WHAT??? Banning Packed Lunches!

[MojitoMagnet]

So apparently Packed Lunches are likely to be banned!

guardian article

I suspect the main reason is to drive down the cost-per-meal for school dinners. The idea that anyone should be able to dictate what my child eats is so repugnant I'm lost for words. By all means give schools the power to intervene if a particular child is regularly sent to school with a bag of crisps and a mars bar, but taking the choice away from everyone else is ridiculous!

On the other hand, if there was an option of packed lunches, there'll be less interest from parents and the community to pretend from the council that the quality of food improves for each and every child. Things are improving here in Milan, it's not perfect, but it really improving

I think it's regional. I think you lot have the wight of numbers and the Top City Visibility on your side. The Nationals would have been all over a Milanese school using an outside caterer using out of date food. Here in the boonies, not so much.

The materna had a proper cook who cooked from scratch in school, she did all the shopping fresh from the market, or nearby farmers delivered and everything.

And she would pat your shoulder with a floury hand if the children had run riot during their English lesson and made you wish you had gone in for something less stessful and more predictable .

Like Lion Taming.

I would be all for banning packed lunches if every child had a free school meal of excellent quality, and with a VERY FEW exceptions made for extreme allergy sufferers that cannot otherwise be catered for.

But I am not sure how this fine theory could possibly work in practice as I am sure that every third parent will be queueing up to argue that their child cannot possibly eat anything other than a Dairylea Dunkable, lest they fall down dead on the spot.

Dairylea Dunkable ?

I remember Dairylea being triangles of....plastic cheese. Wouldn't they melt if you dunked them in your soup ?

Was the materna a state school? I am impressed it had its own kitchen, schools used to have their own kitchen here too, until 20 yrs ago. Of course they had been closed for lack of money. Grrrr.

There have been lots of accidents with out of date food and similar here in Milan, but I think that with the constant nagging pressure of parents things are improving.

I'd say that the quality here is pretty reliable at the moment, with some dishes that are particularly appreciated by many children.

Isn't is a pot of Dairylea cheese with a load of crackers or breadsticks or something?! Or those other things, Dairylea Lunchables. I must admit I am not particularly au fait with the world of crap packed lunch food!

I know some schools where they trialled cheap school lunches (50p) - some went all-vegetarian to do it - and generally it worked really well as long as the parents were invited in to test all the food first. Not all had their own kitchens, either.

Some schools have been experimenting with free school lunches for everyone (saves the admin cost of dealing with money and ensuring kids who should get FMS do).

Biggest problems seem to be between the food being cooked and getting to the children - lots of schools seem to be really squashing mealtimes so the kids feel too rushed to eat, especially smaller ones dealing with cutlery and stuff. Even if they need two shifts sitting in the hall, I think they should all get time to sit down and eat, and then stay at the table until playtime starts, rather than the kids who scoff quick being rewarded with extra playtime.

This will not apply to

Academies

Free Schools

Private Schools

Scottish Schools

Welsh Schools

its all Gove pissing in the wind again.
Ignore the little toss pot.

and it will be UTTERLY unenforcable in 1500 pupil secondaries

So cost aside and just looking at the healthy lunches aspect, I've just looked up our school dinners menu (which I think sounds quite tasty).

Over the course of the three week menu cycle, our fussy, stubborn, underweight, vegetarian (his choice), possibly 'on the spectrum' DS might eat a slice of pizza (so long as they make the same sauce and dough as we do at home), a veggie sausage and two portions of plain rice. Either that or a bread roll, glass of water and as many apples as he could hold every day. And that's all.

School dinners do not suit all children, so I'll stick to packed lunches if that's ok with you missbopeep. That's my way of trying to prevent him getting rickets or scurvy or the like.

I don't think it would matter if there was an option of a cold packed lunch style meal; sandwiches, yoghurt, fruit, etc, so long as it was palatable and reasonably healthy.

