School dinners, who can afford them?

[darcymum]

Following on from another thread about being required to pay for school dinners for the first term at school I wondered what proportion of school meals are taken by children who do pay for them?

DD1 starts school in September and I plan to send her in with a packed lunch, as do other parents I know, mostly because packed lunches are cheaper. I have three DCs who will be in the three consecutive school years and definitely couldn't afford for all three to have school dinners. I know that the fact is about £2 for a hot meal is very good value but they will get a hot meal at home in the evening.

If I was entitled to free school meals I would send them every day, which made me wonder if it is mostly children getting free school meals who take them up. Anyone know? I have heard the argument that it might be the only hot meal children get but that could be equally true for children with parents not getting income support (or whatever), which case all children should get a free school meal. Maybe the money would be better spent increasing benefits for people with children and letting parents provide packed lunches and to having school dinners at all.

cant see that catching on gramercy!!

tho kids could be taught to clear up their own mess....

we dont pay extra for the mess they create in the classrooms

I will have 3 at school in September. Currently, my eldest two have school dinners twice a week, which costs £8 in total. The rest of the time they have packed lunches. I think I could probably make a packed lunch for cheaper than £2 - I don't buy cheap white bread but they have squash as this keeps the cost down. There are very few children in our school who qualify for free hot meals but there are still a lot of children who do have hot meals.

It has always been far cheaper to give DD 2 quid for school dinners, as I used to eat all 5 mini baby bells stood up at the fridge, and scoff all the ham and houmouss for dd's sandwiches as well. Everything used to ger ransacked and so I had to but more provisions mid week.

Plus, after chopping a carrot up lovingly every morning for a year, found out that dd was binning them at school because some boys took the mick for her having carrots as opposed to chocolate biscuits (this was pre-Jamie Oliver days).

Plus how sould destroying is it to make sandwiches every day and then wash the lunchbox at the end of it. A very minor chore but it got on my nerves. DD is old enough now to make sandwiches, but frankly her school dinners are excellent, so she has a bowl of salad or pasta, and it takes the pressure off cooking a banquet in the evening.

But, I only have the one child. If I had more than one I think it would be more cost efficient to make sandwiches.

We have had periods of school lunches and packed lunches. For us packed lunch is dramatically cheaper and I think school dinners are a total rip off.

My dd2 who had school dinners for a long time was constantly hungry so we started to monitor what she had. Some days it was just a half slice of bread (homemade and lovely - but still only half a slice) as she didnt like the meal. I went in and monitored her and others as part of a scheme to encourage more parents to commit to school dinners but on closer inspection a lot of us mums realised that a huge number of the children were eating either very litte, or just the meat and gravy, or just the potatoe, or just the pizza etc etc. Not a nutriitous balanced meal at all. The effect was that more people now have school dinners so it backfired on the school!

My DD1 gets free school meals, but once a week there is something on the menu she just doesnt like, so will take a packed lunch.

To be honest, it wouldnt make much difference if she had packed lunch every day, as with 2 other children at home, we have bread/cheese/ham/yoghurts/fruit and biscuits in the house for the little ones lunches anyway.

I like DD1 to have a hot dinner at lunchtime though as I feel she is more geared up for the afternoons, because she has had a substantial lunch.

At dinner time, DD1 often has her "packed lunch" while the rest of us eat a main meal.

In August, DD2 starts school and she too will have school dinners, and we will probably start eating our main meal at lunch time too.

From what I have seen here, DD1 seems to be a minority in that she gets free school meals, as she often asks why she doesnt need to give the cook her dinner money like the other children. There does seem to be a good turn out for school dinners here, and they are excellent quality (having had one myself the other week!)

Wow Riven, DS1 is only 7 and would be starving if he only had that for lunch!

With my vultures hungry kids we are definitely better off paying for school lunches.

Plus they are good for the school cook's self esteem. They eat everything she makes and ask for seconds. She loves them

i don't have a school aged child but i know there are times when DH and I are too tired and busy to make sure we have shopped for and prepared packed lunches.

i guess if we really couldn't afford a shop bought sandwich we'd have to deal with it but with two working parents there are times when life is just so busy and your time to sleep is more valuable.

£2.00 per day here and both of mine have them although if they really don't like what is one offer they will take a packed lunch instead.

I like it because it means that they can try out different foods and also because when I'm working it takes some of the pressure off in terms of providing a hot evening meal.

oos - i obviously meant more people have packed lunch!!

am considering packed lunches for ds.....i mean,pizza with rice? that was one days offering.....as they dont cook enough,only rice was left to go with the pizza!

oh,and one day,it was jacket potato with chips!!

I pay for school dinners (£2 per day) and find them very good value for money - my son has a hot meal, bread, dessert and fruit. He had packed lunches for a while and I found they cost just as much when you add up all the sandwich fillings and babybel type things. Plus my son ended up eating pretty much the same thing everyday whereas the school dinners are really varied.

