eat meat but also doesn't eat meat substitutes. Jacket potato was often the only school lunch option for her as the veggie stuff was usually Quorn or similar. She got round the problem by taking packed lunches instead, but if they're heavily discouraged what can you do?

If everyone is eating the jacket potatoes and not the other options you either need to revamp the other options so kids like them, or just make less.

The main meals are usually the same dish just veggie/non veggie, Friday is always fish and chips or pizza.

Monday would be lasagne or quorn lasagne, then veggie curry, chicken curry etc. So really it’s one meal just either veggie or meat!

Sounds like a bullshit reason to me. And as someone who ate a jacket potato with beans and cheese every day for school lunch between the ages of 11 and 16, I wouldn’t be amused.

I’d be very unhappy. DD is in reception, vegetarian, and while she eats a hugely varied diet at home she’s not keen on quorn and the sandwich option often contains fish or meat so she has a jacket and baked beans 3 or 4 days a week. We never have them at home anymore! I’d send her a discouraged packed lunch if the alternative was a bland quorn based meal, as it is.

And the veg option will always be quorn which plenty of people don’t like. It’s also way more processed than a potato and beans.

I remember school jacket potatoes as inedible either under done or with loads of bad black bits, or burned to a crisp (which I didn't mind if there weren't black bits). Are they better now or was I picky.

Daily soup on a primary just so they’ve eaten something “hot”. What is the bollocks about hot food? You can have far more nutritious cold food that’s isn’t sandwiches and crisps than soup

But it seems strange that they are taking something away that parents seem to believe is popular in order to reduce waste? Presumable most of the jackets end up in the bin otherwise they wouldn't be looking to get rid. I presume it's the other way round- most of the other mains end up in the bin because the kids are eating jacket potatoes instead.

I would be pissed - jacket potatoes are the food of the gods.

Our Primary invite parents in occasionally to eat with the kids.

Once you've tasted the school dinners, you get why so many kids opt for a jacket!

You don't like school meals then you take packed lunch - whether it's discouraged or not.

Seems a bit mad to refuse to serve a healthy, nutritious meal that many children will happily eat!

I would have thought a jacket potato is better than a sandwich or wrap
I can understand why people are complaining as school dinners are expensive especially if you have more than one child. If the only choice is a sandwich or the main meal that chances are some children won't eat I would rather send my child with a packed lunch on the days the moan meal is something I know my child wouldn't eat.

If I had something my picky eater was enjoying and it was removed from the menu, I would be upset.

when my dd started school, we went with a school that required school meals. We thought it would help her get over her food aversions so we gave it a try. Within a couple of weeks the school asked us to start sending her packed meals and snacks. She really was ready to starve herself, just like many SN if not given an acceptable option.