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?

There’s a massive markup on anything pre-cooked. The idea of a pre-cooked jacket is that you can bung it in the microwave. Buying an ordinary potato and some Tesco Value grated cheese costs a fraction of that.

Half the reason we have so many ‘fussy eaters’ is this pandering. Lump it or Like it should be the choices on offer.

The comments about soup here are amusing, they’re 5, my DD was served soup from 9 months at nursery and managed just fine!

Quite DD4 lives soup, always has.

I think it would depend on the quality of the school meals. I wouldn't want my children eating wraps as they are horrendously ultra processed, likely the same with the bread they are providing for sandwiches. The school meals at my kids primary school are not great, poor quality and full of ultra processed ingredients due to the costs restrictions. A jacket potato with cheese and salad would be OK for my kids to eat but they rarely enjoyed the main meals when they tried them (and it is not that they are particularly fussy). Based on their description I wouldn't like them either so I don't think I can expect them to eat them. It is fine as I can just provide them with a packed lunch that I know is healthy but I wouldn't be happy with potentially the only ultra processed food being removed from the menu and being told they aren't meant to be having lunchboxes provided.

I'd be unhappy about it because I think jacket potato is healthier than most sandwiches and it's rare that I find a pre-packed sandwich I like. I'd rather they ditched the sandwiches.

But if they are ditching the potatoes because very few people at school eat them, whereas loads eat soup and sandwiches, I suppose it's justified.

Its a non issue. I've worked in 2 schools in the last 2 years and majority of the jacket potato gets binned anyway by kids!

Are children just having too many snacks and not hungry anymore? Why aren't the majority of children (without AFRID) not finishing their food?

So many children these days are gluten intolerant/resistant (and this does affect quite a lot of our refugees who are not used to wheat in their diet), so replacing a jacket potato (healthy) with a wrap is a lazy cop-out to reduce cost and prep effort.
When doing elimination testing with children, it is recommended to put them on to just potato to start with, so it is, as many folks have said, a safe food.

I doubt it. If kids have a morning snack now, most schools only allow a piece of fruit which is unlikely to be filling them up. A lot of kids don’t bother with a morning snack. When I was at school, almost every kid used to take crisps or chocolate as a morning snack as schools allowed them. Back then, a lot of kids still didn’t eat their school dinner for the same reason as now, they’re often not very nice and they would rather go out and play with their friends.

Yes, I grew up in the 90s, never had snacks then, certainly not at school. We didn't always eat all our dinners at school because they weren't great.

Our school allows any kind of snacks as long as it doesnt contain nuts.

My kids tend not to finish their snack or their lunch because they are naturally slow eaters who want to maximise play time.

I grew up in the 1970s there was no choice at any of the three primaries I attended.

There were days when no one wanted the offering for that day (a stew we called spew was one).

I think it is good there is a choice now but I agree with the people saying preorder to cut costs.

Oh and as for soup, at one primary we were given milky coffee in winter.

Yes I couldn’t believe the ignorance of that! Children with SEN etc can be extremely fussy, through no fault of anyone’s, and it’s not like parents get given money because their kid has SEN.

YABU OP

Our school in London has just introduced a daily jacket potato option, as well as two other options as before but better options, and it’s made a huge difference. I can now confidently send my DS in for a school lunch without thinking he might go hungry - he has ADHD and it’s simply not a case of “well he’ll eat it if there’s nothing else”.

And maybe we are lucky to have free meals throughout primary school - because we have a decent man as mayor who has made it happen. Who also cares that they aren’t poisoned by the air. And is experiencing horrific racism as a result.

I really hope people remember this tomorrow.

I can’t see how they can limit pack lunches. My grandkids have a packed lunch because we are not religious and don’t want them eating anything halal.

You do realise that everything vegetarian is halal don't you?

my family don’t eat any meats that are halal either due to the animal welfare issues. I’m sure that’s what the pp means

I guess they never eat supermarket meat either then. Ever.

I'll bet they eat supermarket meat and happily tuck into meat based meals at restaurants and cafes etc.

No I go to the butcher thank you. And not all supermarket meat is halal, you obviously shop at Asda or Tesco.

I didn’t realise a carrot got its throat slit, hung upside down and bled to death, no, but thanks for telling me.

Most Tesco meat is not Halal, and any that is is clearly labeled as such. I suspect Asda is similar, based on a quick Google search.

Why make a comment on something you clearly know nothing about?

https://www.tescoplc.com/sustainability/documents/policies/our-approach-to-religious-slaughter-and-animal-welfare#:~:text=We%20require%20all%20slaughter%20processes,stunned%20halal%20and%20kosher%20meat.

Most animals killed for Halal meat are stunned first anyway. But if you think non-halal methods of killing animals for food are not cruel, you're kidding yourself. I'm a vegetarian who can see that eating meat might be the 'natural order' of things but if you're going to eat it you should accept that you're causing an animal distress at the very, very least.

As a Coeliac, I would fight this. A ridiculous decision for so many reasons outlined above.