Schools gone to sandwiches and no more hot meals?

[Ahmawa]

Are Primaries moved to cold sandwiches and no more hot meals?

My DS Primary is not serving hot meals because of Covid- is this something that the council decides or is it upto the School?

My DS loved his school meals and has been coming home feeling hungry - is this somethin we just have to accept?

My DDs primary is also on packed lunches for all kids. Provided by the school or from home.

I'm not concerned about my DD, she gets fed and she's fine. If she came home hungry I'd feed her.

My concern is with less fortunate kids who's only hot meal was the school dinner. I hope schools are being extra vigilant in these times.

I think schools decide. My daughters school was packed lunch in the classroom before the holidays and now back to hot meals but as a smaller school can stagger lunches. The primary less than 1/2 mile away is doh if the size and they are only offering sandwiches etc

Yep ours too.

I feel sorry for kids who don't get a hot meal at home.

Sorry autocorrect fail *double the size

Hot dinners available for all year groups at DDs school. I've heard it's due to kitchen facilities.

My DC's school is doing hot meals again (the end of last term was packed lunches in the class rooms) but with a massvely reduced capacity in the dining room. As a small school this is feasible but might not be in a larger school.

@starsinyourpies

Yep ours too.

I feel sorry for kids who don't get a hot meal at home.

Sometimes we forget that some children through no fault of their own and family circumstances don't have a hot meal all day.

A lot depends on the size of the school, the size of the kitchen, how lunches are served/staggered, how the different bubbles are separated.
Sometimes it just isn't feasible to do hot lunches.
Your daughter should be getting an appropriate sized meal though. The hot and cold lunches are pretty similar calorie wise. School dinner are quite carefully planned when it comes to quantity/size and calorie count.

Dds primary school is doing hot meals (3 options: meat, veg or jacket potato).
They have however stopped doing cakes as puddings, serving fruit instead, which is a great idea, wish they’d always done that.

They also seem to be serving healthier meals with less reliance on pasta/cheese type combos for the veggie option. Hoping it lasts.

Dd ate a lot more healthier during lockdown without school lunches of pizza/ mac cheese/fish and chips etc followed by cake five days a week.

Hot meals here too. Although reduced capacity in the hall means they have to eat faster, not a problem for DS but I think some of the kids are struggling to finish their meals in the allocated time

3 different schools here, secondary primary and nursery. All cold meals in ours, no ones coming home hungry though. In my dd’s primary today, they had a sandwich, a tangerine, a cheese and onion pastry, jelly and a cookie. I’d struggle to finish that

Hot meals in the school I work in, and the one where my children go. In my children's school some years are eating in the hall and others in classrooms. The school I work in is smaller, all meals are in classrooms.

Personally, I don't really understand the importance placed on hot meals. I'm not convinced that they're inherently more nutritious than cold ones?

Of course, if you stuff your child's packed lunch full of junk, then that's pretty crap, but it's entirely possible to provide a well balanced cold meal. The real question is whether the school-provided packed lunches are actually doing that.

My sons is still doing hot meals, as its a pre-order system the lunch time supervisors are delivering the meals to the classroom. The menu however has been reduced and pudding is now fruit, rather than a blob of stodge in a bowl.

@AlexaShutUp

Personally, I don't really understand the importance placed on hot meals. I'm not convinced that they're inherently more nutritious than cold ones?

Of course, if you stuff your child's packed lunch full of junk, then that's pretty crap, but it's entirely possible to provide a well balanced cold meal. The real question is whether the school-provided packed lunches are actually doing that.

I was just thinking that. It’s adults who seem to place the emphasis on the meals having to be hot. The child actually getting a meal is the important thing, doesn’t matter what temperature it is

I would never wish that any child goes hungry but fail to understand in 2020 the economics of school meals versus educating parents to provide proper nutrition and the means to do so. It must cost the goverment a bomb.

I am a cook in a primary school and would love to be back actually cooking.

It's not our decision, it's the schools.

Our packed lunch is
Either baguette or roll, Ham, Tuna or Cheese
Fruit
Veg sticks
Cookie, Cake, Flapjacks or other tray bakes.

All items have to be wrapped individually and put in to labelled paper bags and all have the same in bar sandwich filling, do there's no swapping.

Believe me cooking 2 hot choices and sides is easier!

Our primary is back to the normal hot menu, all except the self-serve salad bar (for obvious reasons).

Ours is doing "hot grab bag" which today consisted of burger, chips & cucumber. Yesterday was a pasty.

Not really impressed. I've said I'll give it until the end of next week & switch to packed lunches if it doesn't improve.

Agree it's those kids who don't get fed properly at home who will suffer.

@AlexaShutUp

Personally, I don't really understand the importance placed on hot meals. I'm not convinced that they're inherently more nutritious than cold ones?

Of course, if you stuff your child's packed lunch full of junk, then that's pretty crap, but it's entirely possible to provide a well balanced cold meal. The real question is whether the school-provided packed lunches are actually doing that.

I know what DD should have in her packed lunch. Will she eat it? Nope.

However , she has been eating hot school meals.

Oh, well.. it is what it is.

is this somethin we just have to accept?

As opposed to what?!

We are an infant school and don't have our own kitchen. The kitchen we normally use is located in the junior school (a totally separate school with its own management, despite being on the same bit of land) so there is some 'cross contamination' issue. We also can't use the main hall for lunches and children are eating in their classrooms so there is an even bigger issue of getting the hot food into each of the different classrooms.

It means at the moment it is a sandwich only option. The only hot option is one day a week one of the sandwich options is a fish finger wrap.

Sometimes we forget that some children through no fault of their own and family circumstances don't have a hot meal all day.

We haven't forgotten. Believe me, we are as concerned as anyone and, as a school, we have spent a lot of time over the past few months working with our vulnerable families. We just don't have control over this matter ourselves though.

Hot lunches at DD's school (primary); those having them give their preference at registration, and all the lunches are brought to the classroom. The menu is restricted though, and the class WhatsApp would like there to be more veg!