Free school lunches for infants - what do you think?

[KateSMumsnet]

Starting this month, in accordance with plans announced last year, all pupils in English primary schools up to the end of Year 2 will be eligible to receive free school meals.

How do you feel about the changes? Is it money well-spent, or could the funds be put to better, more targeted use? Has your school had to make any changes such as building new rooms or using classrooms? Are you glad to have lunches taken care of, or would you prefer to make your child's lunch? Have you seen the new menus, and are you happy with them? Will any of you be opting out?

We'd love to hear what you think - do let us know below. And keep your eyes peeled for a guest post on the nutritional value of school meals, coming later this week.

p.s For those of you still making a pack-up every morning, try out this recipe for the perfect lunch box bars (you can still make them even if your DC are at Uni, we won't tell)

on the positive side, he is at least trying new food. (we'd be on FSM either way so it makes no real difference here)

yes, BoomboomsCousin. but at least we'd know what he was supposed to have eaten. the system was changed because the extra children who would prior to this be taking sandwiches made the numbers involved too high so the staff couldn't keep track of who was supposed to have what.

They lasted 1 day before they scrapped the parental choice thing!

a lot of kids don't get great school dinners either though -

half a chicken breast - dry and stringy, swimming in watery gravy, with 3 undercooked "roast potatoes" - potato wedges to you and me- a cannon ball (sorry - that is what the kids call a stuffing ball) - and a spoonful of overcooked green beans, followed by a cookie - same portion size if you are YR or Y6 -

would not get a "ooooo yummy" nor even a "how nutritious" compared to a left overs roast chicken sandwich with carrot and cucumber sticks, an apple and a bit of homemade cake (instead of the cookie)

I don't want to feed mine crap - even if it is free crap..

I was talking to a headteacher of a large primary school about this recently. The whole thing was just dominating his life, because it's like a military operation at lunchtime and he's having to set aside 2 hours a day to oversee it. He obviously hopes that it will all settle down and won't always need that time commitment from him, but nevertheless that's a horrendous waste of a head's time at one of the most pressured stages in the school year.

I think it's crazy tbh, even though ds is getting them. Who on earth decides that children up to year 2 need free meals but older children don't? Does it not matter if older children go hungry? It should be all school age children or just stick to those who used to be eligible for FSM. Also, today my niece had sausage roll, chips and beans ( not at all healthy and not what dsis would feed her) while ds ( same school) had a cheese roll which is not very substantial. When I picked them up they were both a lot more hungry than usual.

I honestly don't know anyone in rl who is against this, just bizarre. a couple of other questions:

• why do dc get free education at all if parents can afford to pay?
• why don't hospital patients have to pay for meals?

They will roll it out to ks2 in the future possibly. The food is also fine at dd's school much better than sandwiches anyway (which the british obsession with is one of the reasons people are overweight).

On the first day in DS class about 3 had packed lunches. This morning there were at least 10 on the shelf.

School Gate chat is made up on parents complaining about what their child is (or in a lot of cases isn't) eating

My DS refuses to touch school dinners, though financially it would be a big help to us if he would eat them. DD is loving school meals, but I am not convinced that they are particularly healthy. There are puddings everyday jelly, ice cream and iced buns. If they weren't free I would definitely give her a much healthier packed lunch.

I take my DD home EVERY day as packed lunches are now banned at her school. She could have a free school lunch made at a school 1 mile away (then transported) consisting of several processed meat options, pizza, fish fingers etc or a jacket potato option often with beans or cheese.

I have always tried to provide my children with a healthy enough packed lunch...fresh salad, sandwich or wrap, nuts, pretzels etc. I've never claimed them to be 'perfect' but now the only option is overcooked processed food. I believe what I was offering was nutritionally better. (I did try the school lunch when invited - not nice!).

I am a sahm at the moment so I can collect her from school but when my DC3 starts school she will not attend this school as I could not return to work if I had to collect her everyday for lunch.

I am the only parent who collects their child every day which did make me wonder if I was just being awkward (!) but then I also get to see the huge amount of waste in the lunch trays every day. At the end of the school day many parents bring a snack as they know their child will be hungry & others say their child has eaten 'peas & the custard pudding' (as a typical example)

I am completely inconvenienced doing this, I even hate making packed lunches but the alternative is not an option for me as I believe food is so very important to health & wellbeing. I have also found my DD is eating even healthier as I am not restricted to what can be sent in a packed lunch.

Lots of other points I could make but I have rambled on long enough!!

