Vegetarian options in school

[notonmynelly]

Hi,

Does anybody know the rules regarding offering a vegetarian option in primary school?

My son has been veggie for 5 months now. There is no veggie option offered on the menu apart from a veggie sausage on the day they have roast dinner.

Although yesterday they gave him one veggie nugget out of the blue! He must have been starving.

There are another couple of vegetarians in the school and I know the school up the road offer an alternative vegetarian option so wondered if this is just their choice or something schools have to offer?

Thanks

No idea. Our school always offered a veggie option, though it included a lot of fake meat which dd doesn't really enjoy.

Can't you send him in with a packed lunch?

All the schools that I have worked in have offered a vegetarian option every day. They have also catered for all sorts of individual dietary requirements. Have you spoken to the school about it? What do they say?
I don't know if schools have to provide this, but I would certainly expect it as standard.

DS (10) has been a dairy free vegetarian his whole life.

His schools 'vegetarian option' at lunch is whatever the meal is without the meat, sometimes they will replace the meat with quorn sausages (only ever quorn sausages) but usually it's just the sides.
Their excuse for not providing a proper vegetarian option is that they cook all of the meals on site and simply don't have the time or staff to prepare a completely separate meal for only a couple of students.

He has a packed lunch every day because I'm not going to pay £3.50 a day for DS to eat chips and peas or mash and carrots.

Our County uses HSC3 and they do 'red' dinners and 'green' dinners each day. The green dinner is always a different meal, and although sometimes a substitute meat item, it will often be pizza, macaroni cheese, or something substantially different to the red dinner also.

Our school work from a similar menu lougle, on the menu that is sent out (and posted online) there is a meat free option and a meat option every day but the school don't prepare it as they say there is no point as so few children are vegetarian and they don't have the staff to prepare a second meal option.

If he is entitled to free lunches then there should be a decent offering! School lunches are dismal. I'd speak to the HT about it.

My school go to school in different counties (we live on the border) and both have proper vegetarian options every day. They are different meals. And both counties have their school menus on their websites.

I don't know the rules / legality but where I work there is meat, veggie and jacket potato option every day. Jacket comes with a choice of beans, cheese or tuna. There's a salad bar as well with a variety of options. Lots of children choose the veggie option every day.

Don't know about the legalities, but our school has a meat/fish option and a vegetarian option every day.

They've also been trialling a system where children who don't want either option can have a sandwich (variety of fillings, including vegetarian) instead.

Ours tend to have ratatouille, vegetable curry and rice, quorn wraps, veggie burger and chips, mousakka, vegetable lasagna etc.

The school really should have a veggie option because not all people who eat meat will be able to eat all types of meat for religious reasons, whilst others just don't want meat every meal.

There's a different veggie option every day at my dc's school. All meals are cooked onsite but it's a fairly big school (90 per year) which must make it easier.

Our school work on a 3 week menu rotation with a meat/vegetarian/salad bar every day the veggie option is usually the most balanced of the 3.