How many of you pay for school dinners?

[Popsicle82646]

DS started Key stage 2 in September, and as you are aware free school meals are no longer available for them once they get into KS2.
Our school dinners are £2.44 a day which includes a pudding, they can choose a hot meal or sandwich bar/salad bar jacket potato option also.
Since DS has started I've paid for his lunches so far working out at £12.20 a week, which I don't think is bad at all and well worth the money.

I'm aware if you didn't have the spare money then parents would just do a packed lunch, but I'm grateful and lucky to have a household income where we are able to spend this on school dinners weekly.

It just got me thinking I wonder how many people actually pay for school dinners for their DC once they are no longer free?

Do the majority now do packed lunches?

I don't mean the post to come across rude or judgmental at all, I am aware every one's circumstances are different and £12.20 a week may not be worthwhile or do able for some households.

Mine get plenty of variety in their packed lunches, tomorrow they’ve got a flask of Thai chicken noodle soup, slices of watermelon and an oat and raisin cookie they baked earlier.

We also pay as I prefer them to eat a hot meal, don't have time for packed lunches and fussy eater gets on with it. I think a lot of people forget that you don't just pay for the food ingredients, the cost of meals also includes the overheads such as paying the staff, energy for cooking and running kitchen, washing-up etc.

Mine are in KS3, it's £3.99 a day for the meal deal. They get £20 a week. If they chose to drop it on bloody Radnor fizz and snacks in the beginning of the week they can take from home for the rest of the week.

We spend way more than £2.75 that the school dinners are for DS's fancy packed lunches. He found school dinners too full of potatoes and too small a portion (he's a 25th centile kid by the way, just eats lots and is a total foodie!)

As a consequence his posh packed lunch with his fancy wraps, sides, dips and pots costs us way more than 2.75 a day. This isn't a case of packed lunches being cheaper 😂

We've always given them a choice. Sometimes they choose school lunch, or packed lunch. Occasionally an M&S wrap on the way to school. Tomorrow DS16 has asked for chicken Caesar salad, and DS14 a tuna wrap, so I'll make those this evening. As long as I know the day before at least I don't mind the swapping about.

I pay £2.70, but my DS is too lazy to make his own sandwiches so rather have school dinners, let alone empty a lunchbox of wrappers.

luckily his primary school don’t outsource the kitchen and it’s all cooked on site. He’s also in the oldest class now so more opportunities for seconds…. 10 pieces of melon and a yogurt for pudding last week.

I was replying to a poster wondering about school meals being the "well off " option.

A lot of people don't have a lot of choice if they're struggling. Boring doesn't come into it. They might alternate fruit weekly,or "splurge"on cheese AND ham, but that's about it.

lunch in London is free for all primary age children.
If we had to pay it would be £5.10 a day.

I pay 2.72 a day because i am lazy and i would rather give up my takeaway coffee than get up early to make a packed lunch. 🙃

What's the rationale for London getting FSM all the way through primary? Seems a little unfair.

Best comment 😂 and so true 🫣😜

It's a Sadiq Khan specific policy using his London budget. Not a government policy to do it just for London.

Love that!!
Hate making packed lunches!

I don’t, I was actually quite surprised

i was a single parent at uni when my son started so was on full universal credit alongside student loans so got fsm. Last year he had them and I wasn’t getting charged and he was in year 3 and the school told me that once you’re entitled, your entitled right through to the end of that school regardless of changes 🤔

My DD is the same age, she would happily take a packed lunch everyday but we've agreed to 2 x packed lunches and 3 x school dinners a week. She has always enjoyed the school dinners. It's not just the time of sorting a packed lunch out which I don't like but I work FT, it means the days she has a packed lunch I can sometimes get away with a sandwich for her tea after school instead of having to cook. I have asked her how many in her class have hot dinners and I'd say it's maybe 25% at a push now we have to pay for them.

School dinners in our school look awful personally they say there healthier but in reality there not! There roast dinner is some packet sliced chicken roll tinned potatoes and bit of broccoli yer no thanks. Packed lunched for my dd she takes a themo in to keep food warm and I normally send veg soups, spaghetti bol, scouse, all made fresh night before and warned up in morning works out cheaper aswell as I just save some from evening meals.

@Blondeshavemorefun I spy an opportunity and have a burning need to more about this lentil pizza which is really nice: Are the lentils part of the pizza base, the sauce, or a topping? Or all three?

I find this all very interesting as I had packed lunches pretty much all the way through when I was a child ( I had a SAHM which maybe made it easier ). I now have a 4 year old in a non-UK country who has started compulsory education. Her daily lunch costs 5 pounds a day and we have to send in her afternoon snack. Packed lunches are not allowed unless in case of allergies with a doctors note and attract a 2.50 charge to cover the staff who supervise lunchtime. The only alternative is to pick up your child and take them home for lunch which last 1h45 minutes.

Meals can be subsidised by the local authority based on income, but we pay full whack for ours. I won't lie, I do find it outrageously expensive but the food is varied and has a starter, main, cheese or other dairy and dessert all included. The food is prepared fresh on site every day.

We pay. Both are now in secondary and can spend £4-£5 a day!!! Sometimes they don't eat anything though.

They voted for a major who prioritised it from the local budget.
Advocate for it in your own area instead of just moaning about it being unfair.

£3.20 here and we've had a simple policy: they have the free meals until Year 2, then packed lunches. We don't give them a choice about this (3rd DC just started Reception). We pay for school lunches on the odd "special occasion" (Christmas lunch etc.). I'm sure it's cheaper to make packed lunches for us.

In Scotland I pay for eldest DS to have a school meal unless he has a lunch club. Twins age out of free school meals next year and I think then I’ll start packed lunches as £36 + a week seems like a lot.

DD is in in Year 1 and so school dinners are free but we do packed lunches because she doesn't like them so we will continue with that in KS2 regardless.

I’ve heard about this initiative I think it’s a really good idea for families that bob around the low income levels. It’s not a thing where I am though.

I pay for the dinners as I don’t want to be making packed lunches and DC would eat the same lunch every day until they were bored of it and then not eat anything. Have tried the odd packed lunch in the past and most of it came home uneaten. I know most of the school dinner is eaten. Plus it saves me cooking at dinner time