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.

Our school cook makes all the cakes and biscuits that are served so that they meet the nutrirional requirements that shop-bought products can't. I don't see any harm in a child having a piece of cake or a biscuit after lunch. Children need these calories. It's having a balanced meal that is healthy - not picking things that are low fat and/or low sugar.

I agree alphabite they are not poor everywhere, my point is that it is extremely difficult for the providers to meet the requirements, please the children and meet expectations of the parents.

Teachers eating with students is very powerful, the meal should be about much more than the food.

Interestingly it is often the case that those providing the less good meal in nutritious terms will often be the most used as it is the child who often makes the buying decision. There is also a correlation with the free school meal uptake, but that's another convo!

When I was at school the puddings were the only edible part of the school dinners, which were frankly disgusting (and we were forced to eat them by nasty dinner ladies too). We stopped with school dinners for our children as there just didn't seem to be enough food full stop. I'd go with pack lunches to start with (some schools ask you to do this for the first couple of weeks and keep the reception children in their classroom at lunch time because the dinner hall can be over whelming) then ask if you can observe a lunch time so you can see how it works in practice.

it's not school dinners that make DC fat, it is ther parents' choices. You sound sensible so your DS will be fine. My DC have shool lunch and they're both skinny...they love the puddings. Like you we don't reallly do puddings at home....they are very active in school and pudding is fine.

My two children both have school lunches. It was a marvel in getting a picky eater to widen their food choices. There is a traditional pud or cake each day but there is also fruit and yoghurt on offer too. the aim of the school meals is to offer a balanced meal so naturally they don't exclude puddings. Our school has a healthy eating award so they seem to have their finger on the ball. The meals are made by the cooks in the secondary school which is on the same site so the meals are freshly cooked and served. fMy two rarely complain about them. the only exception is when they go on a school trip, they like to have a 'mum' packed lunch rather than a school packed lunch.

Considering the size of the portions I wouldn't worry about the cakes etc. Everything in moderation is fine. My dh still wont each stuff like semolina and rice pudding due to his school dinners.

Don't assume that the dinners are not tasty as they are not in all schools. I would however assume the portions to be small. ds (age 10 ) says the portions are to small he is a normal healthy and average sized boy. dd3 (age 8) doesnt want to eat them because she has ishooos with food touching (so we have a packed lunch of non touching food)

that made no sense.. Don't assume that in all schools the dinners are not tasty (some schools have really good meals others less so)

I think you are being a little precious about the school dinners. Your DS will eat breakfast and then just have his school dinner between arriving at school and leaving at the end of the day, though may have some fruit as a mid-morning snack. The size of the pudding he'll be given at lunchtime will be small.

I have three DCs. They seldom have school dinners (because I think they're expensive for what they are and we have a cooked meal in the evenings anyway). Their packed lunch always includes a "pudding", usually a home-made biscuit, brownie, flapjack or muffin. Life is pretty boring without cake or pudding. "Unhealthy" is fine in moderation. DCs are active and skinny.

We only get pudding when soup isn't on the menu, if it's soup then only fruit is offered. Crackers and cheese are another option.

My son only ever has a main course, he never takes their pudding but he loves the main courses. Dd is a soup girl but if fruit is offered as well as pudding she'll take that instead. They get choices in our school.

my ds was SUCH a fussy eater before i put him on school dinners. Now he will try all sorts of things.

At my dd school pudding is either sponge and custard or fruit everyday, I'd say she chooses half and half. Friday is pizza and chips as a treat! Her lunch is only £7.50 a week so sounds cheaper than some of the other posters schools. I think that's cheaper than buying all the packed lunch ingredients for a week!

My dp works in local authority catering and I was shocked when he told me the budget per child for a school dinner is less than it is for prisons! That probably explains why she comes home starving! I think the portions must be quite small and only the year 6's are allowed seconds!

Its not really about the food.

School dins are more about sitting with your mates, saying grace, sharing awful jokes, kicking each other under the table, shoving food in quick as poss to run off and be the first to the only un-punctured ball on the strip of gravel laughingly referred to as the playground.

To deny them this essential life experiance by forcing healthy humous and fat free packed lunches on the poor loves is just plain cruel.

I agree with you@OP.

Our nursery changed their policy last year to 'treat puddings' on Friday only (other days they have fruit and sometimes yogurt) after a lot of parents complained.

5 years ago, when my older child was at the nursery, all the children had crisps at tea time and again, this was changed after parents complained.

I am no mung bean merchant, but I wouldn't give my child cake and custard for pudding every day at home, would you?

jocesar have you seen this blog neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk/. It might make you think again with school dinners. You can also see pictures of some of the school dinners overseas and that really put UK school dinners to shame.

As others have said, the pudding might be the least of your worries .

I think this dad girl writes a good blog, but I do think her school offer poor portions my dds primary school seem to have larger portions.

When I was that age I remember having cake or pudding pretty much every day, and I was healthy and skinny (as were most kids). It shouldn't be a problem as long as it's part of a balanced diet and they get plenty of exercise.

If you need or want to have very fine control over your child's diet, you'd probably be better off sending a packed lunch, rather than trying to ban pudding for everyone!

My DDs school dinners are mostly lovely. Their puddings are always a choice of yoghurt OR fruit OR something else (2 days a week that would be cheese and crackers, but there are days when it is a sponge pudding, cookie, jelly, ice cream or sorbet instead.).

I'd suggest that the OP double-checks with the school to see if they offer alternative puddings, which might be more to her liking.

I've just had a look at the blog - hasn't she done well in such a short space of time?!

A few meals look a bit sparse and/or carb heavy, but a lot look very good, to be honest. When I think back to the school dinners of the 1970s.....

Schools do vary massively; my DCs started at an Infant school of 90, where the food was cooked on the premises, and was fantastically good, in both quantity and quality (fewer than 10 took packed lunch), but they are now at a larger Primary, where the food is far less good, and left them hungry most days, so they now take packed lunches.

Cointreau I think the dinners improved over the time of the blog. There's a recent entry on how they are always allowed fruit now. The publicity probably helped.

I agree with the portion size. It looks very little food on some days for a 10yo. And the blogger did complain it left her hungry.

I think some of the international school dinners she has posted are quite big portions for a lunch and also it is worth considering in comparison how much they are charging in these other countries.

OP - the school dinner you describe sounds absolutely lovely. Yes, I think YABU - it's playtime after lunch and the infants will just run around for 45 mins. Some stodgy pudding will do them good! They aren't supposed to be following an adult diet - they are growing. At our school you can choose to have fruit/yoghurt instead of the pudding if you want.

our school got rid of the outside caterers, and hired their own chef. The amount taking school dinners has increased dramatically. The food is fresh (a lot of veg and herbs etc being grown on the school grounds) tasty and the kids enjoy it. There is a choice of puddings every day (choc sponge, apple crumble etc) but most of the time my dc's choose fruit instead. the children can help themselves to salad and fruit from a buffet cart (supervised/helped by staff) and they really enjoy them

Tbh though if it bothers you paked lunches might be the way to go