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?

YABVVU OP.
There was a similar debate at a former workplace. On an industrial site in the middle of nowhere, so only the workplace canteen or a 20 min drive for food. We had microwaves but only 5 for 3000+ employees.

It's not about fussy eating quite frankly it's the quality of the food. Most of the 'hot' food was just crap. Watery curries, mushy rice etc I could go on.

A jacket potato was the most reliable in terms of taste so many went for that.

They probably want to cut costs - in which case they should allow packed lunches! How can anybody, child or adult be forced into eating what's there?

You have to try very hard to get halal meat that is not stunned.

Most halal meat is slaughtered with a CD playing prayers in the same abattoir. It is illegal to hang a conscious animal upside down (poultry is different)

Do you know where your butcher sources his meat?

Fairly sure Islam is a peaceful religion... What's barbaric about it?

Oh yes. Of course and I'm sure the butcher only supplies high welfare organic meat ...

And obviously you only eat vegetarian food when going out to eat.

No as I always phone and ask. I don’t eat take aways. I don’t ever knowingly eat any meat killed under religion. I don’t know what your so upset about and trying to catch me out about my beliefs.

A jacket potato is the default option at our school if someone hasn’t ordered/paid in advance. Every child should have the option to bring a packed lunch without question.

You're just coming across as a racist....

Christian priests raped little boys and covered it up for years... Christianity says homosexuality is a sin ... Doesn't make Christianity a barbaric religion...

yoire hiding behind mock animal welfare concerns to hide your blatant racism

I don't agree with limiting other kids' diets because a few kids are picky. Potatoes are just so boring. I'd really welcome our school moving away from them

@Spinet my DD is 3 and loves soup, she's been eating it since she was a baby my mum makes it for lunch a lot when we go over

But how is it limiting other children’s diets? They’re taking a choice away!

Same here, my 9yo son is vegetarian and has sensory issue due to his autism and has jacket potato most days so I’d have to put him back on packed lunches.

You're hiding ignorance and racism behind a faux concern for animal welfare.

You clearly have no qualms eating meat that has been raised in poor conditions, but all of a sudden just because you think all halal meat is slaughtered a particular way, it's all "oh I don't eat halal for cruelty reasons" but probably happily eat a sausage made from a caged pig, tuck into chicken from barn chickens who never went outside all their lives, or a nice lamb tagine from a new Zealand lamb that was live transported and slaughtered in India etc etc.

Every single person i know of who claims "but cruelty to animals" for a reason not to eat halal, happily eats meat from questionable sources and raised inhumanely.

I’ll reiterate for you, although it’s none of your business. I am not religious so refuse to eat meat killed under the name of a religion. Being against a religion is not racist as religion is an ideoligy not a race 🙄. I eat organic meat from my local forest butcher. How hard is all this to understand, why has it made you upset is it because you follow Islam.

Your prejudice is shining through.

And yes ,it's a form or racism, whether you like it or not.

Christians are marrying little girls... Look at America, there's child brides in a Christian country.

Packed lunch are discouraged at my school. All 4 of mine still take one in though! Discouraged doesn't mean banned

I probably wouldn't complain but I would be worried. Jacket potatoes are a safe option that a lot of children will happily eat. And it's healthy as well.

My daughter is a very poor eater and severely underweight. We have tried pretty much everything including being arsed to get her to eat more and a larger variety but without success. I think in reception she almost exclusively ate jacket potato. If there had been no jacket potato she wouldn't have eaten at all.

She is slightly extreme but pretty much every child and parent I asked in reception said they always have jacket potato. Maybe the school should look at the other options if they want to reduce food waste.

I've just scrolled up. So funny because mine have packed lunch because the school doesn't serve halal (nor do i expect them too). So I provide my own lunch.

Not sure what all the hate is further up. Don't like it, don't eat it. Up to you, completely up to you and for whatever reason you like.

It'll be the cheese, it's too expensive to serve with the jacket potatoes. Even private schools have cut back on grated cheese.

No. We’ve walked out of places where it’s halal. I’m veggie my family try but not completely veggie so we buy less but better ethically. Of course eating anything slaughtered doesn’t sit well with me, but I can’t make that decision for them, so we do what we can from an ethics point.

Oh, lucky children if it were a good gazpacho, I now feel the urge to make one, love it!