But the biggest plus point is that I am a lazy cow and got fed up of having to make the packed lunch every morning.

That is a strange menu Tiffany!

This is a sample menu here, it is a couple of years old but hasn't changed much. It can be a bit heavy on Peas and Sweetcorn as the veg component, but other than that is very good. In fact DS1 has been known to ask the school cook for the recipe for certain dishes so that we can have them at home!

we would have to pay, but don't as £2 a day/£80 a month for 2 dc's, packed lunch is much cheaper. we have a hot meal at tea time so not a big deal for them to have sandwiches for lunch.

Our school provides excellent food - very tasty and varied, but the children still only eat the bits they love to eat and leave the bits they would normally have to be encouraged to eat.

After we had done our monitoring it was amazing how many parents who thought their children ate well were shocked at how unvaried and unhealthy they were really eating. One example - a little girl I know very well will eat anything. She is a big eater and not fussy. But when monitored she filled up on chips (wedges), pizza, bread, pudding and cheese each day and left all veg, the main meal and the fruit. Not unhealthy - but not what mum was led to understand was happening as she was telling mum what she had on her plate, not what she was actually eating.

My dd was the same. My big bugbear is that there are nowhere near enough staff to encourage the children to eat what they need to or keep an eye on them. There are only 4 in the hall (plus kitchen staff).

DH takes 2 rounds of sandwiches, 2 pieces of fruit and 2 cakes/flapjacks etc and is STILL hungry. I guess the DC have inherited his appetite! They are all still string beans though.

I pay for 2 dds school dinners £20 a week. Dd1 eats all sorts she doesn't eat at home. Dd2 still doesn't eat much but the dietician has been adament for a year she will give in! She does eat slightly more just on the grounds she has no option.

I hated making packed lunches and this means if we have a rushed night they can have a sandwich or something light for tea

at the upper school where both my dd's go,its all done out 'cafe' style. with bars and bar stools as well as a sit down area with lime green chairs...all very nice..... the food is pasta pots/baguettes type thing. eat and run seems to be the message!

Wow, we are lucky. We pay £1.30 a day for dd's school dinners. There is loads of choice and the menus always look delicious.
If she doesnt like the main meal on offer there is always something else to choose from.
Today for example is a roast dinner (veggie option of veggie burgers) or they can choose loaded potato skins with cheese and mushrooms or tuna salad with pitta bread. Pudding is treacle sponge with custard or icecream with peaches or fresh fruit.

If there is a school trip we pay the same dinner money and the school provide a packed lunch.

I'll not send her with a packed lunch all the while the school dinners are like that!

Tiffany, our school has mad combinations too. Chicken korma with mashed potato for example. "The mashed potato is for the vegetarians" wtf?

My friends dd is veggie but she doesn't like cheese and 4 days out of 5 the veggie option is cheese. They do run out of food too and its always the year 6s that end up with the wierd stuff.

I'm not much liking the its only cheap if you put shitty processed food in angle. You can make pasta salad/rice salad/hot pasta/home made baked beans/cake/seasonal fruit for small children very cheaply. You don't have to use marketed 'lunchbox' items. DS drinks water because he doesn't like juice but when dd starts I might sometime give her juice but it will be from a big carton, poured into a bottle for her. If they have yoghurt it is a reusable pot so I can take some out of the family size carton rather than buying the individual ones.

£1.15 per day here so dd1 goes every day. They have a good, varied menu and even if she only ends up choosing a sandwich it's still worth it for me to not have to make a packed lunch .

I think the cut of for me would be, maybe, £1.40 per day, would have to choose packed lunches as it's not such good value then.

Our school do all the cooking on the premises - and provide a good menu.

But they dont supervise, so I found out my DD wasn't really eating any of it.

The cost is £2.10 per day, and so for the 2 of them was costing me £21/week.

I think it is expensive, we also have to pay for ALL school trips and music lessons.

It all adds up, some Mondays I can hardly find the money for all the extras.

I pay £20 a week for my DC to have dinners, I think they cost slightly less than this but can't be sure as the balance checker is always out of order.

DS loves his school dinners, he doesn't eat sandwiches apart from jam and I don't let him have jam everyday, he would eat pasta or soup but the school won't let him take it in incase he burns himself.

DD would prefer sandwiches but she ends up wasting loads of food and only eating the sandwich and the treat so she usually has dinners.

The school have just started a make your own packed lunch where for the price of a dinner you can choose a sandwich or wrap, small portion of wedges or coleslaw, fruit, yoghurt or a cookie and a drink, which in comparison with the dinner, choice of two hot meals or a filled jacket, dessert and fruit and a drink seems a rip off.
Apparently it's beause lot's of parents are giving more food than is acceptable for packed lunch.