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)

It's a great scheme. The school meals in my daughter's school are freshly prepared, varied and good quality. The children have to eat a decent amount, inc the veg before they are allowed pudding. The added peer pressure has meant my 5yo has got much better at using a knife and fork in a very short space of time and will now eat more adventurously. It is also saving me money and time in the mornings. So purely from a selfish point of view, I think it is fantastic.

The school have employed more kitchen assistants and lunchtime supervisors as a result, so it has created more jobs too.

I'm sure it has been a logistical nightmare for many schools and involved huge additional costs, so I wish it had been based on a real body of research. The findings out there are fairly inconclusive and I'm sure the money could be better spent. My local infants school is in desperate need of new classrooms and bigger toilets to accommodate an ever increasing number of pupils and in an area where parents generally have money to spend on lunches, every penny spent here could have helped more elsewhere.

Am surprised by the number of parents on here claiming their kids must be vegetarian... If the kids are given fish at school and like it then find it hard to see imposition of parent's ideological views should stop the child enjoying the fish? Child can decide when he/she is old enough whether to vbe vegetarian or not.

I think it's a good thing. Of course there will be people it doesn't suit but they will never please everyone. But I think a strict eye should be kept on nutritional value without being ridiculous about it like this lunchbox police nonsense.