Am I being precious about school dinners?

[jocesar]

My son is going to start reception soon and I'm new to all this. I really wanted him to have hot school dinners and the school use a local outside caterers. I had a look at the menus. There is a reasonably healthy main course plus some carbohydrate and veggies. But pudding is unhealthy 4 days out of 5. Surely a school should not be giving unhealthy puddings so frequently? Or is this normal?

We eat pretty healthily at home. DS is offered a pudding of fruit/ yogurt most days and occasionally something sweeter/ stodgier. I feel that whether to fill the kiddie up with a sugary pudding should be the parents perogative in the home. I feel that school should only offer healthy puddings.

What kind of puddings? My DS is on school dinners and it always seems to be steamed puddings like jam sponge and custard.

If you have school dins it will always be a traditional tho pudding, steamed sponge / crumble and custard but they should also (under the regs) have fruit available - so you need to ensure that your DC make healthy choices.

those are the puddings we all grew up with and the majority of our generation 3o's 40's were skinny as rakes

Children need some hearty food when they are growing up.

Maybe yu ought to opt for packed lunch though, because i think those dinners will drive you mad!

The puddings are chocolate and vanilla cake with custard, lemon drizzle cake, chocolate crispy cake, iced carrot cake etc. Actually they all sound delicious but that's not the point. With the obesity problem in the UK seemingly related to the bad advise given by the government over the last 30 years ( ie eat more carbohydrate and less fat) surely schools should be doing everything they can to help. And this in my opinion would start with not making sugary cakes a normal thing to be eating every day.

The school dinners are tiny for the older kids. They need the calories in the cakes. Cake doesn't make kids fat, lack of activity does that.

Saying that, be aware that what is on the menu may not necessarily be what turns up on the plate. My ds has been given rice with jacket potato far too often.

If they are anything like the puddings at school dinners in my school I wouldn't worry. There is so little sugar in any of them they don't qualify as a dessert in my book! The apple crumble is do sour I can't eat it. The choc brownie tastes of flour. The jelly tastes like water. If I eat school dinners I usually choose fruit as it is sweeter than the puddings.

I am in Scotland btw. The 'Hungry for Success' nutrition guidelines are very strict.

go for packed lunch. otherwise you will drive yourself mad. that's what i chose.

Ah! see another poster has said the same...

Ok, stargirl that's good news. If they are not sweet then DS will not want to eat them and problem solved. Bit of a waste of money though.

I felt the same as you originally when my DS started school - the menu planned looked lovely and healthy (despite the stodgy puds ) but the reality was I ended up paying £2.10 a day for a jacket potato - DS 'couldn't be bothered' to have the pudding so I now supply packed lunches and we are a lot happier (and wealthier) - I really don't like the meals that are 'shipped in' - I wouldn't dream of eating that sort of food - so why would I want my DS to?

But don't you think schools have a responcibility not to offer non-nutritious food? Or is it quite normal in the UK for kids to be eating unhealthy puddings on a daily basis?

At dd's school the cakes are apparently healthy, 99% beetroot and a teaspoon of cocoa or something.

The food is crap though for 2 pounds a meal, we have packed lunch unless its a real disaster/lazy day.

What do you put in the packed lunches though? I find it really difficult to be creative!

Angel fortunately my DS (11) doesn't expect me to be 'creative' with his packed lunch; he has a ham or tuna sandwich, fruit (apple, kiwi or strawberries), harvest crunch biscuit, sometimes a lump of cheddar and a fruit juice carton - every day and he is now in Y6 - have offered all sorts of alternatives over the years but he is happy with that !

Kids often don't like creative, they like quickly edible things so they get a longer playtime

Dd's school has an outside caterer for dinners and 3 out of the 5 puddings a week are yoghurt and fruit.

The school has a healthy approach to food by not demonising foods and effectively has an everything in moderation approach. They explain that anything in excess isn't good for you including too much fruit. Also the children know that excluding food groups is also bad for them.

The school also have a very active sports program so any puddings are run off quickly.

I think you maybe being a little precious about the school meals as the amount food the children will actually eat before escaping to the playground is minimal.

ahh colditz, are you also fed up with cheese or marmite sandwich making day after day after day........?

Kids need calories.

School dinners should not be small portions of 'adult on a health kick' dinners. They should be well balanced, and enough energey in them to see the children through til the end of the day. Cake plays a part in that.

Ham. Horrible cheap square ham, too. He won't eat nice ham.

What Gnocchi said.

Outside caterers have strict guidelines for healthy lunches so the puddings will have very little sugar or fat in them but will help fill up your child for a busy afternoon which is always good.

May I just say - these aren't guidelines, they are requirements. Menu planning in schools is now extremely difficult with these very strict requirements. My personal thought is that as a result of the combination of a fairly large proportion of children who don't recognise much other than processed food and these exacting nutritional requirements we have ended up with a fairly useless school meal arrangement, which is expensive and unappealing. School meals can not be subsidised from public funds so the service must self fund. Because it is so poor participation is poor and hence the price per child high the quality poorer still.
Rant over.
DS has packed lunch, not necessarily healthy, infrequently eaten. To him it's massively unimportant so a good breakfast and evening meal compensate.

Dd has a food thermos flask.
She would eat jacket and beans everyday if she could choose.
But she has a hot packed lunch twice a week and sandwiches the rest.
She is milk intolerant so I make muffins and brownies in batches and take them from freezer in the morning.
And beware, school send home the entire packed lunch, yoghurt half eaten included so get a box that you can properly wash!

But regarding the puddings, normal kids need those calories. If your child is already overweight before starting school, then it's the home menus that needs adjusting snooty face on

They are not poor everywhere omletta.

My last school had great school dinners and even most of the teachers stayed with the kids to eat them (me included and I'm a fussy bugger). The uptake was not poor in either school I worked in. My first school the meals were cold and dreadful. The uptake was still very good. My second school the meals were great and the uptake was very good.

Yes you are right on the word 'requirements' rather than guidelines.

The school diners have a strict calorie count and nutritional level. Each school dinner gives 1/3 of a child's daily calorific needs, averaged over the week.

Children need fat. We all do. The trouble is that there is no moderation. The message goes out in extremes. No fat, instead of the right amount of fat.