Are school meals really so bad?

[cheeseallthroughthebitch]

My child attends a private school and the meals are predictably made in the school kitchen from scratch and very good. I don’t remember my own primary school dinners as I always took a packed lunch (that probably speaks for itself!)

There’s a thread running at the moment about bringing snacks for children at home time that has descended into a 4 Yorkshiremen sketch of whose children have the worst school dinners. Lots of descriptions of beige plates, rolls with cheese spread, single teaspoon-sized portions of veg, and minuscule servings of everything. So much so the kids are absolutely fainting with hunger by home time.

Is this representative of school dinners? Do any parents complain?

YABU- not at my kid’s school
YANBU- yes, they really are like that

School lunch seems to be pretty good at my DC's state school. There's a lot more variety than I used to have as a kid.

I was recently helping at the school and got to see the dinners and got served one.( same portion as the kids)
There was fish and chips.
The fish was a battered shaped piece about the size of 2.5 fish fingers. It was oily. Chips maybe 12 on the plate and peas . The peas were like bullets.
Pudding was a choice of cake or jelly.
Fruit bowl too all fruit mixed in chopped up, wedges of melon , pineapple , 1/4 oranges etc

Never in my life have I seen such horrible food.
There was also pasta. Which looked stodgy slapped on a plate.

My dcs have the dinners 4/5 days because their friends do and they all like to sit together.

I always cook in the evening around 5. But they do have a snack.of their choosing between school and then because they're hungry.

The portion size at school my dcs were eating at age 3. And they're not big kids at all

Both my dc have always had school dinners. I think they’re fine. My eldest in particular really likes hers (secondary school). Both are cooked on site. The primary school has a cook who literally whips them up every morning in the kitchen.

I went to private school the whole way through. Secondary school was good, but primary school we literally had regular/chocolate/strawberry milk and hot meal choices of pizza or burger, both in plastic packets that were just microwaved en masse and handed out still in the plastic like the ones from a vending machine. 😬 I took a packed lunch.

Not bad, just expensive, my son spend £6 a day

I do a lot of STEM talks to encourage young women into science and engineering and have visited at least 10 schools a year for the past 15yrs. These have all been in inner London. As a treat (?!!), we get to have lunch in the school canteen after. I’ve actually been amazed by the food, both my like the chips, iced buns, and unidentifiable crap we used to have at my school. There are a wide range of options, salad bar, healthy looking hot meals, jacket potatoes, lots to choose if you’re vegetarian or vegan. I always look forward to the lunch!!

My daughter only goes to school dinners a few days a week but when she does she is always starving and hangry when she gets out. She usually begs for her tea early so I now make sure she gets a snack or we do an early tea those days. The portions do seem to be tiny.

School meal contracts are usually all the same across a locality. My FIL is a recently retired head and he used to eat the dinners so they can’t be that bad. He said the dinner ladies got to know the kids and they would serve portions up according to appetite, my DC has never complained he’s hungry.

I loved school dinners and my girls do too

The portions are small but they’re nutritionally balanced to be correct sizes / calories for children of this age. The problem is that most children eat far bigger portion sizes at home than they need / should be eating for their size. Many children are effectively given adult-sized portions of meals at home, so the school dinners look tiny in comparison. That’s why such a huge percentage of primary school aged children are overweight or obese.

I posted over a year ago when DD was starting reception that I was shocked how bad the school dinner menu was and got mainly torn to bits and told I was a snob who was over anxious about 5 out of the 21 meals a week she eats 🙄

But I stand by my view that they are awful and I've learnt most parents hate them too, apparently the school is tied into a contract for the time being. DD has a mixture of dinners and packed lunches as they now do a sandwich option which is similar to what I would pack up.

