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 portion size is fine but the food looks vile. I’m not sure why you’ve resisted packed lunches for so long.

They were always like this when I was at school a good 25 years ago now so I don’t think much has changed. I distinctly remember the horrible mash and watery gravy in particular. Once a week we had pizza which was a highlight of the week but it was with really horrible chips I never wanted. The chocolate cake and pink watery custard was great, still sometimes yearn for pink custard…

That is totally wrong then.
The School Food Standards say veg needs to be offered every day.
I'd complain to school about that.

Take away the 'pudding' and just have fruit or yogurt as a dessert option.

Even more concerning majority of it is now Halal.

This what it was in the 60s, 70s in my experience. You have protein, carbs, fat, vitamins, roughage. Might not be the tastiest of food, but at least it covers the basic nutritional categories, for little money. What would you prefer, a healthy non-obese child used to plain healthy food, or the fat unhealthy lump addicted to calorie dense foods that you'd get with the pizza and chips someone else refered to?

These look like good meals to me?!

Is op coming back? Those portions look fine so presumably either her daughter is not finishing her plate and is getting hungry and/or being dramatic in the car because she wants packed lunches. Op did say she had been asking for a while for packed lunches and op kept refusing. The other possibility is that the family are over eaters and that these plates of food do seem too small to them.

At my son’s school there’s a salad bar (lettuce, cucumber, tomato, grapes, carrots) that they can add to their meal if they want. When I worked in schools there’s children rarely finished their plate. Often kids can get ‘seconds ‘ (first come first served.)

As I have already pointed out, there isn’t any profit in this.

Have you wondered why so many local councils are no longer providing school lunches? It’s because it’s unaffordable. It’s loss making. It has fallen to businesses to provide meals and you cannot expect them to do it for a loss. Would you set up a loss making business? At the moment, primary school catering contracts are being propped up by other contracts within those businesses.

I challenge you to start a business which provides Government school food standards compliant, high quality two course hot meals, pays its staff and all the associated expenses, for £2.61 per meal.

What's the issue with Halal?

@ItalianChineseIndianMexican the way animals are treated

That people should have a choice whether to eat it or not. Instead of being forced to. There should be a choice of meat for people who don't want to it halal meat.

I am quite old and remember the school dinners at primary school from 1960 to 1966. When some children were entitled to free school dinners. Post war cuisine.

The food then seemed pretty awful with lots of stodge, gravy, rce, semolina and tapioca and jam and the odd salad. Think Dinner Ladies Victoria Wood. I live in the North
.

But large portion sizes and seconds. Not a burger, pizza or pasta dish in sight.

Protein was from cheap cuts of fish and meat, lots of stews and cheese pies and plenty of mash,cabbage, carrots, peas, and cattle fodder turnips and swedes. Not a chip in sight

These meals were allegedly nutritional balanced. Maybe so. And we did not have lots of over weight and constantly hungry kids stuffing their face with snack food.

l was lucky that l went home to a good tea every night, and my mother spent a lot on good quality food and lots of choice andbtreats.. Some kids didn't. No food banks in those days.

We also used to sing this really vile,awful song in the dinner queue to annoy the teachers.

Abba dabba custard
Dead dogs eye
All mixed together
In a green snot pie

Slap it on a butty
Nice and thick
Rinse it down
With a cold cup of sick .

We have the same, days to come in and
eat with them. I go but I decline the dinner(its always roast dinner). It's horrible. We do pack lunches or jacket potato/some of the other meals that are better. The roast dinner they do particularly is just inedible it resembles a microwave one.

I think the portion size is OK it's just not all very appetising. Some meals our school does seem much better suited to cooking in large quantities the roast dinner is not one of them.

I hated school dinners at school so wouldn't eat. I remember crying being forced to eat or I couldn't go and play. Now knowing I'm likely autistic and was overstimulted hanging on for dear life at school. I'm glad they don't force kids to eat anymore. Pack lunches can definitely be the best option for some kids.

Yes true. But traditionally school lunches are always known as school dinners no idea why! Even staff refer to them as dinners.

I remember back in the 70s at primary school having to talk to the class about what Italians ate. When I mentioned pasta many kids had never heard of it! Imagine that. Pasta and pizza were foreign delicacies

Absolutely. We have an obesity crisis in this country and it starts with young children. If we got back to proper portions instead of supersize ones we would all be healthier.

We have animal welfare standards in this country that have been developed over many years. Halal slaughter goes against these standards. It is a form of religious slaughter that should never have been allowed to take hold.
Not so bad when it was on a small scale perhaps but dreadful now it has become the norm in some places.
Christian children should not be forced to eat meat that is prepared in this way.

My DCs school meals had mold on them! The deputy head claims he didn't know. Teachers and parents say they told him. Obviously sending packed lunches.

It was the same with me. I was just trying to remember the name of the pink stuff as we all just called it pink stuff. I liked my senior school meals and my primary school was standard for the 90s. We also had the chance to go up for seconds in my primary school. In my senior school it was good quality and all cooked onsite as it was a boarding school but also had day students. Choice of meat/vegetarian etc. I remember loving the pasties. There was also a good salad bar selection. Then at the end of the day for boarders and anyone who stayed for an after school activity there was high tea.

My GC are both lead active lives and are slim, possibly too much so. The tiny portions are simply not enough to get them through to supper, they're always ravenous by 3.30. Whilst I agree that many children are too large that is probably due to highly calorific large meals and snacks given to them at home - the slim children shouldn't be given restricted meals because of this.

Maybe their Mum could try giving them Tea instead of making them wait until 8pm?

😁

Absolutely nothing wrong with any of those as far as I can see......

A pretty ridiculous comment, that is obviously what we do - though we give them a snack rather than a full meal which they eat around 6.00. There is no way a child in our family would wait until 8 to eat, nor an adult either.