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?

We have this. Our primary is catered by a local restaurant and you order one of 2 options minimum 24 hours in advance. I go on periodically (sometimes they have a week‘s worth of meals open, sometimes 3 weeks…) and order as much as I can. If I don’t think DS will eat either option I give him the choice. I put in calendar reminders for when he‘ll need a packed lunch/ thermos of baked beans. It’s a real faff, but is introducing him to a wide range of food as - because he’s eating in a group - he will try.

I still get caught out by the 10am deadline for the work canteen…

I like the app in the principle, reduces waste and presumably helps keep costs lower. However, as the parent of a child with an extremely restricted diet it's a nightmare. In infants I send them in and they had to choose something, some days were more successful than others. In juniors they introduced the app and the descriptions of the lunches were enough to send them into a tailspin of not wanting to go to school.

We moved to packed lunches. Still a job to do but everyone was happier, we planned in advance and made them the night before but could be more flexible and suit our schedule (so protein and carb heavy lunch on days with lots of activity etc).

You don't do it every morning you do it once a week from a list of options for each day

They generally have a good idea of how many children eat a certain meal / kids who regularly have packed lunches. It’s the same menu on repeat. The likes of fish fingers are purchased in huge boxes and arrive frozen. Lasagne etc is made up in a serving dish for probably 20 / 30 portions. It’s not the same as catering at home.

How do you think that would reduce food waste?

That is because a lot of people ARE morons. Look at how many people on MN respond to an OP asking questions that are answered in the very short OP!

I can guarantee that the 'have you tried our website' messages will be in response to endless calls from people who in fact haven't tried it... We get queries at my work all the time from people who have to come to our website, gone to a page that tells them very clearly e.g. the price of something and then filled out a form to ask the price.

Your mental load is no different to anyone else’s, op! It’s just family life, isn’t it?
If you can pack a lunch you can choose from a menu 🤷🏻‍♀️

Also, if something runs out it runs out. Life isn’t fair. It’s a little life lesson for them. Usually this is balanced by calling the classes to lunch in a different order & organising the lunch line differently (alphabetical, reverse alphabetical etc.)

Or they could just order on an app in advance, which resolves the issue and makes sure everyone has something to eat that they’re happy with.

Always been the way for DS who's now in Y4. They can choose first thing at school, but I'd rather know we've got it out of the way and be able to meal plan so e.g. he's not having two lots of pizza on one day etc, and now he's decided to help make a packed lunch one or more days a week, we can plan and shop accordingly for that too, no way are we organised to sort that in the morning.

No, we pay through the tax free childcare account so I have to work out 80% of the fees per child, pay that into the tax free account, wait a few hours or a day and then log into the childcare account and make the payment to the childminder

We've always had this and DS is now 13 (obviously doesn't have to book meals now he's at secondary).

I selected a whole half term of my reception aged DD's lunches in one go and just chose for her rather than getting her input so it wasn't too bad. I'll do the same after half term.

It gets a whole other level of crazy with one in secondary and one in primary. I have 6 school apps between the 2 of them plus several emails from DDs school each week.

Is there really any need to be so bitchy? Jesus.

@Faceonthewrongfoot

That is because a lot of people ARE morons. Look at how many people on MN respond to an OP asking questions that are answered in the very short OP!
I can guarantee that the 'have you tried our website' messages will be in response to endless calls from people who in fact haven't tried it... We get queries at my work all the time from people who have to come to our website, gone to a page that tells them very clearly e.g. the price of something and then filled out a form to ask the price.

Maybe there are a lot of stupid questions, although quite often in my experience the information you are seeking from the website isn't available.

But there are times when you, as a customer, want to ask a question of a service provider to which the answer doesn't fit neatly in the kind of box which can be managed by a Chatbot or an AI phone answering system.

To give you a true life example I wanted to ask my life assurance provider this morning how I would go about putting my policy into trust. Not only was the information not on the website, it wasn't clear in any of the materials they sent me after I sat on hold for 35 minutes to talk to them, forcing me to go back through the painful experience of being asked for the nteenth time "have you tried our website?" by an auto-bot.

If you force people to wait for hours to ask legitimate and sometimes important questions of a service provider and then treat them like idiots for having the temerity to ask these questions you undermine trust and push them away.

I completely understand companies have to automate a lot of this and take advantage of technology to manage workflow but if I'm paying for a service I don't think its unreasonable that I should be able to speak to a customer service assistant should I need to as opposed to being fobbed off with "have you tried our website?/app?"

Sorry I know this is a digression but businesses have lost me as a customer due to behaviour like this and I'm sure I'm not alone.

To some of the points mentioned though, it’s just another job for (usually) mum to manage. It’s shifted the problem.
Children do need to be exposed (safely) to uncomfortable situations from time to time to build resilience. Missing out on your favourite pasta once a term is a safe place for them to experience that.

Perhaps, but mine is also affected by ADHD, working nights, extreme sleep deprivation and the general chaos of 3 kids 5 and under. They managed to survive last year without us having to do this. And I bloody hate having to do packed lunches but the nurseries where I live are full and the childminder doesn’t do meals

No wonder your mental load is so high if you make such a fuss about clicking on an app and ordering a meal which takes 10 seconds. It’s a lot quicker to just do it then moan about it. It’s probably to save food waste so it’s a no brainer. Quick tasks like this can be done immediately instead of adding to your to do list- then it’s done

Children are far more likely to be able to learn if they’ve had a decent meal. They’re more likely to eat a decent meal if it’s food they have chosen. I don’t see how providing them with a meal chosen by them in advance is going to cause any issues with their resilience.
We have always had the online booking system and my kids have no issues with resilience.

And you’ll manage to survive this year with having to do it, I’m sure.

Maybe your children’s father could take responsibility for booking dinners, to reduce your mental load?

I like that my daughter’s school does this, they use school grid, it’s really quick and I do it a half term at a time. The food is far better than with the previous caterers, plus I know what she’s eaten so I can plan our dinners around that

It's a really convenient option not just for saving waste, but also to accomodate children with dietary issues and strong food preferences.

Ours allows you to do up to a term at a time. So it's a bit tedious but it can be a once and done job.

How does that cut down on waste? The ingredients are ordered in advance.

We have to do this too. It’s a bit of a PITA, but doesn’t take too long. Ours lets us do quite a few weeks at a time.

At our school kids order first thing in morning on smart boards in classrooms and then they collect at lunch. So no waste as they only cook the specific meals and also no requirement for me to remember anything!