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)

But the best it can be is no where near adequate in many schools if you read what others have said.

Your obviously very blinkered in your ideas if what a school meal is. Because there are hundreds of people on here who have seen fur themselves or heard through their children just what it is they get. Of course these people will think it's a bad idea that instead of improving things the money goes on feeding more children stuff that's worse than before because suppliers or staffing has to be changed to cope with it all.

Sooooooo the kids in ks2 and 3 don't really count.

You'll be expecting free school,uniform and shoes for all too in your utopia I guess after all there should be no differentiators for wealth.Best get those free rucksacks and books organised too.

Our school dinners are made on site under a cook and team.They are tied to what they're told to do.

Yes, my support for this is only if the food is any good. If it's cheapest possible stodge, the exercise is pointless.

Although if we're saying "school food is really rubbish so should only be given to those who really need it," that's a serious problem for those who really need it.

No I don't live in utopia, I expect nothing for free, but I clearly have a more positive attitude than others

Exactly, stodge is ok for the paupers

Get off your behinds and stop whinging and have a voice, you would be surprised what effect it can have

No it isn't ok.

I'd prefer money put in to better school meals for fsm kids and those that wish to pay and actually better books,resources and buildings as you know the whole point of kids being in school is the education they're getting and not free food.

What seagulls said.

sirzy parents can still send in a packed lunch. There are no packed lunch inspections. Every week we find a lunchbox empty/ full of crap/ absent entirely and so (at the school's expense) provide a school dinner...we just try to ensure that every day, every child has eaten something at lunchtime.

I just don't get the suspicion over this free offer - do schools not think that Ofsted will be all over them like a rash if their LA-sourced meals aren't up to nutritional standards?

iamusuallybeingunreasonable - the meals I've described above are all from a menu that 'recently won a healthy eating Gold Award for their standard'.

My beef, as it were, isn't with the school. They have a very limited budget to work with - given it's coming out of money they'd normally be spending on teaching & learning - it's with the low standards which are considered acceptable by the Government.

Support this initiative with a decent financial boost, stringent nutritional standards & a team of unannounced Michelin inspectors, & I'm all for it.

As it stands, it's a counterproductive, cynical gimmick.

& Barbarasmum - Ofsted bob in for two days every five years. & the 'nutritional standards' you're placing your trust in could practically be met by warming & serving up the cardboard boxes the food came in.

I think it's a great idea. Sadly only 1/3 of my children will get free dinners - but I pay for the other two anyway.

Those who say they can afford it could maybe donate all or some the money they would have paid to the school PTA?

This will save me a fair few quid so I welcome it, even though I only have them free for one year. The food seems OK, no culinary masterpieces, but they get those at home

Barbara have you seen the standards?The standards a teacher linked to a few weeks ago were pretty poor.As I said could you link to the standards you're talking about?

I have my dc's menu in front of me,it's not a healthy menu.It's the same as it was last term and that was poor.I don't blame the staff they're told what to do by the catering companies raking it in.

The trouble with school food is not just price, but all the idiotic nutritional rules.

For a short while, when school first started cooking in site, my incredibly fussy DD2 would eat school food 3-4 days a week. They invited the parents for lunch. It was really nice.

Then the guide lines were changed and DD2 would eat the food one day a week if I was really lucky.

dD1, who is much more reasonable, said anything that had been tasty became bland. Anything that had been kiddy friendly had veg. Stuffed in it.

Great on paper, but totally useless if you have a child who eats carrots and sweetcorn and will not touch anything else.

The money isn't coming from the school budget ravenUK - the Government are paying the school £2.30 per meal - our LA charges us £2.05 and the difference goes towards extra costs for catering/MDSA hours. If we had needed cookers/dishwashers etc this would have been met by a massive capital grant. 'My' school is getting an additional grant for being a small school. IT'S A GOOD THING !

I think it's a good idea. It'd be a great idea if it didn't include pudding! Having a proper meal at lunch if fine, but I don't see the need for dessert after every meal.

