Sch9oll dinners -- do your DCs get them?

[eleusis]

I'm feeling like the nutrition geschtapo for not letting my DD get school dinners. I'm just not convinced they are nutritionally sound. And wondered if I'm in the minority.

So, just wondered if your DCs get them? Do you think they have improved with the new government guidelines?

Our school is very much a 'healthy eating' school, I was quite impressed with their menu, I'd have eaten it

Dc gets nursery dinners but his nursary is attached to a school and they get the same dinner.
It is a private school and they employ a very good chef.
Saying that i would let him have school dinners at any school providing i had seen the menu and it wasn't chips pizza chips sausage chips nuggets ect.
I loved school dinners when i was a kid

They have definitely improved considerably in our area since the new healthy eating guidelines were intrduced. Tomorrow for instance they are having grilled chicken breast with mashed potatoes, carrots and broad beans. Other days they will have shepherds pie, lasagne etc. Milk or water to drink, occasionally juice, never squash.
My children also often choose the veggie option - bean stew, lentil bake etc.

I don't think private counts.

What LEA are you in Rosa? (if you don't mind me asking)

Ours have improved and now we can choose upfront what they want - as before the dinner staff would keep back some of the more poular choices for the late(r) arrivers.

I really just could not be arsed with making packed lunches for the DCs EVERY night - so we do a split - 2 days packed, 3 days school.

Mine have always had them because I could never see myself making interesting and nutritious lunches every day and this way at least they are getting a balanced meal.

Occasionally I worry about the quality of the meat but never follow it up.

I would never use them as an excuse not to have a hot meal in the evening which apparently a lot of parents do

I'm in Devon Eleusis.Menu is here

"I would never use them as an excuse not to have a hot meal in the evening which apparently a lot of parents do "

??? what a bizarre statement

It's possible for a cold meal to be perfectly nutritious too...

i like my children to have a hot meal in winter, even if its just soup

sandwhiches are ok in summer when they like to eat outside

i think our schools menu is fab

DSs school does really good healthy hot lunches for £2 a day. I like him to have hot food in winter then in summer we'll probably revert to packed lunches so he can eat outside.

Ours look delish and nutrish to me, £1.70 a day. DD has one packed lunch a week for fun.

Sorry I wasn't exact enough.

Heard plenty of times at school "xxxx doesn't need a hot meal when he gets in, he has a sandwich and some crisps before he goes to bed"

That's what I was referring to

I don't have the option of mix and match. It is school dinners every day or not at all. I'd actually be willing to let have them as a treat on Fridays. But, can't.

Admittedly, my nutrition requirements are quite high. So the difference could be the standards by which they are judged.

Ours are also £2/day. And I do think a good meal for £2 is rather a tall order. I would pay more if that was an option.

Ds school has a fab menu & i think it is very healthy & well balanced, i also like ds to have a hot meal in winter & he will have packed lunches in summer.

what's wrong with a sandwich and some crisps, hopefully bit of fuit and yoghurt, if they have already had a hot meal at lunchtime?

2 dinners a day isn't very healthy I wouldn't have thought

My boys (8 and 10) both have school dinners and always have done - quality is OK, not fantastic, but then it's only £1.70 a day.

I think I would have more battles with my children over what I think was appropriate for a packed lunch: ie peer pressure to have crisps every day. And it means one less chore to get organised.

We do use it as an excuse not to cook in the evenings - it makes life a whole lot simpler, and my family always eat a main meal at lunchtime not in the evenings.

They have a healthy tea - but usually it's sandwich-based, not cooked.

Depends on what's in the sandwich. And crisps are of course not healthful, does that really need saying?

I don't like white bread or nutra sweet.

And it crtacks me up when they say "Oh we offer veg"... Yeah right, unless you chop it up and mix it into the rest of the food, DD is probably not going to eat it... unless it's frozen peas (weirdo).

Mine have them, but tbh that is only because at the mo I get them free. As far as I know though they are pretty good, and my girls are great at picking the healthy option. Ds is not so good at this and so I still try to give them a portion of veg with their tea every night.

i cant imagine ever cooking for dh and i and then offering the dds a sandwhich

my 2 have soup and a pudding at school then a hot meal like pasta or whatever at night at home

nothing wrong with that

£2 is a bit steep tho

Steep? If I could eat out for £2 I'd never cook again.

I'm sure I spend more than that just on the ingredients for DD.

oh god no i think £2 is expensive

my dds certainly dont eat £2 worth of food for lunch - i can make a huge pot of soup for less than half that

I don't understand this obsession that a 'hot meal' is healthy and a cold one is not.

I really think many of the unhealthy eating problems in this country are because people do not understand what healthy eating is, and what constitutes a balanced diet.

My boys usually have a sandwich-based tea, (including veg, and followed by yoghurt and fruit, plus 'dessert'). Why do people assume that a sandwich-based tea must be jam on white bread with crisps?

My boys rarely eat crisps (basically only at parties) - we never buy them.

Tonight actually ds2 (by choice) is having for tea a bowl of cereal with milk and raspberries. He will then have a piece of fruit and a yoghurt; then some of his christmas chocolates.

It all depends on the school. DD's old school (Devon) was fantastic, used locally sourced milk, proper meat, organic seasonal veg, homemade everything years before Jamie Oliver etc. The dinners there were great. The school was also good in that parents could book to go and have lunch with thier kids if they liked (did this a lot because the food was so nice!).

However her primary here in Gloucestershire was not nearly as good, very much of the old school with reformed meat, chicken nugget type crap. So she started having lunches (bloody bane of my life). Alwasy have preferred her to have a hot lunch in the winter though.

See if you can go and try the school food for yourself??

roisin no one is really saying that (least of all me) what i mean is im cooking for dh and i so the dds get what we are having too

i like the dds to have a hot meal at school in winter cos they then go and run around outside for an hour

they usually have soup or baked potato and beans

in warmer weather i make them a cold pasta salad or sandwhcih which they eat on the picnic benches outside in the playground

yes, dc have school dinners and they are ok. Nutrition\lly balanced - I would say so.

But there's still that British thing going on where anything with any fat in it is 'unhealthy' and fat free is 'healthy'. So they have low-fat sausages which are pink and mushy and retchy. They are not 'healthy' and I don't see why British foody-people can't sort that out.

'Spread' instead of butter. Oh, butter, butter every time.