School stopping Meat Free Monday doesn’t make any sense

[Miriamfriend]

Our schools trust has recently stopped being part of Meat Free Monday for school lunches. The school have said some parents complained about it.

The school is very focused on being environmentally conscious- crisps not allowed as a break time snack due to potential errant packets, single use plastic actively discouraged etc. I can’t see a single reason why a school or a parent would have any issue with lunches being meat free for one day a week but maybe I’m missing something?

You are being unreasonable- being meat free for one meal is not a reasonable request

You are not being unreasonable -being meat free for one school meal is not a bad thing

I wish it were otherwise, but the gap between what kids will eat and what the powers that be would like them to eat is pretty massive, with schools stuck in the middle And schools are massively under pressure on meal budgets - the three big costs for a school kitchen are food, energy and wages (mostly minimum wage) and as we all know all of those have gone up & up.

Here, it's spicy chicken wings and rice, followed by fruit (or pastries at breaktime). If somebody's paying around fifteen-plus quid a week, they're going to want something available that the kid will actually eat.

Fully agree

I’m not upset at all. I’m curious to hear what other views are on this and some responses have been thought provoking. I’m not asking from the perspective of vegetarians. I’m interested in understanding what’s behind people refuting or not caring about the known benefit of reducing meat consumption on the environment.

Yes - meals here are £2.80 and as well as expecting it to be something child will eat, parents also regarded pasta with tomato sauce or macaroni cheese and the like as a very cheap meal they could make themselves for less than £2.80. I’m well aware of wages, energy prices etc but a lot of parents just weren’t willing to pay that for pasta and sent a packed lunch. They will, and do, pay happily for a roast dinner, fish Friday, chicken curry and the like.

I have no problem in principle with meat free Monday despite working within the meat industry and being 'pro' meat.
My problem is often the substitute in these setting is not more environment friendly, and is also often much more processed. If it was local seasonal produce that would great and I would support that but often it isn't. As a parent I would be complaining if my child was bring fed processed quorn instead of chicken for example.

Why aren't you more focused on sourcing local meats from local farmers rather than providing rubbish tvp?

I’m not focused on either. I don’t work in catering and do not involved with sourcing. The school my DC go to doesn’t often offer fake meat - tend to do lentil bolognese for veg option vs beef bolognese for meat option type offerings

So why is it important to you that dc who want to eat meat are stopped from doing so?

Schools aren’t going to source local meat from local farmers! School meals are mostly out-sourced to private catering companies and run on a shoestring.

I have explained above, many meat substitues contain wheat/gluten. Throw in a dairy allergy and it rules out a lot of options whereas I know I can get a good meal if its meat or fish based. A healthy vegetarian diet is often harder to achieve for those with allergies.

Meat-free/ vegetarian at my DC's primary school either involved quorn or random ultra-processed vegan "plant based" not-food (because it's described as what it isn't not what it actually is). It has less in common with a plant than an economy sausage has in common with a pig.

With a low tolerance to soya, "plant-based" not-food is a bloody nightmare.

I enjoy a lot of decent quality naturally vegetarian food, but vegan is a pain in the arse. Literally. Thanks soya intolerance.

Meat-free Monday was a cheap gimmick green washed as environmentalism and the reality tends to be unappealling, low quality, processed stuff, not healthy food made with recognisable plants.

Its pretty much impossible to feed my daughter without meat due to multiple food allergies. She has a completely bespoke menu due to the complexity of her allergies

I wouldn't like it. My child struggles with food. She likely has ARFID. Most vegetarian meals wouldn't work for her. There should be a meat option in my opinion.

Last term at our school, meat free Monday was a choice of either the disgusting pizza that even the kids won't eat, or macaroni cheese.

To be fair, this term they are trying, it's either the disgusting pizza, or a 3 week rotation of spaghetti with garlic butter (so much less to make than £2.80), veg risotto, or vegan curry (sounds delicious but my kids tell me it's not).

But it's the waste that gets me - most of the kids either eat very little, or opt for a cheese sandwich, so all that effort goes in the bin. I'd be happy if they'd scrap the "title" and with it the pizza, and just offer a decent quality meat option on Mondays too.

If pack lunch then it would have been a no for two of my dc as ham sandwich or wrap was the only type they would take

Yup, I've got a vested interest in this - when I asked about food suitable for coeliacs, the kitchen manager brought me a vegan mince meal (presumably the meat one definitely had wheat in it for some reason), so I asked about the ingredients in that and they brought me the list.

Barley and rye.

And to add insult to injury, every single one of the six jacket potatoes had been split and had the poison gluten containing minces dumped on top.

Just why?

The most annoying thing about even general foods, like grains and pulses, is that a significant number of those are also contaminated with wheat/barley/rye, so you can't even trust those - I've been glutened four times in the last 2 months despite a GF house and DP cooking from scratch as he's done daily for years; it has to have been the pulses each time, despite not trusting the May Contain packs - but meat and fish has been fine.

I've stopped eating lentils for this reason

Many in the rural & farming communities find it a boy offensive. Slogging your guts out all year to provide quality British food & it's not good enough for the local schools.

Vegetables also come from farms you know….

@NeverDropYourMooncup surely you know by now, medical reasons for not being able to have foods is nothing, ideology and virtue signalling around food.... gets all the importance!#1

I have voted YABU but I disagree with your description of the options. You said:

You are being unreasonable- being meat free for one meal is not a reasonable request

Well of course there is nothing unreasonable about being meat free for one meal. What is unreasonable is imposing that on somebody who has made different food choices.

I am not vegetarian but I have meat free days probably once or twice a week. This is not because I am avoiding meat but simply because I enjoy a wide range of foods and this includes many dishes which do not include meat.

In theory then you could ask why I would object to an organisation imposing a meat-free day when I often have one of my choosing. But that's the point, it is my choice not someone else dictating to me what I should be eating.

Oh, absolutely. It's just not so glamorous to explain that the consequence is either my entire digestive system shutting down for about ten days to a fortnight or a fifteen minute delay before I'm simultaneously shaking, sweating, shitting and puking whilst DP empties the bin in search of anything he might have missed, is it?

Haven't even mentioned that the gut damage from being glutened means vegan dairy alternatives would actually be a good idea were it not for all the sodding gluten contamination in them.

So I'll stick to the animal products. You know where you are with them - which isn't in the bathroom for a couple of hours and then dragging yourself through the following week like one of the walking dead with muscle pains and malabsorption issues affecting your bone density.

Why force it on people? If there’s one thing I learnt as a fussy eater when I was a child (or still am) it’s that trying to force a child to eat something doesn’t work.

If there's a meat free option daily, then there's no need to have a meat free day.
If they offer no one a meat one one day a week, that's just pushing their views on kids who don't want to be a vegetarian.
It's usually some HPF that isn't good for anyone. Or cheese pizza anyway.

@NeverDropYourMooncup my youngest has had same issues since weaning from ebf at months, it was horrific with multiple hospital admissions till eventually worked out what was going on. Solidarity to you, I'm hoping my fear of 'well Intentioned' ideas like this 'meat free monday' reduces by time he's at school.