Free school meals - plant based/vegan families?

[Moon12345]

Started looking at primary schools for my DS who starts school next year and understand all children are entitled to free school meals up until year 2, which in theory is great. His pre-school is a forest school so I send him with packed lunches at the moment, as hot food not an option as they eat outside. I’ve had a look at the menu for our county and there is almost nothing vegan or plant based, which is how we eat/have raised him so far. We aren’t super strict (e.g. other kids birthdays at school and they bring in cake he eats this, so on occasion if we are somewhere and there is no vegan option/it means him missing out he just has something with dairy in - not meat though. And he has no allergies.). It doesn’t look like they offer to provide a vegan alternative - any plant based families with school aged children with any experience in this? I don’t want him to be excluded by being the only child with a packed lunch, but I also don’t want him eating rubbish 5 days a week. The veggie options all contain dairy (again fine with this occasionally but don’t want him eating it every single day) and are also generally quorn which is also full of rubbish. Until he’s old enough to decide for himself I don’t want him to eat meat, and anyway, those options also sound unhealthy - pizza/hot dogs/fish fingers every single day. Might sound like I’m asking for a lot but I’m just really surprised that the food options are so basic and largely unhealthy. Any advice appreciated!

Schools will cater for allergies but not life style choices

Our school offers jacket potato with beans every day. Vegan and healthy.

Yeah ours also has jacket potato as an option every day (would get boring after a while though I'd imagine) and a salad bar. These aren't really on the menu on the school website though so worth checking with the school.

But it is vegan and free so....🙅‍♂️

Our school has a meat option and a veggie option each day. Pasta with tomato sauce and jacket potato with various toppings are also available.

Ours do jacket potatoes. Not all schools do though. There is always a veggie option but not vegan except the jacket potato. And you obviously could only have beans with it so not very exciting. Plus most of the puddings won’t be vegan.

Schools already have to manage allergies, exclusions and religious diets - now they have to cater to personal preference? Why can't your child take a packed lunch like they do now?

I wouldn’t worry your child may well decide to eat what the other children are eating once they are a little older. There will be plenty of vegetarian options.

Switch to a veggie primary school. That's what we did.

I work in school kitchens and we cater for vegetarians/vegans. There is always a vegetarian option every day. If it’s pizza for example then a dairy free one will also be made for vegans. One day a week the menu is totally meat free.

My youngest son needs vegan because of allergies at his school they do vegan meals but they aren’t really things he’d eat so takes a packed lunch, which I prefer so I can see what’s been eaten. They do four options for lunch at his school and at least one is vegan daily.

Religious diets are personal preference - why should they be catered for but not veganism? And what other excursions are there that aren't personal preference?

There will be several kids having a packed lunch - my son is problematic with food and had all packed lunches for the first half term, then started having 1 meal a week he liked. By the time he got to the end of Year 2 (cut short due to COVID) he was on 7 in every 3 week cycle.

As someone said there will be jacket potatoes and beans so he will be able to have some hot dinners. Looking at the menu I’d say that there are probably a couple in each 3 week cycle where the vegetarian option is plant based. And then 3 or 4 more involving quorum if you are happy for occasional quorn.

I think you either let him be vegetarian at school or send a packed lunch. There’s a limit on how many different meals they can offer.

A vegan diet has the same recognition as religious/cultural observance now.

If your child isn't actually vegan (as referenced by letting him eat cake etc) and you don't like the options that are available, then he takes a packed lunch where you can choose what he does eat.

In my kids school (where they have an actual catering team and v good quality meals are cooked fresh daily on site) about 25% of kids still take their own. He won't be the only one.

Veganism is a protected characteristic, but it’s “real veganism” so as in not just the diet but the lifestyle. Your DC isn’t vegan - he’s veggie. By all means speak to the school and see what vegan meals they can offer - they’ll likely be happy to work with you and your DC probably won’t be the only one. However, they won’t be impressed if they’re going out of their way to make him vegan meals and then find out he’s eating classmates’ non-vegan cakes.

This is also going to become incredibly confusing for your DC as he gets older. If you’re happy for him to eat dairy on occasion then he’s veggie and he can eat the veggie menu. If you’d rather he didn’t then you’ll need to make the decision to go actually vegan.

Our school does a vegan option for those who need it. You just have to talk to the school when you get a place and they will let you know how to organise this with the caterers.

I wouldn't worry about how healthy the school dinners are. Schools are on an extremely tight budget to feed the kids and a healthy primary aged child is not going to be affected by eating fish fingers. Obviously it's processed but it's also fish.

In terms of the vegan thing, I am vegan and work in a school (albeit a private one so the lunch is more varied, they spend more on it) and I can always eat lunch but some days it is a bit boring. So sometimes it is a jacket potato with beans and a load of salad. I take cereal bars to supplement. I appreciate he won't be able to do this probably and also that some of the meals I eat at school to just get fuel in probably wouldn't be palatable to a 5 year old! I also eat quorn and it's fine occasionally. I think if you are raising your child vegan you might have to relax some of your feelings about processed food, as it's hard to live your life without this stuff completely if you are out in the world away from the family unit.

Can he opt in to have certain lunches each week or does it have to be all or nothing? You can make a packed lunch which is pretty nutritious with hot food in a flask etc, although maybe that might be a bit much for a KS1 kid to manage. I'm not a parent of a 4/5 year old so I'm not sure!

meat option and a veggie option each day. Pasta with tomato sauce and jacket potato with various toppings are also available.

This is the case at our school too. With Mondays being meat-free altogether.

At DS's school you can mix and match FSMs and packed lunches. Some days a vegan option is available. (Jacket potato and beans is available every day but presumably he doesnt want to eat the same thing every day!) So you could order a FSM on the days theres an option you're happy with, and send a packed lunch the others.

DD had a boy who was vegan in her class for a while. He definitely had quite a few jacket potatoes followed by fruit. I think the school did make an effort to do vegan alternatives some days but they probably weren't that healthy e.g. on fish finger Friday I think they offered an alternative oven food.

There's always a decent number who have packed lunches, mainly the children who are fussier and don't like what is on the menu that day, so he wouldn't stand out, although it would be frustrating not to get the funded meals. At most schools I think you can choose day by day, so you could compromise with half packed lunches, half school dinners.

What schools do pizza, hot dogs or fish fingers every day?
Mine are seniors now but their lunches were never that? They had, meat, veg and carbs. Occasionally they'd have sausage rolls
The vegan food will likely be dull but it's free and it ticks the vegan box, I think when you restrict a diet you sometimes need to deal with lack of choice

I don’t want him to be excluded by being the only child with a packed lunch

My DD takes a packed lunch because I'm not overly impressed with the quality of the school meals. She has them sometimes (once, maybe twice a week) but generally I send it in.

Different schools might do it differently but at DD's, the children with packed lunch eat in the hall with children having school dinners.

My dc have allergies, they have jacket potato most days but I figure it's better than my attempt at a packed lunch. I do get slightly irritated when the main meal and the vegetarian alternative both have milk in when milk allergy is the most common.

To all those saying vegan is a choice that shouldn't be catered for- it's a protected characteristic like a religious need so it must be provided if asked.

Just talk to the school. Ours is very accommodating. They often just adapt the menu so if the offer is macaroni cheese that day they'll just do one with vegan cheese for our dc. They can also choose jacket or tomato pasta as an alternative every day.