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Original poster

Lunchbox gestapo

28 replies

GRUMPYGHOUL · 16/10/2006 12:53

I was reading in the about a 10 year old who was removed from a school canteen because his lunchbox broke the schools rules. They said that his box contained 3 snacks: fromage frais, cake and cheese crackers.

I thought fromage frais were "dairy" and therefore came under good. Cake: DS has low fat carrot cake (the only way in the world I will carrot into him) and crackers surely if they are the jacobs kind are surely quite inoffensive.

I know one of the chefs has now decided to take on lunchboxes (cant remember which one as they all blur into each other after a while but it wasnt Anthony Squirrel Thompson or Ainsley Terrior) one of his suggestions was flapjack...well I was thinking about this and much as they are yummy surely they are oats held together with toffee!

OP posts:
fortyplus · 16/10/2006 13:32

I read that article, too, and thought it was outrageous. My ds1 always loved 'healthy' things from the word go, but ds2 was a fussy little toad. I sent him for school dinners at first, but one of the dinner ladies who lives just down the road had a word with me when she bumped into me one day and said she was worried because he wasn't eating anything. The school hadn't monitored what kids were or weren't eating, other than to ban sweets in lunchboxes. I changed him to packed lunches ans sent in a sandwich, baby bel and an 'all fruit' bar. If I sent in fruit - which he's quite happy to eat at home - it just came back uneaten. Personally I think it's more important that the child actually eats something at lunchtime and if someone sends their kid in with a lunchbox full of chocolate bars then that should be up to them not the school.

Original poster
GRUMPYGHOUL · 16/10/2006 13:35

Mine doesnt "do" fruit at all or veg - still trying to think of cunning ways to get some in there!!

OP posts:
fortyplus · 16/10/2006 13:57

We did well with veg by having a candlelit dinner every sunday (tablecloth, candles, music, grape juice in wine glasses etc) on condition that ds2 ate whatever we gave him. He thought it was such a treat he went along with it - we introduced a new vegetable every week.

He still isn't good with fruit though - he eats bananas and apples but won't usually touch anything else (though he did eat a grape when I bet him £1 that he wouldn't!)

Strangely, he made fresh fruit salad in his 'Food Tech' lesson and ate it - though he was pulling faces the whole time.

portonovo · 16/10/2006 14:37

The article I read said he had 2 snacks and kids were only allowed one. Fromage frais was not one of the 'restricted' items.

The offending articles were cake (don't know what kind) and a packet of mini cheddars, so more crisp-like than cream crackers. I agree cream crackers should be OK - I often send mine with crackers, cheese, ham and cherry tomatoes.

I don't think it's so bad to have a 'one snack only' rule - kids can then choose whether they want say crisps or cake - then have the other one at home no doubt!

Original poster
GRUMPYGHOUL · 16/10/2006 14:48

Ah the one I read said he was allowed 2 & had 3 being FF, Cake & a cracker (guess someone was using journalistic licence there then)

OP posts:
goingbananas · 16/10/2006 15:16

I watched GMTV this morning were the child and his dad were on about the packed lunch box. His Dad was really annoyed with the school about the 3 snacks cause if he had put the fromage frais on top of the cake the school would have classed the 2 as only 1 snack. What is the world coming to....poor child only wanted his lunch!!

lizziemun · 16/10/2006 15:22

He and his dad where on GMTV this morning, he had in his lunch box

a sandwich
a fairy cake
a packet of cheddars
fromage frais
apple
drink.

His dad arguement with the school is that the sandwich and cake is like the dinner and pudding if having a school dinner, so that the cheddars and fromage frais are his to snacks.

The headmaster doesn't agree. The boy was warned last week on the first day, then his lunch was looked at in his class before lunch, then he was forced to eat his lunch in the headmaster office.

alex8 · 16/10/2006 15:25

One article I read yesterday had the dad describing the school dinnner alternative which inlcuhde chips and chocolate pudding!

lorina · 16/10/2006 15:26

Who checks and what qualifes them to decide ?

