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?

For the majority its childcare to enable both parents to work to keep on the treadmill of fuelling the housing prices and crisis, a deliberate act by successive governments. Parents rushed, kids rushed, breakfast on the go as its often too early for a lot of people to eat. Children are the collateral damage.

Some children are being fed breakfast at school because parents can't afford it but we have a safety net of benefits and organisations to help. There shouldn't be a 'need' for it, apart from when UC sanction parents for obtuse reasons.
Its been said that children of the poorest are more likely to be obese, due to cheap food being non nutritional . But these children are also being fed non nutritional food in quantities that produce obesity.
Obesity is the opposite of starving. It may be nutritionally deficient but it's not 'starving'. They may be unhealthy due to poor nutrition but how is giving them another poor meal helping?
Are these parents likely to think Alfie has had breakfast, school dinner and give a maccyd for dinner as he's had two 'good' meals? Their perception of good is already skewed.
Children of neglectful parents who are actually starving their kids are hardly likely to be making sure kids get to school early, probably not even turn up. Teachers will do safeguarding actions for children they suspect are neglected.

Surely the money would be best funnelled into social services. School is there to educate, not replace parents. Changes to mortgage lending, rent caps and social housing build levels would be more useful for the future of children.

@fetaface you seem very determined to want to argue with me today.

Personally, I think the job of feeding a child breakfast should be the responsibility of the parents. There shouldn’t need to be a government initiative to feed children breakfast.

The problems of catering for unknown numbers surely applies whether you’re feeding the kids cheap processed cereal or something with a bit more nutritional value? So if we have to feed them, let’s make it something nutritious. And I refuse to believe that numbers fluctuate by 190 each day.

Now I understand that if the porridge you’re making is sticking like cement to a bowl, no wonder no one wants to eat it! And I wash up plenty thanks!

I’m going to turn my phone off now before another stressful week of working for the NHS. If you want to carry on arguing about why our kids should be fed rubbish, you’ll have to do it with yourself.

It's not poverty it's neglect, I was jobless and under 25 (look up how much less benefits under 25s get) and still fed my kids breakfast every morning. Cereals literally 70p. Sorry but I think it's bullshit they're too poor to buy cereal. Sadly breakfast club isn't the answer because those types aren't getting up early to go to the breakfast club

All my children went to the state primary. The school had a hall which was for lunch, pe and assembly. It has a kitchen off it.

in that school, breakfast coukd be served in the classrooms and then a child bring a tray with plastic bowls to the hall to go through the dishwasher.

why wouldn’t something work in your school as it sounds like the same set up.

Hear hear.

As an aside, I used to take young children on a week long residential trip each year. The place we went served kiddie style food. Soup as a starter then roast chicken or fish fingers and chips or pizza. There was always a cooked dessert and the children all ate well and had a great time.
Suddenly Jamie Oliver happened and the menu changed. The pizza became very different and covered with lots of random veg. The chips became spicy potato wedges. It meant that many children didn’t eat it and we had a real issue with children being hungry. Luckily the year after the menu had reverted back as the centre realised that while healthy eating is important it’s actually more important that children eat.

Schools will serve whatever the majority of children will eat and whatever they can quickly and safely prepare. A selection of cereals and toast are ideal in this situation.

The point is that it is rarely so simple. Not just due to poverty but SEN, dietary needs etc.

Not to mention how well it would go down with other children and probably some parents if my child was the only one at breakfast club with rice krispies or how it would make my child feel, he doesn't want to stand out any more than he has to.

I haven’t said it’s poverty-related, I have agreed that those parents are despicable, I said that in high poverty areas these breakfast clubs exist and are used. So as I said, if by rolling it out means even a few more children might get fed then I’ll be content. Of course, we all know there shouldn’t be a need, there shouldn’t be hungry kids for any reason whatsoever, but irrespective of that if there is a chance that a few more kids might get fed breakfast then I support this whole heartedly.

Maybe some of these ‘types’ might not bother, but some might, their kids might access school another way, and those children will benefit massively, and that is what counts.

