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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:

hootcrossbunny · 29/10/2009 13:11

We managed a plate of food, then went back for pudding... Cups, cutlery and water were on the table already. I don't like trays - I certainly wouldn't like to eat my roast dinner with blob of custard on the side. I agree that dinner should be a sociable occasion, etc etc. Fortunately dd's primary have plates, and table monitors to help the younger ones.

scarletlilybug · 29/10/2009 13:15

Maybe learning to carry a tray of food is a skill the children could do with learning?

Like Fejjie, I'm amazed that so mnay people apparently not only accept plastic trays as the norm, but seem to think it's somehow weird to expect a school to provide - and children be encouraged to use - proper crockery.

"knife/ fork/ spoon/ plate/ napkin/ etc are only 'normal' in parts of our culture, and that it is not wrong in some way to eat with your hands, or using flatbreads to scoop food, or slurping noodles from a bowl, or from a bento box with chopsticks". Not wrong - but generally comsidered impolite (depending on the situation and context). Are you going to be recommending a large belch after eating next, to show your appreciation?

RustyBat · 29/10/2009 13:16

"I don't really think a school using them is showing much respect towards its pupils, nor that it has very high expectations of them. JMO."

Sorry, but that really is a strange thing to say. Whether they eat off plates or trays has no effect on the socialisation at all, and in any case, it's often got nothing to do with the school anyway - in our borough the schools have to use the caterers and the caterers use the trays - and the social development of the pupils at the school I work at is outstanding.

gorionine · 29/10/2009 13:23

Did you eat in the gym hall as well? I am asking because that what is done in my Dcs school and the hall is very often used until about 1/2 befor lunch. In this 1/2 hour the dinner ladies have to arrange 15 tables + chairs. I think it would be pushing it to also ask them to set the cuttlery and glasses in that time unless there were more people helping? There is only 2 women working in the kitchen and they are the ones setting the hall What my Dcs call the "dinner ladies" help with helping Dcs cut their food or maintain the noise to acceptable levels, they do not come early to help with setting up. Maybe if they did, eating in proper plates would be more realistic?

RustyBat · 29/10/2009 13:23

I don't know about other schools, but at ours the hall is in use for PE or other activities until 10 minutes before lunch - the dinner staff put out the tables, but if they had to put out cutlery & drinks on the tables before the children ate, either the children would have to wait for lunch, or the lesson would have to be cut short.

RustyBat · 29/10/2009 13:24

x-post gorionine!

gorionine · 29/10/2009 13:31

Good, I thought I might have had a ridiculous idea and that people would say that it does not take that long to set up a table etc...

gorionine · 29/10/2009 13:33

Just realised that they would have to do it twice as well, for the infants first and then the juniors It really shorten the length of the lunch break, for the second service anyway.

kazkissofdeath · 29/10/2009 16:30

omg ..... i thought when my children went to school that i would have to worry about bullies, curriculums, homework. Please dont tell me i am gonna have to join the boards of governers to put my opinions in about dinner trays. personally i feel i shall have to insist upon a hostess trolley and silver service!!

i think gui was referring to 'only on mn' in the the same way you say 'only in america' not that the topic was exclusively mn.....

colditz · 29/10/2009 16:35

Lordy, lordy - it doesn't matter.

BertieBotts · 29/10/2009 17:40

Sorry - I know I am a bit late to reply to this, but comparing children not minding eating off airline trays to children not minding eating pizza every day or having board rubbers thrown at them - it doesn't make sense. Eating pizza for every meal or potentially being hit with a board rubber, those things are harmful. Eating off a plastic tray is not harmful. My DS eats directly off his highchair tray because any plate or bowl ends up on the floor - is this frowned upon as well?

Maybe I am missing the point but I really don't think that eating off a plastic portioned out tray is any worse than eating off plates - I am utterly bewildered that this is even something to get upset about TBH. And the "big deal" seems to be that they are used in prison. So? Bunk beds are used in prison, shock horror, let's ban them for children, having to share a room must be socially depriving for them.

scarletlilybug · 29/10/2009 18:05

Do you eat from portioned-off trays at home? Or would you choose to go to a restaurant that served food that way?

I think mealtimes should aim to be pleasant, social occasions with food attractively presented - not just some case of shovelling some congealed goo down your throat as quickly as possible. Why is there such a rush these days? When I was at primary school, lunchtimes lasted 90 minutes - 65-70 minutes seems to be the norm nowadays. And let's not forget, for a substantial number of children, school dinners are just about the only time they will ever get to sit and eat at a table. Is it that much to expect that children should eat from normal plates?

I'm truly surprised that I seem to be in such a minority for thinking this way.

PeterDominic · 29/10/2009 18:07

i dont care.
i cant imagine kids holding two plates and cutlery woudl be very easy.