I am all for the overhaul of truly appalling quality school meals, but I think perhaps the health evangelism swung a bit too far, and became so fearful of salt, sugar and fat that the children were left with food that was extremely bland in flavour, and yet often too challenging in texture and ingredients.

As always, a bit of moderation and common sense could prevail if only they put someone like me in charge.

It was state. I work in the non state maternas too and they have a similar set up. They throw me out at lunchtime while I make Puss in Boots eyes through the window and dribble.

I think parent pressure is still pretty strong at materna, but the parents are so distracted by the academic issues from elementary onwards in my area (we appear to be the dumping ground for all the teachers who get shuffled out of other schools due to "ishoos" and revolting parents) that they have little fight left for lunches. They tend to load up the rucksack with forbidden focaccia, pay the building lunch debt when they can and try to focus their energies on dealing with the education side of things.

I was seduced by green and peace and massive oversized cascinas (that would fit our old flat in twenty times over) away from Milan. Had I known then what I know now.....

Still. At least I have the herons to cheer me up.

I think local social hirearchy and "not what you know, but who you know" plays a part in castrating parental power here. Same faces from the same families every year as parent reps. More democratic and inclusive in Milan I would think.

I agree, Dancingqueen. My children were very fussy at home - wouldn't eat any kind of 'combination' food like bolognese, stews etc, wouldn't eat meat, wouldn't eat a lot of veg etc. etc. School meals (good quality ones) rapidly changed that, they soon started eating everything, and now always go back for 2nd helpings. The meals always have fresh bread and fresh fruit available, so children can fill up on those if needed, but IME that's only required as a filler for a few meals before they get into it.

We did actually try DS on school dinners. He just ate the 'filler' bread and fruit every day for two weeks. At £2 a day.

Oh wow, very envious of your local materna with kitchen then!

Yes, Vinum, I largely agree with your analysis.

Ah, the cost of school dinners is means tested here.

but what about the exercise and fresh air the kids will be missing out on if they are queuing for school dinners every day?

How will that affect the obesity rating?

at the comment about affection for packed lunches when it's so much hassle to make...

I thought I'd explained the economic necessity of it.

And as for the argument that it would bring the cost down if everyone had to have it - that hasn't worked for gas, electric or water, so I think we can be excused for not buying that argument.

lots of state primary schools do not have kitchens

Dwight- apart from the chips and butter, and the cakes etc, all of that is reasonably healthy for a growing child/teen.
The problem is that school caterers are independent companies. They need to make a profit or at least break even. They cook what kids seem to want. But most schools do have healthy options, as well as the ubiquitous hings you have mentioned.

Independent schools by and large have been cooking wonderful meals for years- some read as good as Michelin starred restaurant. This is because a) parents pay and b) expectations are higher and c) kids don't bring in their own food so the onus is on the school to keep it healthy.

It's not beyond the wit of man to replicate this in state schools.

Follow the money.

'...plan, drawn up by John Vincent and Henry Dimbleby, the founders of the food company Leon...'

Compulsory school lunches = more of the parents' money in the grubby paws of some franchise who've bunged the Tory party for it.

But yes, unworkable. More Gobollocks to take our minds off the real damage being done.

I think that lasagne for lunch is perfectly reasonable. Especially in the winter. And there are ways to make healthier lasagne.

Obviously, if school dinners aren't for a majority there will never be the need to make dinners healthier or cheaper.

Basil, I live in a country where there is no packet lunch option. School dinners are means tested. For many, many children they are the only lunch during the day which will be hot and nutritious.

It's a perfectly reasonable option for lunch.

I'd happily eat (veggie) lasagne every day for lunch. Luckily, I'm not allergic or intolerant to dairy/eggs/gluten/tomatoes...

I really don't see how they'd cater to allergies. And at my school one of the school dinner options IS a packed lunch (ham/cheese roll, fruit, fruit juice, home-made biscuit!!).