General Chat

The state Primary School where my Children attended had fantastic healthy and well balanced meals which were cooked on site with local ingredients. It was a large school with over 400 pupils. My youngest in particular really enjoyed them.

However the Comprehensive in the same town seems to serve up Pizza, sausage rolls and other such stuff so my youngest has a packed lunch. He said the food there was "rank" The year 11s are allowed into town at lunchtime and buy pizza, which is cheaper at a local national pizza takeaway in town.

Our Son has a cooked balance meal in the evening with the rest of us.

Its all a matter of balance.

This was the subject of a thread on a parenting website. Some of the comments included...

Cost - especially if you have more than one child.
Some said the meals were unappetising.
In some cases schools ran out of food, eg, a child could end up with a jacket potato but no filling.
Allergies - there are numerous allergies out there. Nuts is the most well known one but there are others including dairy and eggs and any allergy can cause anaphylaxis shock. No school can guarantee that everything would be safe to eat for every child.

Yes, some parents do need educating about nutrition but the vast majority don't and are more than capable of feeding their children balanced diets.

Rollo, quite frankly your first post was offensive and insulting to the vast majority of parents.

Properly cooked food - not food created in a factory, re-heated or kept warm!!!
Very few schools have properly equipped kitchens now.

It has already been the norm for several years in some London schools. In my borough there is already free school meals for all primary children.

The secondary schools also and even in neighbouring borough the children are no longer allowed out at lunch time anymore.

Across the river my daughter-in-law manages several children's units and they have as well breakfast clubs.

Those that can't afford they can apply for free school meals.

What has been proved is that properly cooked food is food for the brain and aids their education.

Michael 2, you've pinpointed a truly valid point.
Can/will outside caterers cater for those with allergies?
Can they ensure no nuts were in the vicinity of the food being prepared?
Can they ensure products are gluten free?

Yet another un-thought-out quango-induced idea :-P

I wonder how much this 'research' cost the taxpayer?

my granddaughter cannot have scool dinner as it,s mainly fish on the the menu which she is allergic to so has packed lunches every day if schools caterd for her she would.

If they want to ban packed lunches, then 'proper' kitchens should be re-instated.
What nutritional value is there in food that's either been cooked, delivered to the school and reheated, or food that's been delivered hot to the school and kept warm for 3 hours??

Perhaps these people should visit a REAL school 'kitchen' (as they no longer exist) and see what goes on :-P

no, but i do think some parents need educating, i once went on a school trip where a 6 year old had 3 bars of choclate in her lunchbox, i mean seriously, why?

my little dude has a very healthy packed lunch, as its up to us as parents to keep our children healthy,

Hmm, back home in NZ schools don't do dinners, hot or otherwise.
:-)

What a sad country with no money to feed its kids properly.

There is no apparent wish to improve anything, just survive and even in this there is widespread failure. Any person, firm or organisation who tries is treated with suspicion at best and hostility most often,

There are far too many crummy schools.

Why send people to school anyway when so many adults couldn't care less about basic grammar and spelling. I would be a bit miffed to have one of my kids referred to as "it" (!)

Maybe parts of the UK would be better off run by the UN and financed by the UK's foreign aid budget.

:-(

My mother when staying with me years ago said - 'I do not know why you ask the children what they would like for tea - give them what you want to and make them eat it'.

I told her that it was her attitude - (I did not so much ask as gave them a couple of choices) which had steered me in this direction - I saw no point in givng them what they disliked only to have it left - unlike in my childhood being given it again and told about the poor children in africa.

A mother will not pack a lunch with items her child will not eat - but this cannot be said of school dinners - therefore give the child and mother a choice which suits them.

I have a 13 yr old g/daur who sadly is very near being anorexic (wont' go into the details why but she has had problems over the years including medical) there is no way she would eat a school lunch and her mother has to pack what she knows she will eat so no! packed lunches should stay.

NO...:)

My granddaughter as three part time jobs ..as it seems almost impossiable to get job at the moment..

She is working as a dinner lady .. at different schools in the borough... we often talk about the meals ..she said she wouldnt eat the food .. and to top it up ..havnt a clue what one meal is ..but her overalls are so badly stained its either spaghetti bolonaise.. or beans ..if it stains their tums what is in it..

Plus one child didnt have its dinner money ..not childs fault at all its a primary school .. the child was refused a dinner ..she was crying she was hungry ..one of the dinner ladies gave her a apple .. its a disgrace in some schools

I have Googled Leon Restaurants.

Their philosophy and ethic are admirable. If they could produce school meals under that regime it would be wonderful.

Unfortunately school meals would go out to tender as it always does and one of the big catering companies would have an iron grip on a captive market.

Some food for thought, excuse the pun ;-)

In the 1980s Margaret Thatcher made it obligatory for local authorities to open up provision of school meals to competitive tender, and at present some local authorities provide school meals from their own resources and others have opted to have them provided by the private sector.

Yesterday when addressing the Treasury Committee, the Chancellor George Osborne said he would be able to cut borrowing through spending cuts alone and that tax increases are not required to achieve this.

So it appears the Chancellor is going to bring in further spending cuts and you can bet your bottom dollar that local authority budgets will be hit hard again and this will force local authorities to put many more of their services including school meals in the hands of those in the private sector.

Surely I must be cynical in thinking this is all about money and has little to do with nutrition and the well being of children ;-)

After all it was just over a week ago a leaked document showed that the Education Secretary Michael Gove wanted academies and free schools to become profit-making businesses by involving hedge funds and venture capitalists.

The school where my granddaughter goes to recently changed to an academy, The price of a school meal jumped from £2.20 to £3.50 overnight and the portion sizes reduced at the same time,

Granddaughter is tall for her age and of slim build and now finds she has to also take snacks to school to supplement the small portion sizes provided at lunch

On the plus side when the school day ends at 2.45pm the school do hold extra tuition in the basic subjects and for those studying for exams up to 5 pm for those who want to attend

Roy

Sounds to me like a big company has seen another chance to make money.

When our son went to junior school he was encouraged to try social eating which he did for us to realise he picked up the bad tables manners of other children because they didn't sit at a table at home, IE sat with finger food in front of the TV.
So needless to say we put him back on packed lunches.

From the Lewisham BC website.

For a 2 course meal the cost is....
Primary and 'special school' meals - £1.80
Secondary school meals - £2.20

It does sound good value, but if you have 2 children in school and do not qualify for Free schools meals, its going to cost you upwards of £18 pw. That's a miniumum of £72 pm!

You also have the problem that not every child will eat what's provided. Even if the packed lunch is less nutritious there is a better chance that they will eat 'something'.

Produce a leaflet with suggestions for an economic, balanced packed lunch by all means, but don't ban them.

The recommendation was made by the founders of a restaurant chain, businessmen, running a large catering company.

Who is going to be cooking these compulsory school dinners?