Changing school menu without updating meal website / informing parents

[Slightyamusedandsilly]

DC's school changed the company they use for school lunches about a year and a half ago (to cut the amount of admin for the school, due to the different systems used).

The new menus aren't great but it is what it is. 95% of the time my DC takes a packed lunch. But occasionally there will be something on the menu that I know they'd eat so I book a school lunch. It's not at all about the cost. It's about a borderline ARFID (avoidant / restrictive food intake disorder)
child not going hungry and the knock-on effect on concentration.

Given that they only have a school lunch on average of once a month (or 8 or 9 times since the new company came in), at least half of those times, the menu item has been substituted for something else (cheaper) that I know my DC won't eat and I wouldn't have ordered.

With the old company, if they made a change, parents got an email. New company don't inform anyone.

What this means is that if my DC doesn't like the food, they just don't eat. They honestly would rather starve than eat something they don't like. When we have tried to enforce it at home before, they vomit (spectacularly on the table once as a 4 year old). I know of at least one other child in my DC's class that will also go without eating if they don't like the food, so I know DC isn't alone in this.

Am I being unreasonable to think that this isn't acceptable? I know changes need to be made. But they set those menus weeks in advance. If a product isn't in stock, they must know. Surely they should at the very least change the menu online even if they're not going to let parents know?

If the reaction is this extreme, I don’t think school lunches are for your child. There will always be the chance of a last-minute substitution due to the nature of perishable food.

If this has happened on more than one occasion... just give your child a packed lunch everyday.

I completely agree with you, they should let parents know of the changes in advance. I have a child similar to yours and I now always just stick to Packed lunches. What is it that your dc enjoys off the school menu? Is it something that you could try and replicate in the Packed lunch.

My DD had ARFID and we needed to know what was on the menu so we could sent a packed lunch if necessary.
Her school was good at providing the info but occasionally it was served in a different way/touching/too much sauce etc so we just went full time packed lunches - which DD rarely ate anyway as she hated the lunch room

I think the fewer emails from school the better. There's usually 3 choices per day and most kids don't have a clue what's on the menu until they are asked to choose that morning. Endless "what are the options again Miss?".

Picky eaters are always going to be better off with a packed lunch.

No unfortunately, because it isn't just what the food is, but the temperature which it has to be served at 🙄. Some foods are apparently ONLY hot foods while others are acceptable cold.

The packed lunches are not nutritious. But I try to make sure breakfast is super healthy and dinner also. Lunch is just about making sure they have eaten so they can concentrate for the afternoon.

For all who have suggested it, I have already decided to just stick to packed lunches 100% of the time now. It's just a shame. The school is always trying to promote school lunches because since the new company came in the % of children eating them has massively dropped. But with the crap menu AND the unannounced changes, I just feel they've made a bad choice with this company.

They even mess up pizza, according to my DC's friends!

Oh if only the food were good enough to be perishable! I think it's frozen all the way.

Unfortunately, with the best will in the world there will have to be last minute changes. At our school half the order didn't turn up from the wholesaler today, so they had to have a (very) last minute change of plan. The message to parents didn't go out till 11.40 - so too late to bring a packed lunch it it would cause problems for all but a handful of parents. I do believe the kitchen does their best with ever smaller budgets though.

Is it hard to make a nutritious packed lunch that your child will enjoy? And feed them the things they like for their meals at home? It honestly doesn't seem worth this level of stress and annoyance for a once a month school meal.

I appreciate as a mum that this scenario is not ideal for your child. It sounds quite challenging. Hugs. I do however think that some parents get in a tizz about menus. Schools are first and formost a place for education and adding in extra admin because of a menu change is a lot when they have so many competing priorities. Maybe a packed lunch every day is a better option for your DC.

Did you read any of my posts? They almost always have a packed lunch. Not nutritious, no, because of the ARFID, they are limited to what can go in the packed lunch. But I put in what I know they'll eat. And yes, healthy food for breakfast and dinner.

