Vegetarian at nursery

[OrangeSprout]

Hi!

just reviewing the nursery’s menu…my kids aren’t on any diet restriction and the entire menu is vegetarian (quorn 8 times in the month and vegetables for the rest of it)…not really happy with this to be honest….it costs £1400 per month just for the baby and £900 for the three year old. I’d just expect some actual meat?

am I being unreasonable?

I'm veggie and don't really see a problem with Quorn twice a week tbh. Others don't have to agree with me but it's what we have in my house and, shock horror, we feed it to our kids too. They're fine, obviously. We balance their diet out with other things across the week so no I don't see a big problem with a couple of Quorn based meals a week. And it has plenty protein too. Didn't realise it had joined the MN ranks of sausage rolls and fish fingers but here we are 😂

OP I would be surprised there is no meat option at all for a whole month so wonder if it's been an admin error like someone suggested earlier on the thread. Best thing to do would be to speak with the nursery politely and ask if there's a reason you've missed as to why it's veggie for the full month. If your family are meat eaters then I don't think it's fair to be made to be veggie for so long, after all you wouldn't force me to eat meat so it should go both ways. Good luck and hope it gets sorted without any big hassle.

Why do you want them to eat dead animals?

I wouldn't be happy with any Quorn, it's full of crap and is an ultra processed food.

Would you prefer to eat live ones? The OP and their child are clearly omnivores and so eat meat.

as a family of ibs sufferers this would piss me off.
we cannot eat quorn 🙄quorn is bad for us..

Yes! No problem with veggie! Massive problem with quorn

Quorn gives me the shits, I think it's quite common - I'm amazed they can feed it to a nursery full of kids that often and not be up to their eyes in it!

Fair enough if they're a vegetarian nursery, I can see the benefit of simplicity if they're in an area where there are likely to be lots of people with restrictions around what and how they can eat, meat wise. But I'd not be happy with that volume of Quorn, no.

I'd be happy about the no meat, but not so happy about the huge amounts of quorn/"fake meat" which in our experience (lots - we're a 50% veggie family) mostly isn't very nice at all.

(nor is cheap meat tbf and I'm sure lot of nurseries and schools use that)

I would expect such a nursery to be marketing itself at the vegetarian/eco-conscious crowd though.

btw re-read your OP and I don't think quorn 8 times a month (twice a week) is ridiculous. I originally read it as 8 times a week i.e. virtually every meal.

Can't see an issue with it all being veggie. Surely toddlers don't need to eat meat at every meal, and most will only be having, what, 5 out of 21 meals per week in nursery?

Wouldn't be overly impressed with a lot of quorn though, it's very processed.

Nothing wrong with having a vegetarian nursery if appropriate for the area but the OP should have been told if the nursery was planning to transition to a vegetarian menu. Quorn can be a problem for many people and is a UPF so not a healthy food to serve regularly.

They don't have to eat any at all.

No one has to eat anything but isn't it lovely when we all have the choice to decide ourselves what we do or do not want ourselves and our children to eat.

Children don’t need to eat meat. I couldn’t get worked up about this. If you don’t like the nursery because of the menu take your kids elsewhere.

Well, I think it would get pretty expensive if nurseries had to start offering a la carte menus so that everyone has a choice about what their kids eat?

Of course it's your choice as to whether your child is vegetarian or not. But if you choose to raise them as an omnivore, does that really mean that you insist on them having meat at every single meal? Surely they eat most of their meals outside of nursery in any case, so not really sure why a few meat-free meals would be cause for concern. Fair enough if your child is in nursery for very long hours and eats most of their meals there.

Meat is a commonly eaten food though, like bread. They could equally say no bread products and give them rice instead but I'd want to know beforehand that they would never be given that food.

Yes they do. I prefer my children to eat meat and there's nothing wrong in that. It's integral that they eat it. For their brain development.

No one's arguing for bespoke menus for every child but here they've removed the choice entirely. Last month there was options where some meals contained meat or were vegetarian and now it's vegetarian and your kid can have quorn and tough shit if you don't like it.

No you're right not every meal needs to include meat and I doubt last month that was the case but when the meal could contain meat or a fake alternative like quorn then why shouldn't there be a choice?

I wouldn't be happy with ultra processed meat substitutes. Nature provided us with a natural more healthy alternative

@Cowlover89 meat is not necessary for children's brain development. There are millions of children that grow up on a vegetarian diet that demonstrate that fact practically.

Schools use Quorn far too much when it’s basicay ultra processed junk. DS doesn’t eat Pork or Beef and his school basically feeds him Quorn except for a few poultry / fish days. I’ve complained to the head. Vegetarian / Vegan shouldn’t be processed shite.

We are an omnivore family. I wouldn’t be happy about the Quorn because I abhor fake food products in general. I’d be equally unhappy to see things like cashew cheese.

A vegetarian menu of naturally vegetarian foods would not bother me at all.

if you don’t like the menu, why did you select this nursery?

I would be happy with naturally vegetarian foods if I was made aware of this in advance. The OP says in a follow-up post that this is a recent change.

The op clearly stated several days ago that last month the menu has meat in it.

What is your actual complaint @OrangeSprout .
Is it just that you want "actual meat" on the menu?

You say the menu is quorn 8 times in the month and vegetables for the rest of it Are you saying that there are no other sources of protein in the "vegetables" meals or that the protein is plant based?

What about other sources of vegetarian protein? Eggs? Cheese?

I wouldn't be very happy with lots of quorn for all the reasons above, but that doesn't mean it should necessarily be replaced by meat.