Jamie Oliver has bolluxed up school meals - fewer kids eat them since his show

[TheDullWitch]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/12/nfood112.xml

Maybe people just don't want to change.

But if there was a big subsidy I suspect there would be a lot of complaining from the packed lunch parents....

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I think schol dinners are fab, even more so now they have made them better, and my 2 love the variety and will try loads of new things. They even have a salad bar.

Obviously I don't pay at the mo, and if I get a job, they will unfortunatly have to go back onto sandwiches, as there is no way I can afford £30 a week for dinners.

£2 a day here without a drink (80p for water? I don't think so!!)

Ds only doesit once a week as he didn't eat them and just wasted the £2 on sweets.

The only thing he'll buy is flapjacks which I suppose are borderline healthy so has 3 flapjacks on the Friday

I couldn't care less that fewer children are eating them because at least the change means that my children aren't served sh*t for dinner at school.

Yes cod, but sandwiches twice a day? Or me having to faff around doing pots of pasta and carrot batons the night before? I do cook for them, but it is impossible with the activities. On the other days DS has two "proper" meals.

dd1 (soon to be dd2 school as well) charges £1.50 a day. i sampled a meal there today visiting with dd2, and it was lovely. had chicken breast, sweetcorn, gravy, cauli, peas (loads of other veg on offer) roast potato. they have a salad cart, fresh bread, puddings ranging from fruit-yoghurt to biscuits, jugs of cold water on the tables. its all cooked on site, and looked lovely.

but yes its bloody ex[pensive. £3 a day for 2 kids, £15 a week, £60 a month.

but compared to what it could cost to do a packed lunch daily, its not that bad.

once dd3 starts there, then dh and i will eat big meal at lunch, and ligther meal in the evening, as there is plenty on offer at the schoo..

i mean its expensive if you have mroe than one child.

honestly the choice is massive! its good for money if your children will eat it.

dd2 will, so no worries there.

£60 buys a weeks shopping, so yes it is expensive out of a household budget if you live in the same world as me. If not, then maybe it isnt

It is hugely expensive, I was quite shocked when I found out how much they will be charging at ds1's school when he starts in September. He's 4, he doesn't eat enough to feed a mouse, and it's £1.75 per meal.

I would still prefer to have the choice between that and a packed lunch though, rather than my ds being offered worthless oversalted processed junk food for lunch every day.

am i the only one who thinks that packed lunchs are way more expensive?
for 1.80 a meal, the kids get a hot meal with lots of variety. sure they may not always like it, but it's definitly healthier and more varied than a cheese/tuna/egg/meat/marmite sandwich, apple/banana, and drink is. once i start buying things like yoghurts, or cereal bars, or juices/squash etc, then i am increasing the precessed sugar content and the price without adding anything of nutritional use.

You can make a decent healthy packed lunch very cheaply if you don't mind washing vegetables and preparing food. People choose to pay for the convenience of something that doesn't take much preparation (which I'm not criticising at all - but it skews perception of the "cost" of a decent lunch)

oh, and the school dinners always have more veg than i can get them to have for lunch

2 slices of bread 5p
butter, nothing as minimal surely
ham or similar a couple of pence?
apple 10p maybe
water, nothing
yogurt 25p
tomatoes 10p ish?

so about 60p? at a guess

i costed it as 10p

its out of a pack....I buy £2.15 italian ham though....

Ds had his one packed lunch of the year for his school trip on Tuesday. It was a major event.

Ds's school dinners are very good, the dinner ladies lovely (they bake biscuits for us to eat when we're using the kitchens for PTA events) and I am happy to pay 1.75 a day. I shall gulp a bit when dd starts too, but ds will eat a much better lunch if it is presented as a 'proper meal' (sorry cod) rather than as a selection of bits. And he doesn't like sandwiches much, which would just be a PITA.

even if its a £1 a packed linch and you have 3 children, thats a saving of 3 x 85p a day

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my ital;ian ham is fine!

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