From someone who has run the council run primary school kitchen. We literally have to follow a production sheet for each dish , so for instance fish fingers on a Friday the KS1 are allowed 2 and KS2 3 , 30g of chips per portion and 30 g of veg. I totally agree mouse portions are bigger, we topped it up with fresh bread. A salad bar, fruit and either yoghurt(weighed out) or a biscuit/cake. If we went over the portions then at the end of the month when we did the stocktake we would get grilled as to why we're in debt. Couldn't wait to leave if I'm honest and this was the main reason as I hated seeing the kids faces as they had yet another microsized portion (deprived area) probably the only meal they would get that day :(

My two DC go to a very small rural primary. Delicious menu but evidently portions are too small for what they need. I've started doing packed lunches now and although they're ready for a snack at pick up, they're not absolutely ravenous and hangry like they used to be when eating school dinners 😅

I work in a primary school and ours are awful. Portion's are tiny, potatoes are often both burnt and undercooked. Pizza is just really thick bred topped with tomato paste and cheese etc.... I think it depends on the school and chef but they're definitely not as good as they used to be. Before COVID we also had a salad bar and bread etc... now that's all gone.

This is so upsetting to read. This is a fundamental need for these children. Provision should be uniform across the country as it seems some areas are providing better than others.

Lunches are fine at my dc primary school

Nutritional content and price of food at secondary is shocking. There are healthy options but costs >£5 a day, and the cheap food is awful eg - chicken pops, slice of pizza, sausage roll.

dd prefers school lunch but admits she would eat much healthier if she was taki mg a packed lunch

That's so expensive, I pay £2.60 for a decent meal ie curry and rice, not a huge portion but enough for lunch.

I live in Hampshire and my DC goes to a school with their own kitchen so they prepare all their own food. The food at all state schools in Hants is done by HC3S and has always been of good quality. The menu is varied and the food is really good. Their infant school has a salad bar daily as well as a red (meat), green (veggie) and jacket potato option every day.

The only issue I have is the portion sizes - they are the same in year R as they are in Year 6. I would rather pay more to have a bigger portion as DC gets older.

The food at older DCs academy secondary is however shit.

I think it really depends on the school/who has the school contract

I do remember running on little more than chips at secondary school though!

Memories! I remember a bag of crisps or a 'Marathon'. It wasn't a problem and I ate at home.

My DCs school Junior school seem quite good. 4 options; Meat/Fish (bar Mondays which are Meat Free), Veggie/Vegan, Pasta and Jacket Potato as well as a baguette/wrap (changes daily) option.

The meals are cooked at the high school they share grounds with and then bought down to the Junior School. They're very popular apparently.

I went to a boarding school many moons ago and the food would’ve provoked a riot in a Victorian workhouse. It was so disgusting.
However I wonder if that is the reason I’ve never put on much weight - maybe my stomach shrank like a jockey’s.

Someone posted a picture on social media of a raw-inside chicken burger at our local high school. It already looked disgusting, but with the completely pink meat in the middle, urgh.

My son would love to be able to eat the school lunches, but the huge difference between the meat meals and the vegetarian ones (he's a veggie) means there is only about one thing a month he likes. Sometimes he has a jacket potato, but they only get a 1/2, not a whole one. That's not enough for a midday meal. He has dinner the second he gets home, he's so hungry if he has school lunch.

OP, why does it matter? If your kids are at private school it doesn't affect your family one jot what the rest of our children are eating.
Your post reads a bit "good God, is that really what life is like for the rabble?!" People who can't afford private school aren't zoo animals for you to gawk at and exclaim over.

My children enjoy their school dinners. There’s always a good variety varying from curry, roast dinners, goujons, burgers, fish etc. They always come home saying they enjoyed it and I let them pick what days they want dinners each week from the menu.

My secondary has 50% FSM.

Many of our children live in genuine poverty and expect the lunchtime meal to sustain them.

The menu on paper looks fine. I think if people saw the state of what was actually served (tiny portions, literally no veg or colour, often running out entirely before all children are served) they'd be in uproar.

The catering company will be making bank. The food just gets worse as inflation rises.

When I saw the picture of the shit chicken wrap someone posted upthread my genuine first thought was lucky, they got lettuce.

They have started a new more 'exciting' menu at my kids primary school, my kids aren't fans they prefer pack up. I only have 1 who receives fsm now and they normally choose a jacket potato. The older 2 used to come out of school absolutely starving when they had school dinner. Also I have a friend who worked in the dinner hall and they said the food was pretty shocking.