Fucking hell, we have to download an app and pre-order school lunches now?!

[AngeloMysterioso]

I have 3 DC, the eldest of which is in primary school. They’ve changed school lunch suppliers this year and now we have to download an app, set up an account and pre-order our children’s meals. I’ve just been sent an email reminder because I hadn’t got round to doing it since the letter went out last Friday because my mental load is already pretty heavily loaded, what with dentist appointments, swimming lessons, birthday parties, after school clubs, hospital appointments, paying the childcare fees, sorting packed lunches, and bloody everything else you can think of.

I’m like… seriously? As if I don’t have enough fucking family admin to do, now this? What happened to kids just queuing up and asking for what they want?

Oh I couldn't be doing with that either OP, sounds ridiculous. My kids just order what they want each morning when they do the register.

To go out of your way to make an unnecessarily unkind post to a struggling mother and edit it three times. You must be very sad at something to project on OP

Which means the school has to have 200-600 of every option in, and either had to cook most of those just in case, make the older years who come in last eat whatever is left, or only stock quick cook foods.

Not if your kid can't eat that food tho.

From memory there were exceptions for medical conditions with a medical note.

Out of interest, what would a typical days meal be?

This is from one of their weeks:

Monday:
Macédoine de légumes (mixed veg)
scalope de dinde (turkey)
Ratatouille
Flamby

Tuesday:
Concombre en salade (cucumber salade)
Boeuf bourguignon
Coquillettes (small pasta)
Petits suisses (yoghurt)

Thursday:
Carottes rapées (grated carrot)
Saucisse (sausage)
Lentilles
Fromage (cheese)
Fruits de saison (seasonal fruit)

Friday:
Bettraves rouge (beetroot)
Moules (mussels)
Frites (chips)
Liégeois chocolat (chocolate yoghurt with cream)

At my kids school they get served at the table one course after another. The older children pour the water. They don’t have to finish but they do have to taste or ‘gout’ as they say.

I mean it's a lovely menu! But DS would be on bread, no dessert on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Thursday he'd enjoy his sausage and cheese. My idea of hell is school distracting the menu or saying we'll give up work and feed them at home then.

My son wouldn't be able to eat most of that menu either and if the bread isn't white bread, it would also include not eating the bread.

Looks similar to DT’s. Tended to be soup or salad followed by a meat or fish with veggies (green beans featured regularly) and fruit salad or dairy dessert.

Yes the flageolets! I would never have predicted it but my kids love them

I don't quite know what point you are trying to make?

All the kids, in each year group, choose what they want that day at registration, so no one has to "eat whatever is left".

It clearly works for the school as presumably they wouldn't do it otherwise.

My DD has to do this for her children and it isn't a chore, provided you remember to do it. Her primary school has a wide range of ethnic and religious backgrounds and I don't see how they would manage the meal organisation without it.

Oh for goodness sake - no one has a clue what having children really involves - if they did, the human race would die out pretty quickly!

Seriously? What op describes is just daily life within a family. Surely you remember it all from the perspective of being a child?

Primary school is a detailed menu list for each day and you choose the main meal part from a meat, a veggie or a baked potato choice each for day. Cold sandwich lunch choice on a Friday to take away as we finish at 12. This is council wide in all primary schools across the city. We have to have ordered the lunch choice by midnight on Wednesday for the following week. School will send out a reminder text on a Tuesday. Our high school is more like you describe where you put the money on the account and the dc go to the canteen and order what they want. You can’t make any choices but you can go on and see what they’ve bought - which is usually a load of junk food so the primary way is definitely better if you want your child to actually have a semi decent meal 😆

Our children have just left for uni … we were doing this in primary for them so over 10 years ago. Saves food waste and money!

That's normal for primary. Just do it every Sunday. Yabu

I am a single mum of 3 and almost 7 months pregnant, so I’m not viewing this from a completely different perspective.
The app makes things a lot easier. 2 of my DC are in primary school, we can choose the lunches every half term so at the end of a holiday when they release the meal details we sit and spend 20 minutes making the choices. That 20 minutes takes away making packed lunches everyday and having to think about the shopping, dealing with whinging that I don’t have what they want in the house.
Our school offers quite a few choices:

Main meal
Vegetarian
Vegan
Free From
2 choices of a sandwich based lunch.

We have that too, they have a choice of Main meal, Veggi meal, school sandwiches (or own packed lunch.) Even Reception children choose their own lunch, before registration they find their name on a lolly stick and put it in the pot which has a photo on of what they want, and a couple of sensible Year 6's count it up. Older kids just tell the teacher their choices during registration.

It's all healthy, it's cooked in the morning so no waste and they aren't allowed to change their minds. We get 3 week menus twice a year so children can have a school dinner on the days they like the meal. The company is Caterlink and my kids love the meals.

Do other parents find your system annoying OP? Could the Parents group petition the school for a different system? I would find your school's system annoying too. 🙂

My youngest is 20 now and we were ordering lunches online at the start of each week when he was in primary school so it's hardly a new thing.
As others have said, I presume it is primarily a move to reduce food waste and keep costs down but it is also really useful for children with allergies or other dietary restrictions. I found it very helpful to be able to see what was on offer for the week, check the ingredients and order appropriately. Plus when there was a day that there was nothing suitable for DS I knew that in advance and could make sure I had things in for a packed lunch that day.
I used to do it with my kids on a Friday evening so I had the weekend to shop for packed lunches if there were any days when they didn't want a school meal. It was a bit time consuming initially but once we got the hang of it it it took less than 10 minutes. You will get used to it I'm sure OP.

Totally agree with you. And this morning found myself in a pickle, having to really cut back on things financially at the moment as our bills are just so high and our app has a minimum top up amount. I only had cash for his school lunch and no money in my bank til’ I get paid later today. Had to transfer pennies from random accounts to cover the amount of his lunch because it all has to be done online and no cash allowed. Annoying!!! The amount of email I get from the school is hard to follow. And last week they did a ‘back to school meeting’ which was to meet the teachers etc.. (would have loved to go but I was at work and couldnt get away) as was my husband so we missed it, then some obnoxious post was put on their twitter saying how much the appreciate the parents who ‘made time’ for their children’s meeting as it’s a very important thing to attend. Made me feel like shit. Completely digressing from the OP point but yes, an app is stupid ha ha

Our schools have been doing it that way for years. I just sit down at the end of a month and sort dinners for the next month. I put them on the calendar so I know what days to do packed lunches.