Free school meals for all infant children

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What do you think? I think it's a great idea.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24132416

NorthPolo - I took a look at some menus on your link.

I would be seriously concerned if I thought the government was going to force my DC to eat this type of crap every day.

Thanks Bonsoir, that's what my face looked like too I've had a look at the menu for the area where my friend's little boy goes to school as he likes the dinners and they're totally different. Much more balanced and well thought out e.g. Meat lasagne and veggie lasagne on the same day rather than the veggie option being pizza.

Dd1 is a good eater but will choose what others choose rather than the healthiest option and if the pudding is dumped on the same plate as the main then there's no hope for anything else being eaten.

I think it's an amazing idea. In my country most children eat school dinners (not free but cheap an prepaid each month). There are no options to choose from, everyone gets the same. We don't even have a word for 'picky eater' and I have never seen anyone older than 3 refusing to eat their veggies.

If dinners become free for all there will soon be huge push from middle-class parents to improve the quality. Everyone will benefit.

The school where packed lunches were sold was a struggling school in an inner city. It was a new head who turned it round and part of that was providing excellent food. He shopped around for a good local caterer who provided enough choice to cover children with allergies and religious food requirements. The more children who had the lunches the more efficiently it could be run. Meat was sourced from local butchers and parents were frequently invited in to see lunch in progress and to feed back their views.

The tricky thing is that for so many years school lunches became of poorer standard and packed lunches took over. It is a huge undertaking to try and change that and I'm not sure that it is politicians' job to do so.

I'm rather pissed off because this is obviously a pre-election promise. The UK is absolutely broke (have you look at the debt clock recently?) We have NO money. Why would we spend any money we DON'T have on this?

I wish they would sort out secondary school meals. My children often come home having had almost no lunch because the queues are so long and the restauant isn't big enough for 1400 children. Not surprising really, that's 140 tables of ten, even serving ten children per minute would take 2.5 hours. Even if they had shift lunches that worked they would still have to serve and have space for 15 children per minute and that's not including eating time.

As primary schools get larger this will become the main problem of having everyone eating school dinners.

Same here passedgo. For my secondary-school son it is a choice between eating something or getting outside for a quick game of football. The queues are large and the lunchbreak is stupidly short so there is no time to do both. I don't think young adults should be doing without food to have time for activity -- or doing without activity to have time for food. He comes home ravenous.

I've looked at a few menus posted on this thread and I'm not impressed. They seem to be designed to be appealing to the maximum amount of children, which is understandable but the food ends up being bland, boring and carb-based - lots of pizza, pasta etc.

There's no opportunity to try something new.

"He shopped around for a good local caterer who provided enough choice to cover children with allergies"

What all allergies?

As anyone who has tried cooking balanced meals for children with multiple allergies will testify, it's no mean feat.

Stock cubes? Better check those for added milk, celery and pea proteins
Ham? Frequently has added milk
Dairy substitutes? OK, but please none with soya or pea protein (they are available, but they cost ££££)
Lasagne? Nope, not without gluten free lasagne (again, ££££) and dairy-free, soya free sauce (£££)
Shepherds pie? OK, but make sure the mash is made with dairy free, soya free milk
Curry? Yes, doable, but please no peas, beans or lentils and if you are making a creamy one, use a dairy free, soya free, gluten free substitute
Pies? Can you make sure the crust is gluten free and dairy free? Again, no peas in it, please.
Sausages? Have they checked the rusk used to make them were gluten free and dairy free

You can't just leave out the bits they can't eat, you need to replace them with nutritionally equivalent things, which usually cost and everything (and I mean everything) used for cooking needs to be checked for allergens. It's just not feasible in a school of maybe 200+ children, never mind the cost. So, these children will have meals provided by parents whilst children without health issues can eat for free?

I'd rather my taxes were spent on something else tbh, new books for instance, or lowering the tax rates so the money I earn goes further.

Just out of interest, does this include children at private schools?

We live in Southwark and there has been a gradual roll out of free school meals to all primary school pupils over the last 2 years, I think this year is the first that all years have had it, initially it was just reception, then up to year 4 last year. It's obviously taken quite a bit of adjustment for the schools so phasing it in gradually seems to have been pretty sensible.

It seems to be working pretty well here - the lunch service takes place over a long time to fit everyone in but very few children now have packed lunches so I think most kids (and parents) are happy with the quality of the meals. Yes there is pudding every day but it tends to be jelly or yoghurt, sometimes sponge and custard. Other than fishfingers on a friday, the processed food content is fairly low.

