Horrified by school dinners!

[WillieverlearnQ]

I went to my daughter’s school yesterday for dinner with the parents. All they had was two scoops of mash (my daughter did say that it is usually just one scoop) the thinnest slice of turkey I have ever seen and a tablespoon of carrots with a drizzle of watery gravy. With a tiny pot of ice cream. When I was at school it was nothing like this.

She has been asking for packed lunches for a long time but I’ve always refused. But today and going forward I will always make her a proper lunch.

It just make’s you question what on earth is going on? How can that be a sufficient for a child at school for 6 hours. Also why on earth are parents paying £3 for such a terrible meal.

The menu at my school sounds great too. When you see it or taste it on a ‘normal’ day it’s really not

I work in a school and all the schools i have worked in the lunches look revolting. The photos you have uploaded are typical school dinners. My kids now grownup always had pack lunches. My sixteen year old still does and I dont blame her!

I had lovely lunches at my school - cooked mince with rice, meat patties, roast beef and YP, stew and puds such as lemon meringue pie, chocolate sponge with chocolate sauce, blackcurrant pies with custard, lemon curd tart, the most gorgeous rice pudding or semolina - which I still love now. It's a shame schools now don't provide the variety - what child wants bloody salad for lunch?

Considering it is lunch and not dinner i don't see what the problem is. Nice to see the children have plates instead of prison trays.

What a lovely thing it would be to have Japanese style freshly cooked lunches made from scratch with proper actual food and not the (generally) insipid stuff that is usually served. Probably turn out a bit cheaper too..especially in the long run with the childrens

It's school DINNER

The Japanese kids cook their own meals don't they? I don't see that going well on here where people are always worried about home made food.

No, it's LUNCH! Eaten at lunchtime. Dinner is in the evening.

I think they ARE intended to be a substantial meal. However, I'm not expert enough to tell whether that's enough food for a seven year old or not.

Surely the staff costs and costs of running a kitchen make up the difference?

Not always my infant school in the 80's were outside caterers. Never even had a serving hatch they were dished out from metal hot cabinets on those awful section trays in the school hall. The year I left they were putting a kitchen in. Juniors did have it's own kitchen but it was newly built when I started. The first year part of school wasn't finished so we had a few months in the old school and had to walk to the new school for our dinner.

The main meal of the day should be in the evening with the family.

My GD doesn't much like much on the school menus, my DD often orders a jacket potato and tuna, but apparently the potato is very small and she usually comes home really hungry.

My GS doesn't like the food much either and usually comes home saying that he left it all - he's only 6, you'd think that somebody would keep an eye out to check that the younger ones were eating something.

Who says?
It's called school dinner for a reason.

No. Dinner is the main meal, no matter when it's eaten. Look into the history of school dinners.

😆😆😆

My children used to get really great school lunches cooked on the premises in the 1980's and 90's until the local authority decreed that the meals would in future be cooked off the premises and then warmed up in individual portions using expensive newly installed ovens in the school kitchens. The meals were dire, dried up, small and unpleasant. By the end of the term most children were taking packed lunches instead.

I think some have forgotten what the applied concept of PR/advertising looks like. That is what the catering company has put on specifically to encourage parents to keep on paying for meals, not what the children will be getting once their parents believe that's what is on offer and the catering company's income increases.

And then you'll have parents thinking 'well, you would have had a proper meal at lunchtime, so all you need is a bit of toast'.

This is my experience too. A lot of small chilldren are very fussy. at my school there is a lot of waste. Add onto that a very noisy and packed dining hall, a very short time to get them all fed, the lure of fun on the playground, and many children don't want to bother eating much at all. They take a few mouthfuls at breakneck speed and then they're trying to scrape the rest of it in the bin so they can go out and run round with their mates.

We once had a school cook who was Italian and had a second job in a restaurant in town at the weekend. He was horrified at what he was supposed to cook for the children and he came in full of big idea for how he was going to cook better things for them. The children wouldn't eat most of the stuff he cooked, and he didn't last long. Sad.

This is what privatisation looks like - and tastes like.

Yours look great compared to my DSs primary...He took a photo of his meal to explain why he was so hungry after school. I think it's supposed to be chicken nuggets & chips. Where's the bloody veg??

I'm sorry but I don't see the problem here. The meals have one starchy carb, protein and veg. The portion size also looks fine.

I would be happy with that for my child.

However I'm based in Ireland where school dinners isn't a standard thing. We either send the teens in with sandwiches or they buy something in school; it's rolls and wedges. All crap.

My lo is in primary and they have started providing lunches which I'm happy about so she's getting pasta, potatoes, chicken, veg. They also get fruit and veg. It's a new initiative which i am very happy about.

ETA : their food gets delivered in boxes after you choose on an online menu and what isn't eaten is sent home. Some parents were moaning about the food being sent home but I think it's the right policy - why should the school have to accommodate fussy eaters. We also (collectively) got a lot a stern word about food waste. We were told it's up to us to encourage our children to select meals they are willing to try.

I'm more concerned that your DS has his phone at school and us allowed to take photos.

Safeguarding?

I went for a :family lunch at my kids school. I (and my child) were served the following
Half a bread roll with tuna mayo (Warburton sliced roll size)
3 cucumber sticks
A cookie

I took one look at it, gave my child my portion and ate on the way home. He took packed lunches from the next day (and this is even though lunches are free for another year)

Well maybe the Dept of Ed could use some of the millions in VAT they squeeze out of parents of children in the private sector….so we can pay for our children’s food, your children’s food and free up some space in the overcrowded classrooms….we’re the embodiment of privileged evil