However, in the secondary school where I work I would prefer to see free breakfast (even if it is just brown toast and a piece of fruit). The number of teenagers who come in with a can of coke and a chocolate bar as 'breakfast' is quite scary.

sorry SeagullsAndSand - as I say, just back from work - please feel free to google Warwickshire's food standards and have a look...

It's an enormous waste of money. My ds starts yr1 and will be on packed lunches.
Last night I heard a conversation in the swimming pool changing rooms after ds' lesson.
Mum: (to another mum) dinners are free so he's having them this year.
Boy: I want packed lunches mum, dinners are horrible and I'm always hungry after.
Mums friend: but you can get sandwiches too.
Boy: have you tried them? They're worse than school dinners.
Mum: well it's free so you're having them!

They boy doesn't go to our school but with ds having food intolerances I'm more than happy providing a packed lunch and a nutritious cooked dinner at home in an evening.
If the government wanted to spend that much on schools surely a music, sports and arts programme would have been better. Or smaller class sizes which would have won more votes.

That poor boy

Nutritional standards: www.gov.uk/school-meals-healthy-eating-standards.

So you can have, for example:

Halal Spaghetti Bolognaise
served with Mixed Salad &
Garlic Bread
Or
Loaded Vegetable Pizza
served with Mixed Salad &
Oven Baked Potato Wedges
Chocolate Sponge served
with Chocolate Sauce
Fresh Fruit Salad
Yoghurts

as my dd2 is offered on a Monday. If she has the salad (if there's any left), or if we're counting the veg on the pizza, & then she has the fruit salad, I suppose technically that's two portions of fruit'n'veg = nutritional requirements met.

but, well, have you seen a school dinner salad that's sat on a serving counter for two hours? Not that you're likely to: they never make more than a few, to avoid waste.

On the menu does not = 'available & in appetising condition by the time the last class get into the dining room.'

A more typical lunch would be: spag bol/pizza + garlic bread/wedges (so two cheap carbs) followed by stodgy pudding & custard (more cheap carbs) or at best a sugary yoghurt.

My dh has looked at my dc's school menu. He thinks it looks great. I'm a teacher. I've looked at what ends up on the kids' plates. I do not think it's great.

Good theory but various friends at different schools have told me lunch time today at school was a nightmare -and reception didn't even stay for lunch

One friend works in a 3 form entry school -163 yr 1&2 had school meal plus all the juniors -lunch started at 11.30 but the juniors didn't finish until 2 purely due to how long it took to serve everyone

It will save us £80 a month and both DCs love their school dinners.

The menus are much improved since I was a bairn.

I did think it might mean they wouldn't want a normal sized meal in the evening but they seem to,enjoy 2 hot meals a day!

Shocking waste of money to be universal - would have been better revising the criteria / raising the income level at which you can claim within a sensible parameter.

The "at least two portions of fruit and veg" is a spoonful of peas or sweetcorn and the pineapple( 3 cubes at best) in upside down cake served with custard.Re the quality meat they get a sliver.

But they're keeping within the guidelines.

They're being introduced in Scotland next year. DS's school doesn't have a kitchen so the food is brought in from elsewhere.

I'm concerned about the quality and nutritional value of the food - DS isn't a big eater so at the moment I can tailor his packed lunches so the quantity and balance is healthy for him. I'm not overly impressed by things like pizza and chips on the menu at school. Lots of the options just now seem to be very stodgy and carb heavy. DS hasn't wanted to try hot dinners before now and already complains they don't have a lot of time to finish lunch so I do wonder how some schools will cope.

In Scotland I also wonder about how's it's being funded and what local authorities, already under pressure, will need to cut to provide it.

I'm not against free school meals for all in principle if the food is good and schools are equipped to provide it though.

See I think that actually two portions of deep fried food a week is a lot. So they can happily serve fried food two meals out of five.