Am I being a food snob?

[Haventaclue2]

Hi,

DD is starting school in September and I have been sent the menus to chose her first months worth of lunches.

There are two jacket potato options, a meat dish and a veggie dish. There seems to be the same 6-7 meals: burger & potato cubes, pizza & potato cubes, lasagna, fish and chips, tomato pasta & garlic bread etc. Desserts are a cookie, ice-cream, yoghurt, chocolate mouse...

The veggie options sometimes include some veg but I was expecting more fruit and veg in general, some days there is no fruit or veg at all and mainly carbs? I expected some peas on the side or an apple for example?

I always planned for her to have a hot meal at lunch as mum friends have always said how expensive and a faff packed lunches are and most of it can left anyway where as at least she'll probably eat all of the hot meal?

Am I being a terrible snob? 😳

Obviously its only one meal a day so its not going to do her any harm but the food at her nursery is so different it just came as a surprise?

That looks very similar to DNephew’s menu maybe same provider?!

School dinners threads always remind me of the first time I had lunch with my eldest at school. A little boy in reception sat next to us and he had a jacket potato and a pot of grated cheese with a cherry tomato cut in half on top.

He proceeded to eat the potato without the cheese, so I asked him if he needed help putting the cheese on the potato. No, he declined. He finished the potato and then started on the cheese, ate half and left the tomato.

From that moment on, I took school dinners as what they are - something to feed the kids during their day at school. You can try and pick the best nutritional menu for your child, but out of sight, they’ll surprise you by what they eat, how they eat it and what they leave aside.

As long as the parent picks up the ‘slack’, I wouldn’t be overly concerned. The main course in a school dinner is usually carb heavy, so if you don’t feed them similar type food in the morn or supper time, it will hardly register. OR you can go for packed lunches which truthfully, unless you’re dealing with a very picky eater is a faff on. Parent pay is two clicks and you’re done!

Nope. Mine had packed lunches in the 2000's. A nourishing packed lunch with fruit was more expensive than the school lunch. I think about £1.65 or £1.80 then. Mine had a hot meal in the evenings so packed was fine.

When they moved to the independent sector, the school lunches were perfect: soup and a roll and butter, nice meat, salad selections, plenty of fruit, nice desserts. But they were £4.50.

You get what you pay for.

I wouldn’t be happy with that.

Bloody hell that’s better than most workplace canteens!

There was a brief BBC London segment today about free school meals and councils etc having to find/pay more money for these for another year. I didn’t see all the segment.

One of the reasons I took second DC out of state school earlier was the crap food. It was beige, badly cooked and even the free fruit/snack provided was horrible quality. No one oversaw that they did have something from the salad bar and every day DC ate a jacket potato and beans because they didn’t fancy the main.
Don’t get me wrong, the independent school wasn’t perfect by any means, but on dine-in days what I saw was actual properly cooked food and some choice.
It’s grim, starchy stuff and children deserve better. Packed lunch is the way to go.

^This!

Budgets are cut to the bone. Catering managers are being forced to dumb down menus to save money. You can be grateful if there's enough staff to prep and serve it on any given day.

Do a packed lunch if it's that objectionable. I did years ago when I discovered my eldest was literally having potatoes and gravy every day!!

OP I'm a primary teacher and the food at my school is UTTERLY depressing!! It's brought in daily in a van, usually around 11am...lunch is 12 noon for KS1 and 12.30 for KS2. So you can imagine by the time the children get it, it's less than lukewarm! There's not even a halfhearted attempt at keeping it warm really 🤷‍♀️ The actual portion sizes are tiny!! There is always a 'token' vegetable to be fair though!

The 'pack up' option is stale rolls and awful stodgy cake...horrid!

The amount of food thrown away is truly astonishing...I mean, it's hardly surprising as the food is so disgusting, but the waste is awful to see!

