WHAT?? Only 1% of packed lunches meet "food standards"??

[LeonardWentToTheOffice]

One Show just now - a bold claim made by one of the men in the piece (sorry didn't catch name) but I am absolutely flabbergasted and totally disbelieving of his claim. He provided no evidence and I haven't looked into this further but I just think he made it up (possibly )

Total disclaimer - I'm not a food expert but I am a mum.

Piece was about all infant children getting free school meals from September. This claim was made in response to the question what would you say to parents who think they can provide a good packed lunch for their children.

I have been trying to cut down on the salami after seeing the news about processed meats. Like I say though school menu seems to be rather heavy on processed meats - sausages, ham etc.

I'm pretty sure a slice of wafer thin ham isn't going to do much damage.

Not sure the same can be said for pizza,potato salad and iced sponge in a meal.I for one would be clogged up for days.

Have you seen what they call a roast dinner at school? Poor kids, it turned my stomach!

It's the patronising arrogance of it that get's my goat and we're happily sitting back and letting our taxes go to these catering companies whilst the Tories tick us all off again.

Pizza,potato and sponge = uber cheap carbs= nice profit

God, my DS's secondary school dinners are unbelievably unhealthy. Oh yes in theory they could eat salad every day, but in practice the longest queues are for the counter that flogs the burgers, chips and cookies - and cup drinks

So he can take my packed lunches of chicken wraps and a bottle of water and frankly be a whole lot better off.

Our secondary is the same, they just buy bacon butties at brunch and skip lunch. So much for years of healthy eatting nonsense from primary.

Packed lunch is no use as they are so used to not bothering with lunch they still tear of to paint, sing or hit balls and eat one bite if I'm lucky.

I hope they are not compulsory or I will be bringing my dd home to eat lunch every day. She currently has a hummus whole meal sandwich, carrot and cucumber sticks, a piece of fruit and a yoghurt. There is no way I want my kids eating the school dinners. They are vile. (Quite apart from the fact she wouldn't touch it as things are touching and mixed together!)

I don't think they will be compulsory.

I do think that they ought to be a great idea, especially for families on a tight budget. I just have this sinking feeling that they will be impossible to deliver properly, lukewarm, a bit crap, and not worth queuing up for when the kids could be outside playing. And I think that lots of schools will end up giving out packed lunches anyway.

the head teacher at our school claimed that the school lunches were healthier than any packed lunch... yeah right!

depends on the lunch maker and the school dinner in question. they can only do the stats for a sample school lunch so they would pick the healthiest options from the menu.

The claim does not take into account the the food children eat for the rest of the day either. children having school dinners may well have a packed lunch sort of tea.

what did surprise me was the number of children in dd's class who had not had breakfast! they did a survey in class in an attempt to get children to think about being ready to learn.

ds is going to be gutted when I say that he is not going to be having the hot dinners next year. I am assuming that they wil not be compulsary. I would not put it past the head teacher to think he can make them compulsary though.