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

things going normally largely well

This is good to hear. I started the thread to hear opinions about school meal provision and it seems a lot of people aren’t happy. Some have the privilege of excellent provision and some have children coming home hungry because the meals are inadequate. Where did you find the evidence of meals being mostly very good? I’d like to read that.

As a former teaching assistant I think the issue is that the child is asked what they would like on their plate, so for example if it’s a roast dinner a child might choose just the meat and potatoes refuse the veg and gravy. So the meal doesn’t look very appetising.

A typical week would be cheap thin “burgers” with potato tots, roast dinner with suggestible quality “chicken”, pizza, fish fingers, chicken curry and rice.

Yogurt, fruit, crackers for pudding. Once a week would be mini muffins and chocolate brownies.

Not terrible overall but I was surprised how little most children actually eat especially in the younger classes.

Packed lunches were even worse though in my opinion, full of ultra processed crap, biscuits, chocolate, crisps, lunchables etc

DS likes his school dinners. It's a two week rotation of curry, lasagne, Bolognese, fish and chips, pasta and meatballs, roast dinner etc all wide a side of veg. Puddings are a choice of fruits and yoghurts. His school is a small state school.

What do they have instead of sugar? I had my last straw with the school when I looked at the ingredients for the sugar free jelly in the packed lunch on a Friday (where I live children finish at noon on Fridays so are sent home with a bagged lunch) - fake sugar and chemicals and that was meant to be the ‘fruit’ as far as I could figure out!

But are they mass produced crap or are nutritionally balanced home made?

Cakes / puddings often have veg hidden in them if they are home, well school, made.

A fruit yoghurt from a supermarket can have 15g of sugar in it.

There are strict rules about what and how often something is served.

All our desserts are packed with fruit and veg.

Chocolate is not allowed so they have chocolate beetroot cake. No salt is added or sugar. Chips only once a week. Vegetable option daily.
Salad bar, fruit, water and milk always available.

Pizza is veg packed, pasta is wholemeal. No ketchup is allowed.No additives etc. They have to comply with portion size requirements which is larger as KS progress. Governors are responsible for checking what is being served, sampling food, checking pupil feedback etc and knowing what the legal requirements are

Most schools subsidise meals including FSMs and they need to ensure they are providing healthy food and catering for medical needs even if these meals are double the cost. There is also child specific funding for blended diets in some LAs, some areas do not provide it and some provide it via the NHS.
These are in the region of £8-£10 a meal and can not be provided without funding.

If your meals are poor speak to the Head and ask how governors are monitoring provision and standards.