To think that free breakfast at school is a bad idea due to the quality?

[Mushypeass]

Firstly, I fully agree with the principle of free breakfast for all pupils. My reservation comes from the quality of food that is often served up in UK school canteens. Obviously a poor quality breakfast is better than no breakfast at all but AIBU that it could encourage children to eat even more UPFs? For example, children who have may had a relatively healthy breakfast at home may now opt eat UPFs at school with their pals instead.

Seocondly, why is the food so poor in so many schools? How can other countries manage to provide their youth with nutritious and healthy meals but we can’t?

Schools can’t even provide students with proper teachers. All money goes to senior management at the trusts. Our children are being robbed.

It will literally be cereal, milk, toast and fruit. How can that be bad?

Cereal and cheap bread are ultra highly processed foods. Not healthy at all.

Yes I agree I'm waiting for the excuses though, personally I have no time for them if I managed to feed my kids breakfast having no job and being young what excuse does someone with a job or over 25 and getting a lot more benefits than an under 25 have? Cornflakes is literally 80p and even though it's processed it's not the end of the world it's fortified with vitamins if it was kraves or that Oreo balls cereal I'd get the arguement it's unhealthy but not all cereals are even that sugary.

Parents not feeding their kids breakfast is neglect and breakfast club won't stop them because they're not the type to get to school on time anyway let alone earlier

You mean the government are not setting the children up. If it was fully funded then the schools could provide. Because it isnt then they cant. They literally have to provide food for say 200 kids a day not knowing how many will rock up. Food waste will be appalling from that if they bought enough eggs and avos to feed 200 kids a day but only 10 turned up! The parents are the issue here. Not feeding their kids so they're not setting the kids up. The schools are doing what they can on bare bones budget which means staff work for free. Coincidentally usually the ones on the lowest income meaning staff earn less than minimum wage as a result. Also this club removed the education from the children who need it the most because staff are washing up dishes instead of helping them in class. Now it is toothbrushing too and potty training. Might as well bring their PJs and they can sleep. Hand them back at 18 is the idea I think. We as a society shouldn't just nod when new initiatives are loaded onto schools then criticise them as they do their best without money to fund it properly.

What would your idea to ensure no food waste or ensure staff aren't shopping each night because more kids rocked up than anticipated? Yes staff do food shopping themselves in their own time and do not get the money back for months in many schools.

I work in a school that is in a deprived area. To put it simply, there is no money. Our breakfast club provides cereal or toast and runs at a loss, despite not being part of the government scheme and charging per session. The government scheme would leave us worse off, as the funding is not enough to feed the children and pay staff to man the breakfast club.

So you would rather see a child have no breakfast and go hungry over having jam on toast at school?

Bloody sight healthier than an empty stomach. Even cheap cereal is usually eaten with milk.

This isn’t served at breakfast. Most schools are similar to mine and are toast, cereal and if you’re lucky, porridge. There is also fresh fruit provided on occasion.

Porridge is a really cheap option and highly nutritious.

Why is everyone so against jam its fruit and low in fat obviously it has a high sugar content but in moderation is fine

It depends on the jam and what's in it.

My issue is with universality and the dumbing down it brings.

If we take your argument to the next stage, it comes pretty close to bringing back workhouses.

It really, really is not fine. And it’s not high in fruit, especially not the very cheap stuff served at school.

In moderation, yes it’s fine. But we’re not talking about moderation. We’re talking about kids eating it every day for breakfast.

Jam generally has more sugar than fruit. It usually contains added gelling agents and other chemicals that are doing us more harm than good and has no nutritional value at all.

Add a scraping of spread that has a closer resemblance to plastic than butter and some cheap white bread (I’ve just googled Sainsbury’s own white sliced and it contains 15 ingredients that I can barely say, when bread should be made of just 4), and we’re filling our kids with chemicals and no nutrition to feed their growing bodies and brains.

The quality of school meals in my school is actually ok. Many staff actually have one.

Im not against the principle of providing breakfast either and I think it’s amazing. But schools are now providing free breakfast, teeth cleaning, free school meals for all for reception and ks1 children. Foodbanks, uniform banks, lifts to and from school for children. Many staff pay out of their own pockets for children and parents! I have in the past purchased a small inexpensive Christmas present for some of my pupils and provided some of my DCs clothing for parents in need. Yet we constantly get torn to shreds over all sorts, holiday fines, safeguarding issues in the mainstream media! Hardly anyone looks at the positive things we do, that we didn’t get into the job to do, but do willingly! That’s without being the ears for several parents who are struggling on a day to day basis. I do love my job but it’s certainly not what it was when I started teaching 20 years ago :(

Please feel free to donate enough healthy cereal to your local school for every single child for the full academic year.

My school is from a deprived area and we still manage it. Breakfast club has been free for a very long time, not just since the government introduced it. Everything is healthy, wholemeal toast, fortified cereals. Special treats they may get Jam, or pancakes.

We do what we can with next to no budget.

Well yeah it is similar to that if you work in a school! We're not far off for staff at the moment!

Schools have no money. The funding isn’t enough. They’re doing the best they can to provide food that children will eat. I’m not sure why so many people seem so obsessed with porridge.

I can tell you now from experience working in a deprived primary school. They only give them toasted white bagels with cheap margarine. The children could eat as much as they liked but there was no fruit. The fruit that they were given was donated from a farm which was on the turn. Kids were still hungry. That was every day.
It's very commendable of the government to say they will give free breakfast but the quality does matter.
What about giving the kids porridge and if a local farm wants to donate they can top it up on the porridge. That's more nourishing for the children

This with bells on. Schools are vilified but do more than other services and go above and beyond - even going without themselves as staff to make sure the children have.

And if kids won't eat it then it's a waste of effort.

So no breakfast at all is better?

Calories are what matter, with very limited resources, when a child is hungry.

There is a significant issue in that the role of schools is to educate, not to provide social provision for the deprived. That needs to be addressed separately, even if school.premises are concerned. The same goes for CAMHS services/MH, particularly in secondary schools. The lines are being blurred and it is unacceptable. Children with MH issues and their families should retain the right for clinical care to be provided through clinical facilities and to retain Confidentiality if required.

My DC attended a leafy cofe, top of the tables primary in the noughties. The HT grasped every blairite initiative going, including deciding to teach the DC table manners. The only problem was they were misinterpreted and the notion of the knife and fork crossing the plate to sit together at the end of the meal was interpreted and sent home in pictorial form with the knife and fork crossed on the plate at right angles. One couldn't have made it up. The poor woman had missed the fact that 70% of the children had professional parents.

Porridge is really cheap - 89p for 25 servings. Made with milk, it contains fibre, protein, b vitamins and other minerals. It’s good for heart health, gut health and slow release energy.

Top with some fruit and it’s a really healthy breakfast and completely UPF free. A much, much better way to start the day than what a lot of schools offer.