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.

I grew up in a country where I had a two course dinner (soup and main, no puddings) made from scratch in every nursery and school I went to. We never had pizza or chips or anything out of a tin, it was always very healthy with a lot of vegetables, no options no fussing. And there were never any overweight or underfed children. School dinners set my eating habits for life, as my mother's cooking wasn't that good.
So I'm a bit at a much wealthier country where children eat snacks and sandwiches all day because dinners are too expensive or not very good. If it was only that. I often see small children walking from school eating cheap Chinese rice, parents by their side. They probably are entitled to free meals so I'm not really sure why do they have to buy a crappy take away. If a parent is crap, adding extra responsibilities just makes the kid more vulnerable, it won't improve the parent.

I really don't want to spend my evenings and mornings slaving in the kitchen, I'd rather rest spend some quality time witch my child.

School lunches at ds school are £2.15 a day. When he started reception I made him packed lunches - which with an innocent smoothies, hummous, veg, fruit, humzingers and whatever else he liked quite possibly cost well over that to be honest.

Then he asked for school dinners so I started paying for those (though at the time it felt like I was paying more even though I probably wasnt, the money just was additional to the grocery fund and felt like it.) He refused to go back to packed lunches, and then a friend pointed out I was eligible for free school meals.

DD starts reception September and due to change in circumstances and general slattern-like behaviour I'd love for her to have school dinners but she's adamant she wants packed lunches in a Charlie and Lola lunchbox. I've convinced her to have at least two a week, hopefully maybe they'll swing her to every day!!

I don't know about other council/LEAs etc, but locally to receive free school meals you need to receive one out of a list of benefits. I am eligible as I receive child tax credit and not working tax credit as I'm a full time student. If anyone received WTC they aren't eligible.

'I really don't want to spend my evenings and mornings slaving in the kitchen, I'd rather rest spend some quality time witch my child.'

Well, then, stump up for school dinners. People on full benefits are entitled to free school dinners. They are not, however, compelled to take them up.

I don't see cooking and baking as 'slaving'. They're activities I really enjoy.

And my children, all 3 of them, spend 'quality time' with us helping out to prepare meals, set the table, tidy up.

The ones at DS's school are beyond awful. It looks like someone wrote the menu adhering to guidelines rather than what would actually work together. The last time he had a school lunch he ended up having rice and brussel sprouts as he didnt like Chilli and there is only one option. They cost £2.10 a day which is very expensive in the area.

Then perhaps instead of providing free meals for large number of children government should subsidize school kitchens to employ proper chefs to cook lovely meals out of locally sourced seasonal ingredients (no boring rotating menus) and make every parent pay small amount for each meal, a pound or 50p. Then poorer children won't be stigmatized by receiving free meals and other families won't have to worry about huge dents in their budgets.

The school dinners at our school are £2.10 a day and my dc usually eat school dinners in the winter term.

We are given a weeks menu in advance and they choose out of 3 options what they would like. They are locally produced and brought in from the outside by a catering company. Very healthy, great selection and my children love them.

I think that in the winter a school dinner will warm a child up from the inside. However I do agree that school dinners are v expensive and packed lunches work out half of that price.

I think a choice of packed lunch or school dinner is a good thing as it is generally down to what suits each household, it is just a shame that school dinners are so expensive.

We have very few children in our school (2 or 3?) that have funded school dinners and those children do not have anything different.

Ds's school lunch costs £2.20 per day. He has it every day in order to assuage his working mum's guilt of not having the time to cook a proper hot meal when we get home (he gets pasta/beans/scrambled eggs or anything else that can be prepared and served in under ten minutes!).

Sometimes he has a packed tea at after school care so, imo, it is particularly important that he has a hot meal at lunch.

We bake all our bread and goodies from scratch and bulk buy the ingredients (flours, sugars, yeast, dried fruit and/or nuts, etc.).

I also buy cheaper cuts of meat and then marinate them or put them in the slow cooker so they go soft for sandwich fillings.

In winter, the girls' school permits flasks so DD1 has soups or hot pasta dishes.

There's no way it's as expensive as school dinners.

I truly enjoy planning and finding new ways to cook, new things to cook and experimenting and eliminate waste.

Don't see it as a drudge at all!

Good music or radio 4 on in the kitchen, cold Appletizer, it's a fun time.

Often in the evenings I'll do something with leftovers or prepare something in the slow cooker to be turned on in the morning.

Food is probably going to become more expensive and we may have to get used to eating more seasonal foods, so it's best to get children acquainted with things and believing it's a worthwhile endeavour to feed oneself as well as possible.

And my kids see it as such.

Mine go to swim lessons, football, Beavers and Highland dance.

But it's only 2 days/week and on those nights, I do a slow cooker meal or cheese toasties/leftovers.

Working in the kitchen with them, too, also teaches them about waste and how to be resourceful with food rather than throw it away.

Am dreading this next year. DD is constantly hungry, so can imagine her taking a packed lunch and then making sad eyes at the people who serve lunch saying she's starving...

Pack lunches here. Our school dinners cost £1.75 and dd has switched between hot dinners/pack lunches and we are now staying on pack lunches, mainly because of the expense, but I also found she was eating ice-cream for dessert most days which tbh I wasn't happy about.

I estimate her lunch from home costs me around £0.75 - I have a chest freezer in the cellar and often buy a 'posh' chicken from Waitrose when it's heavily reduced and freeze to use at a later date. So a Sunday roast will always give us leftover meat for sandwiches, I bake fairy buns or carrot cake and it costs very little indeed. We don't do fruit shoots/dippers/cheese strings, what they have never had they don't miss and the school are (apparently) quite strict on lunch box contents. I put in a yogurt and a carton of juice, a piece of fruit and some olives or pickled peppers, job done. That said, I am a sahm and I daresay if I worked full-time, I'd probably do school lunches to save time.

Hi,
I know this thread is a bit old now but I wonder if anyone can give advice on dinners.

My son is special needs (autism)and has food allergies/intolerances.

He also has sensory problems, so can't eat even slightly spicy (even tomato pizza topping burns his mouth) and slimy things like cold pasta make him gag.

I want thim to have a hot meal at school and he loves most veg/fruit except tomatoes and there are some like pineapple and mushrooms which he is allergic to.

He is allergic to nuts, sesame, kiwi, soya pineapple, fish, and intolerant of cows milk.

The catering from the school was sending him sausage at least twice per week because they couldn't give him what was on offer. There are only 2 choices per day and if the child is on the second sitting there is no choice, only what is left.

Last week they gave him a chip sandwich and peas. I paid £2 for it and was angry. I rang the catering but they said they would send chicken baguette with salad on the days he couldn't eat the food. Yesterday they gave him cold boiled pasta with slices of cucumber and cubed ham. He got upset and cried because he cannot eat slimy food. (even I can't eat cold pasta (slugs).

What can I put in sandwiches for him? I really did not want to go back to sandwiches as I don't have much time anymore and last term he got bored with them and wouldn't eat the bread. Although he used to come home for lunch, I am working now and can't do it. Also the school have shortened the lunchbreak to 45 mins and there is no time to drive there and back and feed him.

The dinners are not cooked at the school, there is no kitchen there, they are brought by van from central kitchen. He has been at the school 5 years and dinners are still a big problem. The catering will only provide special dinners if he is under a dietician for nutritive reasons, which he is not becuase he does eat a good diet at home, fresh raw veg, chicken breast, goats cheese/milk/butter, but none of these are provided at the school.

Any advice