Dd had her first day today. She selected meatballs, spaghetti (pasta not tinned) which came with brocolli and carrots. She said it was delicious. Her school has a high takeup of school meals anyway as they are, according to teachers, really good so i don't think it has caused too much bother.

Can some plz advice me
My son just had a place in ark academy school (reception)
And i don't have any idea about what means ark academy and what is the difference between ark academy and normal primary school
Plzzz any advice we have to accept or rejected by tomorrow
Thank you

My DS has just started in Reception and after 2 days we gave up on the school dinners because all he would eat was baked beans and the pudding. Luckily his is a primary so packed lunches are allowed as the older children don't all have dinners. Over this week more packed lunches have been appearing from other kids in his class.

I think it's such a badly though out policy. We're lucky and can easily afford to pay for him to have school dinners when he wants to. There is no reason for him to be entitled to a FSM. It would have made much more sense to have made more people eligible for FSM across the whole school age rather than just blanket target KS1.

Some of the Infant schools locally are cracking under the strain of having to cook 200+ dinners each day with senior teaching staff having to act as extra dinner time servers just to get the kids through in 2 or 3 sittings.. Completely mad.

Ark is a non-profit organisation running academies. It's a brand, basically.

Ark Academies like all academies aren't normal state schools. They are basically state funded independent schools that are free to set their own rules and curriculum with no LEA control Meissajj

After being assured they would, it turns out that my kids' primary school don't cater for gluten free on certain days, so it's back to packed lunches for my daughter.

Waste of money that would be better spent elsewhere.

Meals seem to be just like before and for veggie kids (like mine) they are quite limited - they never get a choice because there's only ever one veggie thing and some days the 'veggie' option is fish, so mine just get a baked potato or something. All the veggie options seem to rely heavily on tomato sauce and cheese. And like other people have said, I don't want pudding to be routine.

Having said that, my Infant has school dinners four days a week because it's easier for me - but we were doing that before it was free anyway.

Waste of money! And why only for young children?
If a family is on low income, a lunch should be provided... Those are the only children who need it...and it should be targeted as such, so poor children don't starve.

At my primary lots of parents opted out because there is no kitchen and the food is re heated rubbish. Also only two students would qualify as low income so its a waste of money.

I agree- parents should be responsible for feeding and clothing their children. Period.

Schools should focus funds on education...better facilities, more assistants for children lagging behind, broader curriculum in terms of arts, music, it, etc.

Only one of my sons is able to get UFSM, I cook from scratch every day so all my children have packed lunches. We,under the old system would not have been getting FSM.I don't understand why the children need a pudding everyday when the portions of main courses are so small.The choices are not what I feed my children at home,I try to stick to a healthy diet and don't think school is always as healthy as they claim to be.

Our school caterers have a gold award yet they are very unhealthy. Not enough unprocessed protein, extremely high in crap white wheat, void of whole grains, void of alternative healthy carbs, overuse of sweet corn and daily puddings. I can't see how the meals can be considered healthy. Sadly they will be habit forming and children will grow into adults who will continue to eat daily puddings and other nutritionally void crap.

there are still only two children in ds's class that have packed lunches. It may be because they have to keep the same option until half term, or it may be because everyone else is happy with them. there are more packed lunches in another infant class, but I don't know any of the parents involved and their reasons why.

I know a good number of parents who have let their children have school dinners all or part of the week despite knowing just how unhealthy they are. Free school meals saves the parents time, saves the parents money and subdues a child who wants the school puddings or wants to fit in with peers. It's not always a case of parents actively being happy with the meals provided, it's often more of a compromise to make life easier/cheaper /smoother while putting up with unhealthy meals.

Bit late coming to this. DD1 is year 1.
Last year, the school meals were great. A rolling menu on a three week rota, which included chicken and veg pie, roast dinner, lasagne, sausage and mash etc.
Now the company that did them don't - DD's school is a distance away and they have restricted their catering for schools that are nearer. There is no school kitchen. So DD1 has a choice between a sausage roll and a pasty, a ham or cheese roll, and fruit.
We don't qualify for FSM but the free lunch is making a big difference to my weekly budget (low salaries but not low enough to get FSM). So she has them, but I'm not thrilled with them.

I think there should have been a longer lead in time, to allow schools to source providers if, as in our case, the current providers pulled out.

My 3 dc have had them for a week now and not eaten a single portion of veg for an entire week.Looking at the 1 portion of washed out veg served at the school I work at I was shocked at how unhealthy they are.

The thing is I work full time and need them to have a decent amount of veg for lunch.