I'm not annoyed they can't have school lunch. Meh. I'm annoyed that the changes are arbitrary and parents aren't kept up to date. Why have a website with a menu if the menu isn't what is served?

What substitutions have they made?

Contact the school and explain that frequent unannounced changes is probably contributing to fewer children taking a school lunch.

I'd just stick with packed lunches and then they aren't going to go hungry.

My son has a limited diet due to potential ARFID as well as food intolerances and it is incredibly rare that he has school lunch, it just isn't worth the hassle. Ham sandwiches day in, day out it is!

LOL I can't even send in a sandwich. I mean, I can, but it will come home untouched.

I've got a list of about 7 foods that I try to rotate. And I ever-hopefully put in carrot sticks etc, knowing full well they'll not even be considered.

This time it was swapping a quorn product (which is on the ARFIDish acceptable menu) for a vegetable bake.

I don't remember the previous ones.

Surely it would just be less bother for everyone involved if you provided a packed lunch every day. I say this as someone who has a child with similar issues.

The change may be very late in the day so I think you should just assume the menu is just a guide. As to your DCs eating, stick with trying to expand what they eat, eventually it worlds, took me a full 10 years from only drinking fortified milkshakes (for 3 months) to eating only chicken nuggets and fries (several weeks) to actually eating an acceptable diet by age 13, still fussy but you can get by in most restaurants and learned to push undesired foods to one side rather than screaming. Hang in there

That's a significant change and I wonder how they can manage allergies properly. A vegetable bake will have completely different ingredients...

Sorry, not really relevant to you. I'm just thinking out loud.

Sometimes mine will either just nibble bits of the bread or slightly more often, will eat the ham and leave the bread. Will very occasionally accept a cheese sandwich but other sandwiches are big no no.

I have a travelling banana that goes back and forth from home and school until it gets chucked and replaced by the next travelling banana. 😂

They know what allergies children have and check before serving presumably.

My child has food allergies - I don’t know the ingredients of the school dinners (though obviously sometimes I can guess) so if the main option is something they can’t have then they get given the alternative by school, which is usually jacket potato. So long as staff are checking against the actual item not the scheduled one it’s fine.

Ours varies from the published menu often, especially puddings and sides, but in the context of a school office that’s only staffed three hours a day and a website that still displays “latest news” from October I just accept that if I really need to know what lunch will be then I need to send a packed lunch. It’s not a lack of will it’s a lack of staff time and staff having vastly more important things to keep on top of.

My experience is also that most parents don’t read or want emails about trivia like baked beans instead of spaghetti hoops or roast pork instead of roast chicken.

A website can be updated the day before. No excuse as to why not. Regardless of any dietary requirements or fussy children.

The website isn't the schools website. It is the catering company. Another reason the school selected them. All admin, payment, menus, choices/allocation done by the company. The school have virtually no input.

I suspect that this is simply beyond the companies control. If you go to the supermarket and there's a gap somewhere, you either go somewhere else to get it, or you pop back in later in the week to get it. Catering company will have pre-arranged deliveries with particular suppliers, they won't have the money or the logistical possibility of saying "oh dear must pop to Morrisons, tonight because Asda didn't have peas yesterday". I guess if it's happening very frequently, they could re-think going with a company that is more reliable, but short term I expect their hands are tied. I'm sorry it's hard for your daughter, but realistically I'm not sure there is another possibility other than packed lunch.

I would be annoyed too. Our (tiny tiny village school) will send a message the week before or Monday of the week at the very latest if there is a menu change. And even better, they will refund the meal if you had already chosen it and the child opts for a school lunch as the new dish isn’t suitable for them.

I would write a letter to the school (maybe gather some other mums) an express your issues and dissatisfaction.

out school had a kitchen disaster recently and there were no school lunches due to a kitchen issue and the teachers let parents know at 8.15 am and a teacher went to Lidl and bought ingredients for a cobbled together school lunch for anyone who was at a childminders / parent didn’t see the message on time.

it’s a well oiled ship. How can children be expected to learn if they ate famished?