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Original poster

Airline Trays versus Plates at school

77 replies

Fejjie · 29/10/2009 08:05

I'm just trying to get a feel for peoples views on the use of airline style trays to feed children at lunchtimes.

Our little'un started school in September, and is taking packed lunches at the moment. We were going to move her onto hot dinners at school as it gets a bit colder towards Christmas.

A couple of weeks ago she was talking about other kids having lunch and mentioned that they have trays to eat from. I asked her a bit about it and found out that they don't use plates etc, but instead have moulded trays with scoop areas for the food to go into.

I am quite horrified to be honest, talking it over with our friends they didn't know about this either. Somebody mentioned that it sounds like prison food.

We spend our time socialising our children to behave in a way that society accepts, and it sounds like her school at least is undermining this due to cost and speed factors.

Has anyone else got views on this?

Jeff

OP posts:
gemmummy · 29/10/2009 08:07

we had them when i was at school 18 yrs ago, I don't feel like a prisoner! It's nothing, kids don't care about that surely?

GetOrfMoiLand · 29/10/2009 08:15

DD has always had them at school (primary school anyway, at senior school they get plates).

I think they are probably better than plates, when I was at school you used to have a tray which you balanced your plate, pudding bowl and cup of water on. There were lots of accidents and spillages.

I really don't see that it is something to get horrified about tbh.

purepurple · 29/10/2009 08:18

Plates would not work.
Children have to be able to carry it all.
And speed and cost matters.
It's not silver service you know!

scarletlilybug · 29/10/2009 08:24

I think airline trays are horrible. I'd hate to have to eat my food from one, and I would also be horrified if my children were expected to use them.

Original poster
Fejjie · 29/10/2009 08:34

When I was small there were no airline trays and I don't remember and huge amounts of breakages or spills. I've talked to a few teacher friends of mine and they reckon they came in when meal provision started to be outsourced to catering companies.

It's interesting to see your views though. I didn't expect those who supported them to be anything like as vehement as those who oppose.

Scarlet, I presume your children's school doesn't have them?

Thanks

Jeff

OP posts:
edam · 29/10/2009 08:39

Personally I dislike them for the reasons scarlet gave. And surely we are trying to teach children to eat nicely? Don't think being served in a tray is going to help.

As for breakages, agree with Fejjie.

Mind you, ds's school doesn't do hot food ? if they brought it in I'd put up with trays!

Original poster
Fejjie · 29/10/2009 08:44

My daughter takes pride in carrying her own plate from kitchen to table. I understand the logistics argument, but surely it's not insurmountable.

I know not all schools use trays, and see below, if the link works.

www.stoke.gov.uk/ccm/content/cc/news_releases/2009-press-releases/2009-04-april/200 -09.en;jsessionid=bZTNEvQrCSKh

OP posts:
RustyBat · 29/10/2009 08:54

Well I work in a junior school where the catering company introduced the trays about 6 months ago & it has reduced the spilling a lot (not breakages, the previous plates were plastic anyway so that wasn't an issue) We don't have so many staff in the dining hall these days & the trays save time, which is important when you're trying to get 200 children through the hall in an hour.
It presumably also keeps costs down for the catering company too, which means the parents don't have to pay so much for a school meal - you might not mind paying more for 'proper' plates, but I bet most parents would.
If it wasn't half term I could put up a picture of the meals on a tray - we have been taking them to make photo menus to put up in the hall, but they are on my work computer.

GetOrfMoiLand · 29/10/2009 08:55

I think dd's old junior school certainly introduced trays as a cost cutting exercise, certianly to reduce the time taken to wash afterwards. Washing x amount of airline type trays as opposed to the same number of plates, bowls and a tray to carry them on takes a lot less time (and money).

I have always been lucky that dd's school always had excellent food provision which was still kept in-house and not sub-contracted out to Sodexo or whatever. So Iw asn't too fussed about the trays.

Perhaps it is considered a H&S thing as well? DD's school hall doubled up as the canteen, the kitchen hatches were on the back of the stage, so children had to go up some steps, collect their food and go back down some steps. All difficult to negotiate if you are 7 and have a tray with plates and cups sliding all over.

Plus, if they did have plates they would be plastic anyway, so they would still not have what you would call an exalted dining experience.

Original poster
Fejjie · 29/10/2009 08:59

I know that they are brightly coloured and "fun", everything that children have these days fits this model.

Why would plates be plastic though? They never were before?

OP posts:
Original poster
Fejjie · 29/10/2009 09:01

all things being equal, costs, time, etc aside.

If your child could have the freedom to use pot plates and bowls instead of plastic moulded trays, what would you prefer?

OP posts:
mustrunmore · 29/10/2009 09:06

If all factors were equal, I'd prefer proper plates. That might be psychological though, as I remember my Mum buying two hideous airline trays for our house whn I was about 9 or so. One for me, one for my Dad That caused some huge rows bewteen them!