If parents knew how little their children were eating at school they'd be shocked! I honestly don't know how they get through the day...we've often said that the escalation of poor behaviour could be linked with the fact that they are probably hungry! Especially in KS1 where over 90% of our children take up the 'free school dinners' option. I REALLY wish they would scrap it...and I'm not being mean here! The food is simply awful as the amount per head that's given isn't enough to make a decent meal! It just isn't 🤷‍♀️

If you can bring yourself to send in a pack up, do that...at least your child would get a decent meal.

My children are adults now, but as a voter and taxpayer I am extremely worried about what we are feeding our children. Not all of them by any means will be fine. Not all parents will or can give them decent meals packed with fruit, veg, wholegrains and other nutritious stuff outside school hours.

You give a piece of fruit for snack time.

The school meals I find are not very big portions for each child that's my issue with them.

I do agree with you there - for many children, that could be the only warm meal they get all day. They're basically undoing all the effort school catering had been putting in to ensure that each child had a tasty, nutritious meal each day.

Sounds standard to me. DS has been to both state and private school and the menu is similar (slightly better varieties at private school but much more expensive and still very beige imo). They do get veg as sides, but school doesn't list it on the menu. They get free fruit at break time at state school too.

I wish my dd school menu was this, then she would eat it, instead we have, fish fingers beans and mash, chicken and mash, sausage, beans and mash, chicken dippers, beans and mash. Most of the kids in her class are on packed lunch the menu is dire, absolutely no variety whatsoever but they are promoting healthy eating so what can you say!!

To be fair 65 years ago I was going to school with heinz vegetable soup in my flask. I was quite able to cope with it it wasn't rocket science.

Sounds like Chartwells. In fairness there is normally a choice of a veg or salad too. Mine eats salad with everything as the veg is awful apparently - and at home DC eats everything apart from peas. But either way the quality of food provided is awful and sadly for many it may be their only meal of the day.

Yes, I think we underestimate what children are capable of learning and learning to enjoy and appreciate.

@SarahAndQuack I'd encourage you to give it a try! You might be pleasantly surprised at how easy and satisfying it is. It doesn't mean everything will be eaten, but at least you're modelling healthy eating and setting an expectation. We can only try... 😊

School dinners are shocking. They're all generally made by County Caterers who clearly have no idea about nutrition. My kids loved the roast on a weds, and fishy Friday. The other days they took packed lunch which whilst still not being mega healthy still had more nutrition than pizza and chips.

My advise would be to get a bento box, or similar, and put little bits of everything, carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, some hummus, fruit, filled pitta or sandwich and some crisps or rice cakes and a biscuit bar.

The standard of school dinners is really unacceptable but for some kids its the only hot meal they'll get sadly.

YANBU.

There are two jacket potato options, a meat dish and a veggie dish. There seems to be the same 6-7 meals: burger & potato cubes, pizza & potato cubes, lasagna, fish and chips, tomato pasta & garlic bread etc. Desserts are a cookie, ice-cream, yoghurt, chocolate mouse...

I would definitely be upset at my school serving up chocolate rodents.

(...ducks and hides...😅 )

Just asked my DS what he had for lunch today and he said tomato, cucumber, sweetcorn, pasta, jelly and water. So doesn't sound too bad at ours. He said it was nice!

This is pretty standard unfortunately. When my eldest started school I felt like five years of hard work getting him to eat a healthy, balanced diet went down the drain in one term of school!

@ConfusedByThisShit
I would definitely be upset at my school serving up chocolate rodents.

Won't somebody think of the vegans!

Just wait till high school. They sell things like bacon butties, sausage rolls for break snacks. Then it’s pizza everyday for lunch. They have a veggie option but it is carbs not veggies. Truly depressing.

My eldest had only just turned 4 when they started school. Often took warm leftovers from previous night’s dinner in a thermos. Even leftover roast dinners sometimes! They always managed just fine. Barring additional needs or disabilities, it’s not beyond a young child to unscrew a lid and feed themselves from a thermos with a fork or spoon. There are lunchtime staff to help if they need anything as well.

Fair enough!

You cannot send a child to school with stew 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