Advice please...

[step11]

Well iv finally decided that from June I will no longer provide lunch. It's taking up alot of my time and I'm constantly rushing around to get home to cook. I also find my son doesn't really eat lunch and if he does its soup.

Can anyone advice me how I would go about telling parents putting it in a nice way. I'm currently doing my first newsletter.

Thanks

[mum2two]

When we took the decision, we spoke to parents and said due to rising for costs we couldn't continue as we were. We were happy to continue to provide meals, but would have to up hourly fee to cover it. Alternative was fees stayed the same but parents provided packed lunches. A unanimous decision to send packed lunches! :-)

[step11]

It's such a hard decision to make but it would make my life easier. I just hate letting people down. How would you phrase it?

[The Juggler]

i must admit personally i would prefer to provide the lunch so that no issues over unhealthy foods and kids wanting what others have.

I just do a cold lunch or something simple like omlette/scrambled egg/or pasta cooked with veg and cheese and tom puree stirred through when cooked. Other days it's just sandwiches and nibbles.

I did introduce food costs about 3 years ago. I gave parents notice in Decemnber that it would start in March. Said due to rising food costs, blah blah, I had thought long and hard before makign this decision as costs were tough for everyone but felt I had no option now but to introduce these costs instead of raising the hourly rate. I worked out a monthly fee based on attendance and added it to their monthly bill. I gave everyone the option to bring a packed lunch if they did not want to pay the food costs - no-one took me up on it.

Only one parent was worried about what would happy if his ds didn't attend (he had dinners with me). I said I would refund as long as I had 24 hours notice - he decided his ds would not have tea anymore. Was fine with me.