I'm at the stage of finally throwing out all things melamine from my house

GetOrfMoiLand · 29/10/2009 09:09

The plates were plastic when I was at primary school in the early 80s.

Yes in an ideal world it would be wonderful to have children eat off proper crockery, however the logistics involved in a practical world (dd's primary fed 300 children in one sitting) means that the airlines trays are the most pragmatic solution.

LuluDanceOnMyGrave · 29/10/2009 09:17

We had these at school in the 70's, and as far as I'm aware we all learned to eat properly. After all, lunch is only one out of three meals a day, and if good habits are introduced at home they tend to be used whatever the situation.

gagamama · 29/10/2009 09:29

But surely if you give them a packed lunch they're eating out of boxes anyway, which isn't all that much different?

Plus the trays must help with portion control. I had them at school, I don't remember there being any problems with them and it made sure the child/staff could see they had a meal, drink, dessert and cutlery as there were seperate spaces for all of these. And they're light and easy to carry and don't break.

RustyBat · 29/10/2009 09:34

Even if they got rid of the trays, I can't see them bringing in china/pottery plates. I think the occasional ringing crash, followed by a loud cheer from all present is a thing of the past. Now if someone drops their dinner you just get a kind of squelchy clunk, which is much less cheerworthy....

gorionine · 29/10/2009 09:35

Plastic moulded trays in our school as well. I never gave it a second thought. As long as they are clean I do not really see the problem.

purepurple · 29/10/2009 09:39

I don't really care either way tbh.
When I was at primary school we had proper crockery and glasses to drink out of.
I remember being promoted to 'server' in my last year.
It meant I had to lay the table ready for dinner and then I had to serve out the dinner from stainless steel serving trays with a very large spoon.
We all had to sit on the exact same table every day, with a mix of boys and girls and different ages.
After dinner every one was responsible for scraping their plate into a big bin which went to the local pigs.
Things I remember about school dinner are
cabbage that was so dark we called it 'bats wings'
getting warm coffee to drink in the winter
semolina and tapioca
lime milk shake that tasted like washing up liquid
But, hey, the world has moved on from there.

BertieBotts · 29/10/2009 09:40

We had airline type trays at primary school in the 90s. I think it was definitely easier to carry without spilling things (also drinks were in a little holder so less spillage on the table, less "Your drink/knife is in MY space!") and I thought it was quite fun - like those little dairylea lunchable things that kids like and parents hate are all in their compartments. The novelty value made it appeal to me (and ours were a horrible beige colour, not even bright primaries).

At secondary school we started off with trays but in the early 2000s the school changed caterers and we had plastic plates and trays instead. They were often wet when we picked them up off the stacks and sometimes even greasy or with remnants of pizza/ketchup on them

As an adult I would much prefer to eat off a proper plate than an airline tray, but don't assume that it's horrible for children - they wouldn't make the prison connection or necessarily even the airline food/tv dinner (ie horrible food) connection, in fact if they are going to make any connection it would be to airline food being exciting because it means you are going on holiday.

Original poster
Fejjie · 29/10/2009 09:40

Fascinating, I was sure more people would object, guess it's me that's out of step.

OP posts:
igivein · 29/10/2009 09:44

I hate them with a vengence! They just shriek 'prison food' to me.
The thought of the pudding going cold and congealing on the tray whilst the child is eating the main course makes me boak.
Can you tell I feel quite strongly about this!
When I was at junior school, we all sat around eight seater tables (with a teacher at most of the tables having lunch with the kids). The food was brought to the table in tureens, dished up by 'servers' (responsible and sought after job for older kids).
The main course was eaten and cleared away and then the pudding came out.
We ate with knives and forks from proper plates / dishes etc, and talked nicely to each other whilst we ate.
All in all it was a pleasant and socialising experience. Why can't we have that now?

BertieBotts · 29/10/2009 09:45

We had lime milkshake as well purepurple - me and a boy in my class were the only ones who would drink it, we called it witch's potion At secondary school all the drinks were in cartons or bottles.

Original poster
Fejjie · 29/10/2009 09:46

re:- Prison Trays - someone I know said that some schools are probably preparing their kids for later life!! :0

OP posts:
gorionine · 29/10/2009 09:48

They where jocking, surely!

BertieBotts · 29/10/2009 09:48

"We ate with knives and forks from proper plates / dishes etc, and talked nicely to each other whilst we ate.
All in all it was a pleasant and socialising experience. Why can't we have that now?"

Oh FFS, what do airline trays have to do with eating being a pleasant or socialising experience? We did talk to each other. I bet if you all ask your DCs what they think about airline trays they will be completely bewildered and won't even have considered it an issue to get upset about!