BertieBotts · 29/10/2009 19:10

Our lunchtimes were only 50 minutes at secondary school by the time I left I agree that it's much nicer (and healthier) to be allowed to take time over eating.

I think the important things about mealtimes are that the food is tasty and nutritious, table manners are encouraged and there is the opportunity to talk to others. I think it's an adult perception that it's nicer to eat off a plate than out of a tray.

gorionine · 29/10/2009 19:10

scarletlilybug, you are right it would be better if they had more time but as they do not. (I do not know what has changed here, in Switzerland , we used to start school at 8 in the morning and finish at 11. We would go home either walking or in the school bus for those like me who lived further away like myself. School would stat again at 1 in the afternoon so plenty of time)currently Dcs barely have 1/2 hour queuing included, it would be too stressfull to queue twice in that time, they would have to just swallow their food without chewing it at all! It is not ideal but it is the best way for the time they have.

I think the trays do not top the social interaction between the children.

pipWereRabbit · 29/10/2009 19:36

'Congealed goo?' - where did that come from?

Meals on trays can be (and are at my DDs school) presented as nicely as on a plate. The food they get is fantastic (and I know cos I've been in and tried it on several occasions).

I don't understand why people feel using a tray will have a negative impact on either the quality of the food, or the ability of the children to sit at a table together, eating and chatting nicely.

Surely if you (yes, you, the parents) take responsibility for teaching your children good table manners then those manners will apply whatever the social setting and utensils being used. If of course, you prefer to leave that sort of thing to the school then I can understand why you would be worried - but in that case you have no right to hold a pov about how the school chooses to teach manners.

pooexplosions · 29/10/2009 21:47

Seriously, if thats the biggest problem you can find to be up in arms about, you are lucky parent indeed. The little darlings don't eat off proper crockery? , they are going to hell in a handbasket, clearly....

My child goes to school in a temporary building while his school is being built, we've been waiting 10 years for it. A school here has a charity single in the charts to raise money and awareness of their school issues, they are also in portakabins, but theirs leak water and also have rats, and have no building on the horizon. And no schools do hot dinners here, its packed lunch from 5-18
years old.

Seriously, trays or plates? They don't care. If your children can't eat nicely and enjoy their food whatever its served on, you've missed a trick somewhere, but I can't imagine its high on the schools priority list, and nor should it be.

TheFallenMadonna · 29/10/2009 21:52

I really can't get my knickers in a twist abou this at all. And I'm not sure what socila skill my children are missing out on by eating with a knife and fork from a tray rather than a plate. Apart from carrying a loaded tray

SlackSally · 30/10/2009 00:35

Ha! 70 minutes?

My school (amittedly a secondary) has 35 minutes.

We're all uncivilised pigs, natch.

lilolilmanchester · 30/10/2009 00:51

I'm a real foodie and quite "hot" on whay my children eat. But I'm not at all concerned about what the food is served on as long as the trays are clean, otherwise my main concern is that they are eating decent quality food.

Original poster

Fejjie · 30/10/2009 11:06

Thanks all for your points of view, I didn't rwliase the responses would be so vehement.

I guess I am lucky that it is all that i have to be concerned about - at the moment anyway - I'm sure the drugs, alcohol, etc will come when she's a bit older - well hopefully a lot older!

In the meantime I am going to ask some questions of the school about the reasons behind the use of trays, and see what they say. Will take it from there.

Thanks again.

Jeff

OP posts:

lilolilmanchester · 30/10/2009 20:31

hope the responses don't put you off MN.... I've had brutal responses to posts before now and it hurts - but it does make you think about things in a different way.

AlaskaNebraska · 30/10/2009 20:32

you will be a laughing stock

Vivia · 16/11/2009 18:29

I think these plates are a fab idea. As a child, I had to carry (hot) main meal plate, cutlery, water cup, and dessert bowl all full to the table. I only have one hand that functions! Was I given assistance? No. Did I frequently spill it all? Yes. And in those instances I wasn't allowed more food as I had been 'silly' in spilling it. I started choosing the most non-slip main meal, telling them I didn't want pudding and wasn't thirsty just so I could manage physically. I was always starving. I didn't even tell my poor mum. My god, the school's ignorance!

Hulababy · 16/11/2009 18:36

Most primary schools use these. They make sense under the modern cafeteria style dining halls. Trays with plates of food, etc would be a potential disaster.

DD's school went to these last year. They used to sit in groups at tables in the hall. They had plates and cutlery and had servers.

Now they have cafteria style - although still same food and menu. They also moved to the trays as a trial. The girls voted overwhelmingly to keep the new system.

I was dubious for many of the reasons below. And, like others, see them as "prison trays" lol. DD gets very cross with me if I call them that though

Have to say though that the high dining standards and manners, etc. at her school have been maintained, and we have noticed no drop from DDD at home either.

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