This is a very mixed area with huge differences income levels between families so while there are kids in my daughter's class who from families that are really struggling, there are others who live in million-pound houses. I think the free meals help a lot with social cohesion because everyone is having the same.

Surely it's a good thing for every child if the whole class has had a decent meal? And it's a lot better to do it this way than to introduce the lunchbox police... And if every child is having school dinners, more parents are likely to demand change if there are quality problems rather than just swapping to packed lunches.

Thereagain this is probably why in most of Europe they go to school until 1pm then have lunch at home. Breakfast at 7, a snack at school during break, lunch at home.

Realistically to cater for 1200 children within an hour and assure each child half an hour to eat lunch, you'd need to get through 20 children per minute. If each child took 3 minutes to choose and serve their meal they would need 60 counters.

Even if they do get through them you'd need a small aeroplane hangar to seat them all.

They really ought to tell parents the truth. "Your child walks around school at lunch time and may occasionally find somewhere to eat a sandwich. Or your child will stand in a queue for 45 minutes and may get a warm/cold meal at the end which they will then have to eat very quickly."

I can only go by my situation and with DS starting school in 2015 i will certainly appreciate it. At the moment he eats pretty much anything, so providing i am reassured by the menu and the ingredients i will be more than happy for him to have school meals. And by meals i don't mean chicken nuggets or turkey twizzlers, smiley face processed potatoes or pizza. I would expect fruit and veg on the menu and if other children choose not to eat it then so be it.

And I still won't be voting for them, especially as i anticipate some nasty 'surprises' in the autumn budget in order to offset this initiative. Most likely scrapping child benefit altogether or something equally hairbrained.

Its great for parents that are struggling with money but not eligible for FSM, which is a good proportion of parents. Our school dinners are 'ok' but fish fingers, chicken nuggets and chips do feature each week, as do 'homemade' (questionable!) muffins and cookies. Vegetarian options are mainly processed equivalents, whereas you could do really interesting veggie lunchboxes. They use lots of words to trick you into thinking the menu is something wholesome, 'crispy chips', 'italian spaghetti' (as opposed to what?), 'strawberry delight' (you mean angel delight, the processed powder dessert?).

My ds has allergies so I wouldn't feel comfortable with him being at the mercy of the school cook, even if they claimed to cater for allergies.

It'd be nice to see a free breakfast club as it would make mornings much quicker and less stressful! And it'd be easier to cater for allergy prone dc (soya/goats milk, dairy free spread, gluten free cereal and toast).

Mmmmm..... strawberry Angel Delight [rushes off to the shop to buy a pint of milk and a packet of, ahem, 'strawberry delight']

Ha matana, everything is ok in moderation!

And the great thing about lunchboxes is lack of choice! If faced with a 'homemade' cookie/muffin or the cut fresh fruit/yoghurt available with school dinners, its a no brainer. Whereas today she has a sandwich and an apple and pear, yesterday she ate both pieces of fruit purely down to lack of choice and hunger!

I think its a silly idea, save the money for the children that really need it

I can afford 12 per week, so why give it for free and use money???

A few people have mentioned the Pupil Premium thing, and I must admit I wonder about this too. Is it a stealth way of getting rid of it? If so schools in deprived areas will be even more worse off and standards will slip.

Daft idea. I think the threshold for FSM should go up to include those on lower middle incomes, but for all? School meals round our area are full of stodge and cards - cake and custard, pizza, white bread etc etc.

I like the idea of every child having a healthy meal every day. But in reality this will simply not be the case.

carbs

though some of the stuff they serve could just as well be made of cardboard

Isn't it ironic too that they get rid of child benefit for 'higher' earners, but are now proposing to give everyone the right to free school meals regardless of income? (because the entire population is clearly to stupid to feed their children properly)

Oh good, so this will start just as my youngest( of 6) will become a junior, bloody fantastic.
And where is the money coming from?

I am really annoyed. we are borderline for losing cb, depending on year. I now have to waste my time nagging dh to fill in a tax return so they can take 10 quid off us, then they give us school meals which is a completely non meanstested benefit. Why are they doing this and how can they account for the extra admin costs of means testing cb plus the cost of introducing fsm? I hated the principle of getting rid of cb but understand money must be saved, I didn't realise it was so they could introduce such a pointless (although beneficial to me) policy just for a few votes.

3 DC's, youngest in y2, y3 next year, darn it!

gimmick