Cost of school lunches

[cluckyagain]

Hi all - my children's school lunches are now priced at £1.90 per child, per day (state primary). How does this price seem to you, is yours more or less expensive? I occasionally look after my friend's children after school and would only ever spend £1.50 each max. (mass catering!) This seems really expensive to me, considering it's council run.

Ours is 1.90 too.

And they aren't great. I get them free, but ds1 doesn't eat them anyway, so I send him with a pack up

mrz - where do you work? It doesn't seem to be on the same planet as me!

We haven't even got kitchens.

It's £1.70 a day where I am, and I think it's fairly good value. A packed lunch would certainly be cheaper to make myself, but my ds likes the food, and it saves me having to make something everyday.

The school has a kitchen on site with a great cook and staff, and the meals are really good. The kitchen opened last year and they have done a few parent taster sessions to try and up the numbers. They have a choice of main meal (roast, spag bol, chicken curry, fishcakes etc), a 'light' option (sandwich, wraps, salads), a veggie option and there is always a jacket potato and filling option, plus a cooked pudding, yoghurt, fruit and juice always available. They have changed the menu over time, dropping the dishes that noone ate, and asking the children for suggestions to replace them.

trickerg I'm in Durham

When I was in school on Friday we didn't have a kitchen either -they had ripped the old one out over the hols (too small to serve whole school) and the new one was in pieces all over the hall so might be interesting tomorrow.

£1.70 a day here, they are pretty good. Our school was one of two in the county to pilot a new healthy menu plan, and then (I think still) all meat was also sourced from within the county (probably because the council had just funded a new abbatoir ).
DD has them, only one of her so cost is ok, and she likes having a hot meal at lunchtime (she could also eat for Wales, so I reckon I gets my moneys worth).

£2 and I thought that was good value but am re thinking looking at all the other posts. For me the big issue is getting mine to try different food so am delighted he will do school meal

re packed lunches being cheaper, I guess it depends what you would/do put in.

DS1's would prob include cherry toms, cucumber, apple, grapes and some other fruit as well as two ham rolls and maybe a flapjack. I have costed it out before and it comes to about £1.50 or so. He likes his FAVUs .

He might typically eat for school lunch roast pork, potatoes, bread, brocolli, pasta salad, tomatoes, cucumber, butter bean salad, fruit or apple crumble for pudding and then go back to see what he could get seconds of!

I think I get good value

£1.70 here. DS has them sometimes, and packed lunch sometimes.

Thanks for all the replies - thinking that I'm not so badly off! xx

my dds are too keen to go out and play than ask for 2nds plus the portion sizes are probably smaller than the packed lunch they take!

Mine love their 5 a day but have them as part of our evening meal.

Primary - £2.10 and £1.50 per week for fruit at break.

£1.85 per day here- in infants.

now that all mine are full time i have forced encouraged them to have school dinners, making 4 packed lunches and still having to do lunch at home for dd filled me with horror- i used to buy all the bits for packed lunches, make them up on a sunday, freeze the rolls and then just grab a freezer bag and a 'cupboard' bag and chuck them in a cool bag every morning. BUT this term marmite rolls have been replaced with hot dinners

However at £9.25 per child per week, plus 20p per day for a fruit snack at break, plus the termly milk/class fee (which equates to about 50p a week) we are spending £43 a week just to feed the kids during school hours!

Having sampled a school lunch as part of ds settling visits there is nooooo way am paying for that heap of tasteless crap - none of the main course was edible. Yuk!!!! Most of the other parents thought the same - packed lunches here - but to answer the question £1.90per day.

It's a shame that some people's kids are served poor food - unacceptable imo.

Also portions that are too small.

DS1 today tells me he ate fish steak, then veg lasagne for seconds; jacket potato, 2 slices of bread; peas, sweetcorn; salad bar: beetroot, tomato, cucumber, butter beans and grated carrot; strawberry whip and cream for pudding.

you'd think he'd be huge wouldn't you but actually I struggle to get trousers slim enough for him

Must be cause I don't feed him at home

Clary that is def more than our school. The dinners offered are healthy & nice etc but just the portion size is tiny and I'm not actually sure there are seconds on offer - there have never been any offered the 5 times I've had to stay for lunch there.

To be fair DS is in last year juniors and I think it's a bit of a differentstory than in the infants.

I remember when he had his first day there in yr 3, he came home all excited "guess what mummy...you get bread at lunchtime"

it is £2.50 per day for upper school and £2 per day for little ones. Food is excellent and most kids do have dinners. However, if you have 3 kids, £30 per week for School dinners? My friend lets hers have 1 term each of dinners and sandwiches the rest of the year!