to complain about the state of the school lunches?

[supermaje]

I’m genuinely torn about whether I’m being a bit precious here, so tell me straight. My DC’s (8 and 10) primary school lunches are, frankly, shocking. They come home starving most days because the portions are tiny, and the food sounds grim. Yesterday was “pizza” which apparently was a single slice of bread with a smattering of cheese and a bit of tomato paste. That’s not pizza, is it?! It’s toast.

They also regularly run out of options by the time the last sitting gets served, so my youngest ends up with whatever’s left, which is often jacket potatoes for the third time that week. He’s so fed up he’s asked me to start making packed lunches again.

I get that budgets are tight and schools are under pressure, but for £2.50 a day, I’d expect them to at least get a decent, filling meal. When I mentioned it casually to a teacher at pick-up, they said something like, “Oh, it’s not the worst we’ve seen!” which made me think they know it’s rubbish too but aren’t doing anything about it.

Would I be unreasonable to raise it properly with the school? I don’t want to be that parent, but surely they should be offering better meals than this? Or is this just how it is everywhere now? I don’t want to kick up a fuss if this is standard and everyone else is just putting up with it.

(And yes, I’ve seen the menu they send home. It all looks great on paper. It’s just the reality that’s dire!)

Thoughts?

Our school menu is pretty shocking - pizza of a variation every Monday. However we have the option to do pack lunch but life is busy and having school lunches is one less thing to think about

, but for £2.50 a day, I’d expect them to at least get a decent, filling meal.

£2.50 is absolutely nothing when it has to pay for staff to:

• plan the menus and check nutritional guidelines are met
• purchase food & equipment
• cook the food
• serve the food
• wash plates, serving containers & cooking equipment

Honestly only around 50p will be available for the purchase of the food itself. Can you make a decent filling meal with 50p for ingredients?

How do some schools manage though if its impossible? I work in a school, Scottish state primary, food looks good, staff frequently order portions which shows its good quality and older pupils definitely get larger portions.

Complain OP.

I'm in Scotland where school lunches are free and my son packs his lunch anyway as they're just awful. Am glad they are an option for people who need them but for £2.50/day you can provide way more yourself.

I send my kids in with packed lunches. Sadly at our school the dinners are mainly eaten by the poorest children, everyone else provides better quality packed lunches for their kids.

I had £2 for my lunch each day 20 years ago… I’m hardly surprised the food is crap for £2.50!

We do packed lunched. It isn't cheaper but better.
I hope that secondary school do a decent lunch next year.

I only have one in junior school. When the second joins her and no longer gets free school dinners, they’ll both be having pack up. I can do a really good and varied pack up for them on £26 a week (their dinners are £2.60).

How do some schools manage though if its impossible?

Some schools subsidise food from other budgets.

Some larger schools have their own non profit kitchens and staff, by reducing overheads/admin cost they can make better meals at a lower cost than a profit seeking catering company.

They are fricking rank! My kids wont eat them. Even when they were free! I still make a packed lunch

@InDogweRust that makes sense, we have our own kitchen staff, also council employed, so not for profit.

The pre order thing can be a bit of a red herring, as kids will change their minds when faced with the food all laid out. If my child was last sitting, often there was no portions of his pre ordered choice left.
honestly, packed lunch is safer!

Sounds so different from the school dinners we used to have but this was juniors in the 70s.
We loved school dinners, we all got the same meal and there was nearly always seconds, and if we didn't like it we went hungry.

How come they're allowed to serve pizza and all sorts of junk food yet the parents aren't allowed to give it to their kids themselves? That would have my back up.

Ours are £2.80 now. We do a pack lunch but today had to do dinners and then menu was beef or veggie burger, Harry Ramsden fish cake or jacket potato. I chose the potato for her as the others sounded awful.

At our primary school preordered is served by staff to children. You can't change your order last minute.

Secondary school my youngst will attend year we were told at intro night they do the same.

Do you know who provides your child's school lunches? Ours are via a catering company- nothing to do with the school.

I’d complain/bring it up as a query with the school- but not to the teacher.
It is absolutely nothing to do with them so it’s futile. Go to the main office or arrange a meeting with the Head.

We generally have, on rotation:

Pizza (various toppings)
A pasta (bolognese/mac & cheese/pasta bake)
Curry or chilli with rice
Roast dinner (only chicken)
Burritos/tacos/spicy wraps
Jacket potatoes
Sandwich option
Fish and chips

So not too bad. But it would certainly be frowned (and commented!) upon it i sent cold pizza in as a packed lunch. I'd get a naughty parent bad lunch letter!

Don't get me started on the desserts. As I said in my last post, not allowed except fruit or yoghurt in packed lunches. School dinners regularly have cookies, cake, jelly and more.

I don't care if my children have a cookie or a jelly...but I do object to not being allowed to put a jelly pot in my child's lunchbox occasionally!

Are yours provided by Dolce because that sounds same as ours. The pizza is particularly rank.

My son’s school has moved to a new caterer and he’s apparently eating more now rather than just a jacket potato each day. He’s 4 so gets free meals. hopefully the positive change lasts as by some descriptions on here some meals can be rank.
Unfortunately the change in caterer means that breakfast club - that we pay for- is no longer a cooked breakfast and is a choice of cereal or toast. My son says the toast is yucky.

In my DDs school pizza day is always a hit.. large doughy pizza with LOTS of cheese!!

They do have some odd things though like vegetable chow main and Mexican cottage pie.. DD always has an omelette, packed lunch or jacket on those days!

Angel delight is still always served too!

My DCs original primary was like that, they also made such a huge fuss about my DS' allergies that I didn't bother and made him packed lunch instead.
DD went and tried the fish and chips on a Friday, usually one of her faves at the time. She said it was horrible, the chips were still frozen in the middle and the fish was "slimy".

When they moved school they were far better
I think it depends on which catering team they use, I think it's Chartwells that was rubbish. The next one was incredibly helpful over the allergies, even making him a special meal of he couldn't eat the days special.

Secondary school has been better. Far more choice.

It's £3.30 per day at my school and both my children have packed lunches every day now. Not because of the money (making packed lunches every day is a chore) but their school dinner offerings are just as you describe OP. It's appalling and the older children are served the same portions as the younger ones. Even the teacher said to me she understands why so many children have packed lunches and wouldn't touch the school dinners. Jamie Oliver, it's time for another intervention. They might not have turkey twizzlers on the menu anymore but they are served up tiny shrivelled jacket potatoes, wet meat, cold stodgy pizzas and portion sizes for a hamster.

Does your £2.50 include wages including cleaning up time, NI, pensions, sick pay, cleaning products and a profit?

Suppose it depends how the local lea works it's meals. My kids primary had their meals bused in from another school then heated up