Especially when the week they started, early years settings (who the government seem set to ruin) were issued with new food guidance. Here are their breakfast example menus:

Berry porridge with banana sticks
Egg and wholemeal toast strips with quartered tomatoes
Wheat bisks with milk and peach sticks
Cinnamon wholemeal toast fingers and mashed banana
Egg and mushroom cups with wholemeal bread strips

I'm interested in what they are actually given. There was a discussion about this subject about 6 weeks ago on LBC and the presenter kept referring to the fact that they were going to have to pay the staff 'to cook these breakfasts'. I thought 'Cook them? I hardly think they'll be given a full English!'. More like cereal or a croissant. Or toast at a push.

It's not that there's no money, it's the priorities that are all wrong. We don't need HS2 or more nuclear submarines.

Serving breakfast to 34 children in a classroom and then asking one child to take a tray to the staff room. What could go wrong? I honestly think some people don’t live in the real world. We had to eat lunch in the classroom during Covid and the time taken to hoover the floor after, clean up spills and wipe tables was crazy. I’m all for children eating healthy food and having breakfast but the posters stating it’s easy for schools have literally no clue.

Thing is, surely it won’t be 34 kids in most instances? It’s optional. I wouldn’t be sending my DC in for it, and I’m guessing lots of parents won’t (based on this thread anyway)

Yeah but why is the area being high poverty relevant if you don't think it's poverty related? The people using those clubs aren't necessarily not going to feed their kids if the club didn't exist.

There's no one broker than a jobless under 25 who doesn't live with their parents so if I managed to feed my kids breakfast every day and know other jobless under 25s who's kids are fed every day I'm not buying the excuse anyone can't afford 70p cereal (which with milk is actually a nutritious meal with the calcium from the milk and fortified cereal).

So you think that all children should eat white bread and Krispies so your son doesn’t stand out?

wow .

I just can't picture groups of children carrying trays down the several flights of stairs unsupervised and it not causing any issues with dropping food, throwing food etc.

It's much easier to just keep food in the hall. Children don't eat in classrooms.

I agree. I only said classrooms as that is where a ta on this thread serves their breakfast.
i agree eating in the hall sounds better.

if there are no kitchens in a school, where does lunch get heated up and the plates washed? Or is it all taken off site and washed?

I agree. I only said classrooms as that is where a ta on this thread serves their breakfast.
i agree eating in the hall sounds better.

if there are no kitchens in a school, where does lunch get heated up and the plates washed? Or is it all taken off site and washed?

Because the government put them in those areas? That was their decision? Because at one point (example right here) some parents genuinely couldn’t afford to feed us kids and typically were from high poverty areas. I

I don’t know why you keep repeating that to me, I have not - at any point - defended parents not feeding their children. I have and am literally agreeing with you. However, it’s the kids who are suffering, it’s the kids who need the chance to eat and they are the ones I give a fuck about. And imagine that teachers who are aware that kids are going hungry will be able to give them a little of the leftover breakfast if their parents don’t get them to school on time. However, as I’ve said many times, if some parents who don’t feed their kids do decide to take their kids to school a bit earlier and those kids get fed then it’s all worth it in my eyes.

Would you want your child (who already stands out anyway) to stand out more than they have to? I really don't think so.

Not to mention the questions from other children
Some parents complaining that it isn't fair their Johnny has to eat shitty porridge when Bob can eat what he wants etc

I know exactly how it would go.

Don't forget ensuring there is cold running water and a first aid kit in every classroom because it's difficult to ensure that porridge isn't so hot as to cause serious burns/scalds but hot enough to be edible twenty times in ten minutes.

no one wants their child to stand out, but you cannot expect a school to change their entire menu and feed children unhealthy food so your child duesnt stand out, that’s ridiculous and self entitled.

if you are that bothered, feed him breakfast at home.

It’s not fair to get ten or twenty other kids to eat what your child is eating though? Anyway, the answer here is you simply don’t send your child in. If you can feed your child breakfast at home then this isn’t for you.

I'm not expecting his school to change their menu because breakfast at his school is never going to change to porridge only, it just isn't going to happen for many reasons.

I'm very happy that he can enjoy breakfast with his friends and not stand out.

They already eat what he is eating because white bread and rice krispies are the norm at breakfast club at his school and it won't be changing any time soon. He has to stay away from certain cereals too but he knows which ones.