School Meals TERRIBLE, or am I being unreasonable?

[Pikachoomumma]

My DC is in Year 2 at a private school and I'm pretty unhappy with the food he is getting, but not sure if I'm being unreasonable?

He is on a special diet (though I don't feel that should be relevant) and AT HOME I try to be really careful about feeding him - breakfast will be muesli (he doesn't know sugary cereals exist) and other meals will be a variety or carbs, protein and I try to smuggle in nuts / seeds / omega oils etc Whenever I can. I generally aim for 7+ portions of fruit and veg a day.

At school, meals will be baked potato and beans, pasta and tomato sauce, pasta and sweetcorn, chips and non-meat fish substitute (every Friday is fish and chips day). Pudding at school is always apple, orange, banana or biscuits, as is snack time. When the school make packed lunches, it is always juice, crisps, banana, and jam sandwiches with no spread used.... One day a fortnight ago he had the same lunch two days in a row.

Doesn't that seem a very poor offering? I wouldn't really say he would get any of his '5 a day' in backed potato and beans or 'fish' and chips, and one at most from the pasta / sweetcorn / tomato sauce. Plus the pasta dishes are lacking in protein.

Shouldn't I also expect him to be given cooked puddings sometimes? Apple crumble, stewed fruit and custard etc?

Would it be unreasonable for me to approach the school and ask them to make changes? If so, what should I expect? Can I expect them to give him a balanced meal with at least 3 portions of fruit and veg for every meal time? Are their any laws about nutritional content for private schools?

saltlake - Which is fine, except when you label it the vegetarian choice. It would be more logical to call it the X religion option. Fish isn't vegetarian. Fish isn't a vegetarian choice. Don't do fish, or give the option the name it should have. How is a new child to the school supposed to understand that veggie doesn't mean veggie at their new school

Spotted zebra - no its not as they also eat halal meat.
Libraries - that would be awful. Don't you see that the 'Muslim option' would sound awful. Why should anyone's religion be advertised e.g. nanny asking 'do you want the muslim option or the vegetarian? Harry you're not a muslim darling. Heres the vegetarian choice. Vegetarian option usually covers both in terms of primary with one or two kids being an exception if they are vegan for example

No it doesn't! Calling it a veggie choice when it's not is rubbish.

If a menu plan has been devised for muslim children then there is absolutely nothing wrong with calling it the halal choice. Most religions have a term for the food their religion considered ok - the only reason I didn't use a term like halal or kosher is that you didn't specify the religion and I don't know if every religion has that terminology.

Vegetarian option does NOT cover vegetarian children if it is fish based. It is like calling it the veggie option because it's 'just chicken'.

So they eat fish and halal meat? Er, they are really not vegetarian.

It's fine to class meals as halal-/kosher- suitable (as long as they really are).
It's not fine to class meals as vegetarian when they contain fish.

I am aware that it isn't vegetarian. Two family members of mine are pescatarian so I understand the terminology. However I don't see why children should have their religion advertised at every lunch time. Our kids know fish isn't vegetarian but know it's an option they can have if they are Muslim.

Oh come on! So it's better to call an option veggie when it isn't than to call a halal meal a halal meal. That is just bonkers.

It isn't about advertising religion. If you want you can have a veggie option which is also halal and the Muslim children and the veggie children (if you get any) can have it. Just don't call cod and salmon a veggie option. Because that's nonsense.

Or you know what, do what a lot of schools with a large Muslim population do and choose to make the whole of the school menu halal. Then no one has to advertise anything.

I think we'll have to disagree here.

DD's primary school dinners were great in that they were freshly cooked each day and cooked well - I tried them a few times when I did regular voluntary work there. However, they would have been very limited for vegans I imagine - hey had meat and vegetarian options daily, but other dietary requirements needed to be organised directly between kitchen and parent, so not sure.

My school offers meat, Halal, vegetarian and jacket potato options daily - children select each day. But I suspect vegan options would be limited - and those parents would generally opt to choose packed lunch at least part of the week.

Hulababy - So they just call the halal option halal and no one combusts at having to disclose they are Muslim? Gosh, how civilised (and perfectly normal based on loads of schools I know).

I think many might be unhappy if whole school menus went halal. There is still a lot of controversy about the method of killing. 88% of animals killed in the halal way in the UK are stunned before having their throats slit but that is often with a massive electric shock. That leaves the other 12% of animals to have their blood drained from their body while they are still alive.

salt your logic is so so flawed!

At my DC's school, kids just ask for 'the pasta', 'the lamb', or whatever. Menus are pinned up, and previously sent home, with dietary info clearly marked so veggie, muslim etc children know what is available for them. I'm sure that the dinner ladies would gently double check if for eg a clearly muslim child one day wanted the pork dinner.

And they all know each other's religion - if relevant - anyway. Eg giving out sweets at birthdays, the kids know not to give muslim kids those Haribo as they have different ones. It's fine to be Christian, muslim or Jewish - or any other faith, or none. But it's not fine to call fish vegetarian!

Clearly you haven't been a dinner last at a 400+ primary school!

LibrariesGaveUsP0wer

Nobody at all!!

The children just sit every morning and tell the teacher, during registration, meat - halal - veg - jacket - packed lunch. Never been an issue - we are a very multicultural school, though still over 50% white British - but certainly being Muslim is in no way unusual. We are an infant school but no one has ever complained.

Its called the Halal option as that is what it is. Meat which has been prepared accordingly.

Fish comes under the "meat" option. And yes, every Friday the meat option is fish based.

That is true salt. And I'm glad that the dinner ladies at my school have a better handle on vegetarianism, and also religious issues, than others seem to.

Hulababy- sounds exactly like the schools in London I know (our new home town has a very low Muslim population so the options are main, veggie main or jacket. The main is sometimes veggie or fish based. There isn't a separate halal option here). I have within my family and wider circle of friends and acquaintances veggies, pescatarians, vegans, Jewish people who eat kosher (and Jewish people who don't but still don't eat pork ), Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. I have never heard anyone complain about their religion being referred to for themselves or their kids where the context was their religious food requirements being respected.

Spotted - absolutely . Haribo is a key kids indicator isn't it? At three mine could seriously tell me that Jimmy didn't have the Haribo , he had special sweets

I'd suggest some things they could do. My DS is coeliac and has a wonderful choice of food, the cook batch cooks his meal at the beginning of terms and freezes them. Some of the food she can't get off the approved list so I provide it, I'm happy to do this as I know he is having a lovely varied diet with a full hot meal choice everyday.

Snorting at the vegetarian fish. Someone had better tell every Muslim I've ever met that calling things halal is an unpleasant way to mark them out as having a different religion. Only none I've ever met seem to know they are offended by the word 'halal'.
salt where in the schools literature (and when) do you communicate to current or prospective parents that your school uses the word vegetarian to mean anything suitable for a halal diet? and how hard do they laugh at your dodgy ideas on being pc

Here's one week of our school menu. It rotates every 3 or 4 weeks. We choose meat or veggie option beforehand, the child picks everything else on the day.

Obviously being vegan makes things more complicated. Puddings like big traybakes could be made with dairy products or gelatine and they are less likely to produce a single serving alternative for just one pupil than to offer up a piece of fruit or crackers etc.