Secondary school canteen food...

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What sort of food does your DC's secondary school canteen offer at breaktime?

We have the facility to look at what our children have been buying in the canteen as part of our online payment system. I was really suprised when I went on to load his payment card last night to discover items like Pizza, sausage roll, doughnut, bacon cob, sausage cob were being purchased on a daily basis in addition to his lunch / pud!!

I asked DS1 about it and he says he buys these things at breaktime!

Before he started we were given sample lunch menus and suggested lunchbox menus all of which were very healthy so I'm really suprised at the breaktime offerings.....

What do your DCs canteens offer at break??

Disclaimer: I'm not a control-freak, health obsessed mum but I do have a son who has an enormous appetite, will easily over-eat and will gladly eat pizza every breaktime if it's there!!!

Yes, there are items like this at breaktime, but whether your ds will be in a position to purchase anything in addition to his lunch will of course depend on how much money you give him. If he is buying lunch and pizza every day, he probably has too much money.

cory if it is a card charge system it doesn't work like that.

cory OPs Dc has a payment card which she has to load periodically. So difficult to limit daily spend. But on the flip side, easy to monitor what he is buying and have a chat about it.

At secondary school I think you do really have to allow Dcs some choice about what they eat and guide them towards more healthy choices. Nothing wrong with a bacon butty now and then as long as it is balanced with more healthy choices at other times.

They are not babies and need to start learning how to make healthy choices for themselves. After all, it won't be long before they leave home for uni or work, and if they have not learned how to take responsibility for choosing a healthy diet by then you will have NO way of knowing what they are eating.

from what Dd told me, at breaktime they are offered (well not offered really) cookies or potato waffles. There is NO fruit option

DD1 had packed lunch in primary school. She could not wait to give a go at the high school cantine. After the first 10 days she said she wanted a packed lunch again except on Friday as she was sick and tired of pizza and pasta and that the salads were
1)tiny
2)more expensive than the rest
3)not tasting nice

I've given dd a daily budget - I load her card each half term. If she over spends she has to use her pocket money to buy herself lunch! She has just twigged (4 weeks in) that she now needs to share her break-time snack with someone else she'll have run out of money the week before half term!

In answer to teh OP yes our school has these things on too, plus wraps, pasta pots and smoothies. Healthy lunch food available, but usually dd chooses a panini and bottle of flavoured water (aka squash....).

Gorionine - not good if the healthy options are not offered. I would talk to the school about offering better quality food.

titchy - good idea!

That's interesting - thanks :)

I think he is spending an average of £3 per day at the moment which, when he can get a main course plus drink for £2, is quite alot. The payment system is such that you can load a minimum of £25.00 at at time so, like others have said above, any limit on spending will have to self-imposed...
Perhaps if I put £25.00 on every 2 weeks, that would give him £2.50 per day which will allow him a main meal and drink every day and the odd breaktime treat but not every day.... I like the idea that he subsidises any 'overspend' with his own money....

I think I also need to chat with him about food in general. He eats healthily at home but is always asking for more and if unregulated will eat til he's practically sick. He does loads of sport/exercise which helps but can get a bit 'chunky' in the winter when he's not quite so active... We perhaps need to have a proper chat about the fact that if he eats too much of the 'treat foods', he will put on weight..

Still wish the school would offer toast / fruit etc instead of pizza but hey ho.....

Definitely give him less money.

Our secondary does do a variety of things at break - toast, bacon butties, flapjack, etc. But I don't give my boys enough that they could afford to buy a bacon buttie every day.

They get £11 a week, which is enough to buy a main meal and a dessert; or sometimes a cheaper meal and an occasional treat (usually from Greggs on the way home!)

Pixie I forgot you'd got inside knowledge on the school in question!!!

Telling me fibs is he??

He's getting on really well, thanks. Absolutely loves it! He's made some great new friends, is enjoying his lessons and has joined some clubs :) Such a relief - you never know whether you've made the right decision when you send them out of catchment, away from their primary school friends do you?

Not sure about his English Teachers (he's got 2) - I'll ask him later and let you know!

And with regard to the pizza at breaktime - I'm going to mention healthy eating / exercise / weight gain to him again, then I'm going to chill about it! Was just reading another thread about some poor child who has been bullied in his few weeks and hasn't made friends yet :( Kind of puts it all into perspective doesn't it?....

I feel your pain.

Ds's school has introduced a card system. He knows he has a budget of £2 a day - but he can still buy what he likes with that. There could be towers of fruit for all I know and for all ds cares - all he sees are the bacon muffins.

Ds has got quite porky recently, but he is always so hungry and there's always a row when I introduce the subject of healthy eating. I have reduced his portion sizes in the evening and then I have to police the kitchen to check he's not pinching something else.

My ultimate threat is to get a job as a school dinner lady. the fact that he said "That would ruin my life!" strongly indicates to me that he is pigging out at lunchtimes and break.

Don't police the kitchen so rigorously - just stop buying things you don't want him to eat and fill up the fruit bowl every day. If he pigs out on granary toast and fruit that's not so bad.

Thanks Pixie - Will do :)

Oh, and I love the vertical tutor system! I was really worried about it when he first started - think 'My poor PFB in a room with all those big children' but he likes it and it's given him confidence to be around the kids in older year groups. When a towering YR11 said hello to him in town and I asked who he was, DS1 said 'He's in my tutor' - result!!