School wraparound care - food choice

[bluebell8329]

Just looking for/wanting opinions. Our school offers wraparound care each day and I've recently been made aware of the food choices. Breakfast is the standard choices, toast/cereal with a bowl of sugar on each table so the children can help themselves to add to cereal. Afterschool is cake or biscuits, sometimes some fruit left over from the nursery/reception children. To say I'm shocked is an understatement, especially as the school promote healthy eating and encourage healthy snacks and packed lunches.

Am I being unreasonable?

I think that does sound quite poor actually, especially after school.

YANBU OP. I’m really surprised at the bowls of sugar on tables? Madness. As well as extremely unhealthy it just seems like extra mess and an unnecessary cost. As far as I know, wraparound care isn’t subjected to the same rules as school dinners.
but at the absolute minimum I would expect no sugar on tables and perhaps toast/crackers or fruit in the evening.

No, you are not.

What time does the care end? Ours is the same and they have really unhealthy stuff but tbh my daughter is hungry and loves it so I’m kinda ok with it. Perhaps because at pick up I bring cookies/similar and not fruit and who wants fruit at starving o’clock! It may well be low sugar cakes as well….

What time does it end and how much do you pay?

Sorry, just saw these replies. The latest time for collection is 5:30pm, it's £9 for afterschool club and £5 for breakfast club.

Had a half arsed reply from the school about the sugar saying that the children "aren't obliged to have the sugar on a morning, if they don't want it" and that because of hygiene and cost that is why they have cake on an evening.

It’s very cheap and it’s a bit over the top with all the suga stuff. However I find most wrap around care food is less than ideal. One option is to look at alternative providers, such as smaller company or childminder. They are usually more expensive but provides a bit better food.

YANBU thats very poor

Yeah, I agree it’s cheap but finding another provider isn’t an option. I just think their stance on healthier options is a bit poor.

Is it run by the school? At DD's the options are limited as they're not allowed to use the school kitchen, and don't really even have anywhere to prep sandwiches etc. As it only runs until 5 and they make it clear it's not a main meal I can't get upset about her having a biscuit, especially as she doesn't go every day.

I can’t imagine bowls of sugar on the table for the mess alone! Our afterschool doesn’t have any food which I prefer Can you just send in your own snacks?

This is going back over a decade (youngest DC is 23 now!), but at our primary school breakfast club, where DH and I were part-time helpers, the sugar, if a child requested it, was added by an adult - only ever a 'magic sprinkle' (practically none) if I was doing it. Definitely no free access and the only sugar bowl was on the counter where we served the food.

Then we had the parent who swept in one morning claiming that her little Petunia - a Reception pupil - had told her that she was 'allowed to have as much sugar as she liked' on her cereal. This is disgraceful. It has to stop.

And it did. No adding sugar at all, for any child, on any cereal.

I actually felt rather sorry for them, even if our own DC never had sugar on anything, at school or at home. It does seem slightly odd to me, though, that in this day and age, so to speak, children should be allowed such free reign when it comes to adding sugar to their food.

A piece of cake as a snack at after school club, I couldn't get too worried about. Unless, of course, the club is being 'sold' on the basis of a meal being provided.