My kids are teenagers and a lot of what is dished up in their canteen under the healthy choice banner is questionable to say the least

Spidermama · 16/10/2006 15:30

I think kids with offensive items in their lunchboxes should be swiftly frogmarched out of the dinner hall and made to stand up on a chair for the rest of the school day.

That would teach them.

alex8 · 16/10/2006 15:32

I knew one shcool where they had an endless staffroom discussion about whether a kit kat qualified as a biscuit (allowed) or chocolate (banned).

lorina · 16/10/2006 15:40

At my kids school they pay for lunch with a swipe card. The card also collects healthy eating points so they can see how good their diet is.
Every day dd has fruit,salad and then whatever she fancies ie jacket potato and cheese or pasta or a sandwhich.She drinks water. Her best friend has two chocolate muffins and two cartons of orange juice. The friend gets the most healthy eating points! Cartons of juice score higher than real fruit and veg.

I dont think all the people in charge of making sure the kids eat well are really 'on message'

hunkermunster · 16/10/2006 15:42

at gestapo in thread title...

KathyMCMLXXII · 16/10/2006 15:45

I think every school should have a supply of tough, fibrous wholemeal bread, raw spinach and watery cottage cheese. Any child that turns up with an incorrect lunch has to eat that instead, while the teachers gorge themselves on the confiscated stuff in the staffroom.
(Of course, there will always be the odd child who will actually prefer the alternative but then, that's fine too.)

stleger · 16/10/2006 16:05

My kids are bribed to eat wholemeal bread in public places, say that it was delicious, then ask for more. My dd2 has announced that in addition to unhealthy food, fruit juice and anything that makes crumbs are banned. A list of 'permitted' is what I need.

Mercy · 16/10/2006 16:10

The boy received a warning re his lunch?

Has anyone got a link to the article, please?

Original poster
GRUMPYGHOUL · 16/10/2006 16:22

Hunker - I assume you were joking about gestapo - I certainly was (just assume anything I say which offends you is my non-PC sense of humour)

Anything which makes crumbs - well that rules out wholemeal sandwiches then all those whole grains make a horrible mess (DS loves them even without bribery - strange child)

Everyone to the headmasters office to be beaten with a celery stick now!

DS occasionally has a few crisps in a container as a treat (a small pack would do 4/5 lunches) but if DH packed the lunch he too would get a whole pack.

OP posts:
fortyplus · 16/10/2006 16:47

Mercy - I read the article in the Daily Telegraph - maybe you'd find it on their website?

My nephew goes to a school where no one is allowed to take in peanut butter sandwiches in case someone goes into anaphylactic shock when the lunch boxes are opened...

...which would be fine by me if there were any kids at his school with a peanut allergy, but apparently there aren't!

hunkermunster · 16/10/2006 16:49

No, not joking. I think there are a few MNers who would agree with me that linking people a bit cross about fruit shoots with the gestapo is a bit careless.

Bit like using it to describe extended bfeeders, or calling someone a nazi.

Mercy · 16/10/2006 16:51

Thanks, will have a look.

Wonder what the school does if a child doesn't eat all of the school dinner?

schneebly · 16/10/2006 17:05

I was supervising a holiday club today where we had a theatre group come and the kids all had packed lunch - there were 9 kids there and 6 of them had fruit shoots, 1 had a whole packet of party rings which he ate, one girl had a huge bag of marshmallows but I think most of them had fruit. I was a bit taken aback by some though - ketchup sandwich anyone?

foundintranslation · 16/10/2006 17:07

I agree with hunker. I live in Germany and have a German dh, from which follows that my ds is part German too. We do not appreciate these terms being chucked around in these contexts.

fortyplus · 16/10/2006 17:27

Mercy - if you look at my earlier post you'll see that my ds2's school was quite happy to let him starve!

And I have to agree that 'gestapo' etc isn't an expression that I'd use in a casuual context, though I wouldn't feel offended if someone else did if they obviously weren't intending to cause offence.

Though strangely I WOULD say something if someone used racially offensive terms.

foxtrottingtotransylvania · 16/10/2006 17:29

telegraph

cod · 16/10/2006 17:31

Message withdrawn