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)

barbarasmum - the cost of the meals is being met from public funds, yep. Taken from somewhere else. I'd argue that you could do a lot more for children from impoverished background with £1bn than provide them with 5 poor quality meals a week, & throw in a freebie for the kids whose parents are perfectly able & willing to provide/pay for their lunch.

The staffing, equipment & associated costs involved with implementing this are not being covered, as many headteachers have been reporting for months.

I'm not at all anti-school meals; it would've been better if school kitchens hadn't been ripped out in the first place.

If my children's school had a fabulous kitchen, was turning out lovely healthy food, & was running it all without financial detriment to everything else - hell, sign me up. I'd quite happily have been paying for school lunches for the last 6 years & be delighted to continue doing so. I don't ENJOY making packed lunches...who does?

Forgive me for being unenthused about a crap provision that may be free at the point of delivery, but which we are all in fact paying for, simply because it's Nick Clegg vanity project.

Exactly Raven, the reality of the meal is normally pizza, chips and an obligatory slice of white bread followed by chocolate pud with chocolate custard.

And why would you need potato and bread served with pizza which has a bread base already?

The money would have been much better spent increasing the FSM threshold so all children who need it could benefit

Introducing breakfast clubs to all schools which provide free breakfasts to children on FSM

Putting into place some sort of holiday food provision to help families who are struggling to feed their children during the long holidays.

Basically helping people who need it not just people who like it.

My dd won't have school dinner because it is vile, devoid of any vitamins and full of preservatives, colourings and fat. Parents had a taster day and I couldn't believe what they dished up.
And my dd wouldn't eat it, she tried for a week and was dizzy with hunger at pick up time.

Yy to it being a vanity project.That is exactly what it is. Given to NC by the Tories.

I'll wager the school meals served in the pilot were in no way comparable to reality for the maj now.

With the best will in the world your going to get 3(4 if I can put grated carrot or courgette in spagbol sauce) portions of fruit and veg into DD2 in a day.

School can't change that, they can't force feed her peas, broccoli or peaches. You can't hold her nose and pour dried fruit down her throat.

No way does the school budget run to strawberries, which she loves.

She does gymnastics, she far fitter and slimmer than her veg eating big sister.

You are never going to come up with a totally goody goody, no choice menu that all children will eat.

I'd much prefer a more relaxed children friendly one and know that a banana with breakfast and some tomato sauce with dinner was required. Than have to make packed lunch because the she'd chuck her dinner in the bin and get detention off mrs pink coat.

The pilot ran for two years and the meals were the same during this as now and as they were previously.

but then it was the previous government's idea

But school meals vary hugely from school to school going by what is posted on here.How can they be the same?

I don't think it's a good idea. Look at the vege option on last years menu, how is that balanced? Thankfully they have changed suppliers. I also disagree with some Government nutrition advice like low fat diets and sweeteners in place of sugar. DS1's school has complained that it is costing them money. I'm concerned at how I am going to feed the whole family a balanced diet when I'll never be sure exactly what DS1 has had for lunch nad agree with many on the puddings. And I think the money could be far better spent on many things targeting the people that really need it or in a longer term plan of improving Home economics in high schools.

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

Yep. The money should be directed towards children who actually need it. But the Con Dems need a few token 'family friendly' policies in place before the next election.

Since the pilots only covered a few areas it's only possible to compare food in those areas not with the rest of the country ... and in my area the same menus were used during the pilots as were used before and after

In principle, I agree with the idea of giving the same to everyone.

I also take the point that parents should provide their own children's food, and is agree with that, but the FSM threshold is so ridiculous as it is that it's better to just give the same to everyone. I'd like to see them extend it to all students until they have finished their GCSEs.

Either that or scrap free school meals for everyone and just put child benefit up.

Scaredy - tuna pasta bake was the veggie option every other Friday at our primary last year ...TUNA... what field was that grown in?

No way. Sausage rolls, pizza, chips, stodgy puddings, garlic bread, pasta? High carb, low protein rubbish. The deputy head looked at me like I was an alien when I suggested this was not suitable.

Their argument isn't even joined up - oooh I know, parents are thick, they don't know what healthy is, so let's just feed kids MORE of what they must be getting at home! Brilliant idea.

Terrible idea.

Bet Sodexo are rubbing their greedy little hands

I have worked in schools and seen the type of food that is provided at dinner time, it sounds lovely on the menu sent home, but in reality the quality is awful and the portions are tiny....I have seen half a lettuce leaf, one slice of cucumber and a single cherry tomato qualify as a salad.

Every single day I would see children asking for more (not because they were greedy, just still hungry) and they would be turned away.

How does that help a child to maintain concentration all afternoon?

If the government really want to help families they should properly feed the children who genuinely need it and that includes teenagers from poorer families.

But that is my point.I'll wager not many will have that same menu and anyhow you can have a menu and two completely different meals eg Mediterranean pizza in my house is a world away from the frozen cardboard served up in my dc's school.

Also I'll wager the pilot schools actually made sure the kids ate the healthier aspects of the meal,the kids had decent portions and two portions of fruit/veg(which is dire however you look at it) were decent amounts.

...ah yes, that well known fishetable, tuna - & moreover, that's pasta'n'cheesey sauce AGAIN for the 'veggie' option.

Portion size was a major bug bear of older juniors.

I'm certain Y5&6 would rather some of the money was directed their way to have decent sized portions, rather watching food being wasted by YR who don't want it.

As a teacher in a pilot school I can tell you children were left to make their own choices as usual and there was no difference in portion size.

Oh and our cook makes pizza from scratch

my 2 have had school dinners for ages. because I hate making packed lunches. just glad ds2's are now free. but see it as a pointless gimmick.

I've made pizza from scratch mrz.

It's still fundamentally bread with melted cheese on it, which is a perfectly OK thing to eat, but not great when the previous day's offering was mac'n'cheese & it's 'cheese pinwheels' tomorrow.

All served with wedges/oven diced potatoes/oven chips, which are 3/5 of the weekly accompaniments at my dc's school.

Not all schools have pizza made from scratch anyhow pizza made from scratch can be dough,tom purée and grated rubber cheese.

I'm presuming your year 5 and 6s went hungry and put up with a spoonful of chewy corn as their veg portion or white bread as their veg portion with their pizza when the corn ran out followed by cookies and flavoured milk.I'm guessing they all had a sliver of meat as their only protein all day.....

Come on we all know how pilots work.Things are run as the ideal the project aspires to.In reality corners are cut and profits are made.Yes I'm sure your schools will be the same as it will be the schools they return to say see we'd told you it would work and what a hero NC is.Several thousand miles away it's a totally different story.

It's a good idea, and I'm not just saying that because it's going to save me £200 a year for the next couple years.

Up to now, DfE have had to subsidise school dinners in many schools to make a service viable at a price parents would pay, about £100 million a year. This is in addition to paying for FSM.

Paying for all KS1 pupils should mean enough uptake in enough schools to make catering viable (the staff and energy costs remain the same, and some extra ingredients is a tiny proportion of the cost) and possibly even save money. My son's school already has 2/3 FSM so free KS1 meals costs nothing thanks to economy of scale and reduced admin.

The plan was to start with funding KS1 meals and later include extra years, but then the recession happened.

Children need calories - just like in hospitals, the meals include stodge and full fat to ensure enough food gets into them, but in the case of children, while also trying to avoid encouraging a sweet tooth and introducing fruit and veg and new tastes. So there are puddings, but the cakes are pretty bland and hardly sweet, and usually with fruit included.