And while we're on kids lunches, why do so many parents send packed lunches?

[Monkeybird]

...not being controversial, just actually want to know. My school offers pretty good quality meals with good, balanced, healthy options. We can afford the cost and it's much less hassle than making sarnies etc.

I've never understood - other than the cost issue (is that it for everyone?) - why so many parents don't use the meals. The service at my school is actually at risk I reckon because fewer and fewer kids use it.

DS would manage two hot meals a day. He eats at school, then as soon as he gets home at 3.30, then again with us at 6-6.30, then something again before bed. He's 8.

You see, I think they're expensive in one sense (ie I could indeed supply food for less) but in another sense they're farkin cheap cos my time is worth money and since we have 3 kids and I'll be back at work with quite enough to do shortly, 1.80 a day is actually worth it to NOT have to think about another thing that needs preparation for school... AND I know he's getting an excellent balanced healthy meal. And I don't actually care if he choose a sandwich some days since I'm happy for him to be making his own choices (within reason) cos I don't fuss too much about what he eats as long as he's offered lots of variety.

Surely some other parents must feel like this? Or is my 'save school dinners' campaign just gonna fall flat?!

I went for sandwiches with dd1 because she was (at the time when she started school) quite a fussy eater, and with sandwiches I could give her food that I knew she would eat and enjoy but that was still balanced and healthy. She is now a much better eater (almost completely unfussy, in fact, except about fruit which is still restricted to apples or bananas), but she loves her sandwiches.

Dd2 was always a good eater, so when she started school she had school dinners. But I realised that they were not monitoring at all what the kids ate; they were just allowed to choose what they wanted from the day's menu. So dd would come home and tell me that she'd eaten, say, boiled potatoes and pasta (ooh, she likes her carbs, does dd2!) and I had no way of checking whether that was really all she'd eaten (she was rising 5 at the time). So I moved her onto sandwiches too, and she is really happy.

My dds normally have a round of sandwiches (home-made bread), sometimes a piece of cheese, a piece of fruit and a yogurt or a cereal bar. Schools both have a 'healthy lunchbox' policy (no crisps or chocolate or biscuits or cake or sweets). I'm happy with this, and don't see them changing onto school dinners any time soon!

Our school has some pretty good dinner ladies. They give out stickers and will tell the class teachers if there is a child who isn't eating well. The children are not allowed to pick only 1 or 2 things (eg carbs), they've got to have the whole meal but obviously it's up to each child what s/he eats!

Because I've sampled the meals at our school and while they're heaps better than say 3 years ago, they are still not up to my standards. I would let my child have a school dinner once a week as a change, but I wouldn't trust them 5 days a week. They are just not as tasty or nutritious or well-balanced as my meals.

What I really really don't get is why making a packed lunch is seen as so much hassle - I make 3-4 packed lunches every day, in 10-15 minutes. How is that hassle? And they are more varied and contain better quality ingredients and are tastier than school dinners. No contest!

When we used to have school meals hardly anyone ate them because they were crap! They were bought in and I wouldn't feed them to pigs! Then because so many had packed lunches we took the decision to get rid of the kitchen and utilise the space for art, ICT and group rooms.

You know what's in the packed lunch. I know a vegetarian family that sends packed lunch because not convinced there is a balanced enough offering (i.e. she ensures the kids have protein in every meal).

AND, if you have lots of kids, it is more hassle to do packed lunches, but I reckon it is cheaper.

One company does the catering for the whole area (but there's a kitchen in each school), I imagine that's the same for most of us?

My DD is veggie. If she lived a little way east she'd have a reasonable choice, but living here they seem very dependant on cheese. She doesn't like cheese, so packed lunches it will be.

There is the option of odd days of school meals. The menu is available and you pre-order the meal. So if she did fancy something she could have it. You're not tied to one or the other.

Because in theory I could spend nearly £30 a week on school meals and I wouldn't even know if they'd eaten them.

Because I like to be the person who oversees the main meal they have and what it is. It's also sociable as a family to eat together.

Because I have ghastly memories of school dinners and wouldn't inflict them on my dc even if they are supposed to have improved.

Because lunchtime seems a somewhat rushed affair at school - understandably considering the numbers they have to sort out - and I don't think it's enough time to enjoy the main meal of the day.

Because the packed-lunch kids get to walk in to the dining hall, sit down, eat, and go out to play. The dinners lot have to join the huge queue, and then the meal takes longer to eat. Dd wants to do a lunch-time club but she can't get to it on time unless I send her with a packed lunch that day!

Plus if she has had her main meal at lunchtime then I need to give ds his then too, so they both get sandwiches for tea. And I like to eat with them. And cooking a hot meal at lunchtime is hard to fit in to the day, especially when ds has afternoon playgroup.

And then dh would have to have a separate hot meal in the evening.

Much better for dd to take a packed lunch and for us all to eat together in the evening.

Because they say the school dinners have become more revolting since Jamie Oliver

Because all their mates do

Because they can get more playtime

Because they nagged and nagged so much I caved in

no school dinners at my dses school

so they would be very hungry if I didn't give them packed lunches