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?

its the extra time we give and the penalties we get to do it. I’ve been late picking up my DC to attend meetings, given up evenings and weekends to complete paperwork to support getting extra support for parents, sometimes I’ve had it thrown back in my face too with next to no thanks for it.
My own DC have SEND issues and I’m eternally grateful for any support! I know the school pays out of their budget to support on top the the funding they receive. Many schools are running on a deficit. And we are getting a pay rise that is partly being funded by schools. I’d willingly forgo this if I could. I didn’t get into the job for the peanuts we get paid for the multiple jobs we have to do as well as actually teach!

Lidl's Classic Baguette generally consists of wheat flour, water, yeast, salt, and wheat gluten.

There you go, 5 ingredients, if water counts. It’s possible on a budget.

Yes. Can only speak personally. Our kids liked it and our grandchild does, too. With a bit of honey.

My child's secondary school offers porridge to encourage pupils to come in early for pre-school homework club. Brilliant idea and I'm grateful to them for their efforts.

@CrispEatingExpert

It may be nutritionally sound but when the school doesn’t have a kitchen to prepare it, or keep it warm then it’s a moot point. When a toaster is all they have as well as access to a fridge then options are more limited.

Porridge, homework, longer school day and having to get up earlier i bet the teens love that

@MrsSkylerWhite I have said in previous posts that some food in a hungry tummy is better than nothing, but cheap, nutritious food is available and we shouldn’t automatically resort to food with no nutrition.

There are plenty of breads available that don’t contain loads of extra ingredients. Part bake baguettes and pitta bread are really good options too, but these aren’t what is being offered.

Is anyone else just really craving jam on toast right now with loads of butter 😋

I agree the families of teachers suffer as a result of putting someone else's children first. I am out. Notice handed in. Nothing to go to but absolutely am I buggery being told I am to work more hours than 100 a week or be told I am failing the children because I didn't spend £500 of my own money on resources all while my body is failing through stress.

Is it still a cheap option if you buy enough for 200 kids to eat it a day (1000 servings per week) and only 10 kids per day eat it?

Works out at considerably more than 89p per 25 servings.

I wish DD's school lunches looked like that! On a 3 week rotation it's potatoes 12 times, most of which are chips by another name (chips, fries, potato balls, wedges) or roasts. One lot of mash. One day a week they have pasta!

Pizza, hot dogs, burgers, sausages, quorn dippers, veggie "sausage roll", fish fingers and chips every Friday, roast once a week...

Apparently they're all nutritionally balanced but it's all pretty beige and unimaginative.

DD has packed lunches!

After school club do white toast and marg every day. Or sometimes a packet of crisps if they're playing outside in the summer.

I whole heartedly agree that feeding kids is the most important thing but with our school menu example I can also understand concerns about the quality of what will be served.

Yup. Cereals and toast - the school meals are shit too

Haven’t read the whole thread as it’s long but just wanted to say I agree with the OP. My three have to go to breakfast club twice a week and the breakfasts on offer are very low quality. White toast with jam, choc filled cereal, weetabix (better, but none of the kids want it as the alternatives are yummier). Would love to see some porridge w/ toppings, yoghurt, fruit in there. Even hard boiled eggs would be easy and cheap.

don’t get me started on the school dinners available. Iast term I put my kids onto packed lunches as there was so much processed crap in there. Last thing I really want to do each morning is make three packed lunches but they come in about £1 cheaper per day than the £2.70 cost of the school hot lunches so winning there as well as nutrition-wise.

the food (and attitude towards healthy eating) I saw at French state schools when I
exchanges in the 90s was a whole other world away. Depressing that the U.K. can’t prioritise kids health and offer the same so that healthy eating is normalised

Our grandson’s school makes meals from scratch every day. Two week rotation. Pizza, made in the kitchen, once each fortnight. Chips on offer on Friday with fish and peas. State primary, NW coast.

I'm a primary school teacher.

I never eat school dinners. Yes, there is a salad bar and fruit available but the main meals are not good quality or nutritious and the packed lunches are dreadful.

But that's not the fault of the schools themselves. The financial situation is dire.

I completely understand that, but there are always other options. Shredded wheat or weetabix are far better than Rice Krispies for example. And I realise a lot of kids won’t eat them, but overnight oats are an option for parents short of time in the mornings.

As I’ve said before, school breakfasts are the very tip of the iceberg. As a nation we need to go back to basics and relearn what nutrition is and what our bodies need. And as parents we need to stop feeding our kids such appalling quality food. If kids were being bought up eating nutritious food at home, they wouldn’t be refusing the healthier options at school.

In an ideal world, schools wouldn’t be under the extra pressure of providing breakfast. That should be a parents job.

I suppose it's a question of time for than anything else but porridge can be done in a microwave easily enough and most children like it. They could have a banana with it and some yogurt.

This is absolute rubbish and clearly you don’t know how a Trust works. I’m a governor and parents are so misinformed about Trusts. The issue is years of underfunding. Most schools are far worse off before they join a Trust, but all budgets are getting tighter each year.

But it’s far from an ideal world

Our school has a staff room a long way from the hall where the breakfast club takes place. The funding would not stretch to a staff member being out of ratio and in the staff room warming porridge in the microwave.

The washing up for porridge is much greater than for toast as well. All of these things matter when working on such tight shoe string budgets as schools are.

I agree that cereal could be low sugar but don’t just assume schools can provide porridge.

This is the reality of school life. We have no money for pritt sticks for example and I’m tired of buying them so we just don’t do cutting and sticking.

I've seen lots of different schools and what they offer, which have all been a good variety of nutritious options. The thing is most kids do go for the bacon butties, waffles, as at lunch time, the pizzas and burgers go quickly. So much healthier food is left, piles of fruit and salad on the otherwise bare shelves.

At primary my DC preferred the white toast to fruit or cereal, like many of the other pupils, so there was a lot of it!

Two of mine would eat it and two would rather have gone hungry. I confess I can't eat it, I like crunchy food so a bowl of cornflakes or shreddies, skimmed milk and fruit chopped up on top, maybe some nuts as well.

When I helped with the Christmas lunch I couldn't believe how many lovely roast potatoes ended up in the bin, it was over 50% and I love a roastie.

We need to ask ourselves why kids aren’t eating the porridge. Why are the vast majority of them eating cheap white bread and processed cereal for breakfast? Why aren’t parents giving their children nutritious food to help them grow and develop? Why is bread and jam a regular breakfast for kids and porridge isn’t?

It’s a long time since my kids were weaned, but they had baby porridge pretty early on. I’m sure parents these days aren’t weaning their babies on coco pops, so at what point do we stop offering the baby porridge and move on to processed cereal?

Of course we all have preferences and likes and dislikes, but surely porridge should be as much of a store cupboard staple in a house as pasta and rice?

We don’t need to set such a low bar. We can provide good quality nutrition AND give schools the budget for it. We will reap the benefit many times over in the health, well being and achievement of our children.

The highly motivated kids who don't have homes with quiet study space or have parents who work nights and aren't around at breakfast time DO love it. It offers time, space, support and sustenance for those that need it. But yes, I admit it sounds a bit Dickensian...