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?

Because when you don’t even have a bed to sleep in a warm bagel and a hot chocolate can provide some comfort and the feeling that people might actually care

interestingly, French kids are much less fussy. They tend to be served much better and healthier food at school, and they eat. No nonsense about only being able to survive on beige food and junk.

There are no different from British kids, so what's the difference, if not the attitude of their parents?

Toast and cereal is fine

sausage rolls, cheese bagels and sugar waffles not so good

We’ve had free breakfast in Wales for a few years now - schools can charge for childcare but the breakfast is free. So in my DDs school we pay £1 a day to be there 8-8.30 which a lot of working parents use, then to be there 8.30-8.50 is free. They are all allowed breakfast and stuff like cornflakes & toast is offered but tbh my DD usually has breakfast at home first so we are just using it for pre school childcare. I think free breakfast is important though , no child should be arriving in school hungry because their parents either can’t afford or can’t be bothered to give them breakfast. Cornflakes and toast is not perfect but it’s a lot better than nothing.

I think it’s a wider cultural issue. I think we almost expect children not to eat healthily. Look at most children’s menus to see an example.

Do you think children aren’t getting breakfast at home because the budget doesn’t stretch to free range eggs and granary toast with bee pollen and flax seed?

The kids from the poorest families I’ve seen seem to have enough food. It’s just shite, carby, UPF.
If schools offered fruit alongside the toast that would be good. Porridge even better.

DD’s school offer free toast in the mornings - I volunteer and help with this. It’s entirely funded by donations and it’s the cheapest, shittest white bread and the cheapest, shittest spread.

It’s open to all and DD likes to partake - obviously I can’t stop her on the days that we’re helping out as she has to come with me. But she went through a phase of taking some every morning. Which meant that I started cutting back on the (healthy) breakfast I was offering at home because I knew she’d be getting this toast - seemed really counter intuitive.

There are so, so many children getting the toast every morning and I’m sure at least 80% of them do get breakfast at home, but I also know there will be some who get nothing and the crappy toast and spread is the difference between being hungry and at least having something inside them. They get fruit too at least - I know all classes get fruit mid morning. I wish we were offering something a bit more wholesome but it’s not really up to me.

Or parents could do a better job at managing their money. Iv only ever worked minimum wage jobs and their has always been food on the table. Child benefits, universal credit, food vouchers, food banks. Starving your kids is neglect. Schools shouldn't have to feed and clothe children. If people can't afford 50p for a loaf of bread they are seriously mismanaging their money. So if the government have to step in yet again because people are incapable of looking after their own children then yes people should be greatful

The problem is that the budgets and contracts schools are subjected to means they struggle to provide the food you expect.
All schools are expected to provide vegetables with meals and they do but that will mean something has to slide.

The money paid covers not just food but staff, storage, electricity.
The companies providing meals are in it for the profit not for the good of their hearts.

Who mentioned salmon? 🙄

I wonder how many of you actually know what is served in our canteens. Our school serves a hot meal and pudding, but there is also a salad bar, pasta bar, baked potatoes, a variety of baguettes and sandwiches etc. Our ladies are fabulous and work really hard.

School are paid 60p per pupil attending. With that there needs to be food and staff covered. Free school breakfasts are a con.

A school charging £2 a child would only just break even when providing a basic breakfast offering.

however any breakfast is better than no breakfast but universal free breakfast are not the answer.

It was the first fancy food that came into my head 🤣

Breakfast club at my DC’s school is used by families for 30 minutes for drop off/work, not those struggling. It offers white bread, spread, value jam & sugar loaded cereals for breakfast. Much like the school lunches they lack nutrition & quality ingredients. However, the attitude in the UK is, it’s all good, doesn’t matter if it’s sugar laden shite, as long as they’re fed.

Admittedly* I have no catering experience but porridge is usually pretty cheap wherever you shop. Surely making up a big vat with some fruit wouldn’t cost the earth? I may be wrong though.

Will it be eaten or wasted ?

I'm happy with the food on offer at my child's school so I wouldn't be particularly concerned about breakfast options.

They have daily access to a salad bar, jacket potato bar with various toppings and fresh fruit as well as a 'snacky' option such as a sandwich or panini.

Lunch consists of things such as roast of the day, curry, salmon, homemade dhal etc with the occasional (every other week or so) pizza and burger. They also do meat free Mondays.

Much better than the food options that were offered when he had a hospital stay.

But surely if your packing them a healthy lunch and making a healthy tea everynight. Plus feeding them all weekend plus the 13 weeks of the holiday every year I don't think a bit of jam on toast will do any harm

I used to work In state schools in London.
Salad bar every time.

That is pretty bad. Wholemeal toast, fruit, weetabix is fine/ok. The rest is definitely not pretty good. It’s pretty bad actually.

Breakfast club at DD's school offers toast with marge, marmalade, jam or cheese spread, and cereal with dairy or soy milk. In the winter they offer porridge but most kids won't eat it. There is always some fruit available, usually banana chunks or apple slices. That's pretty similar to all the schools near me. DD hates it if she has to go to breakfast club as do most of her friends.

I am pretty sure that no children are falling over themselves to go and eat browning banana chunks and pallid toast at school if they have the option of breakfast at home.

I don't understand your comment. Wholemeal bread or porridge are hardly unusual or that expensive but far more nutritious and healthy than white bread and most cereals. Poorer kids deserve healthy food too not the cheapest crap available.

I honestly do not believe that a parent is so poor they cannot afford a bag of oats, milk/water and apples.

Porridge is cheaper than cereal. Do kids hate porridge?