Banning School Packed Lunches

[Tealady]

Anyone caught the news this morning. A report has suggested banning packed lunches as they are too many are unhealthy or not nutritionally balanced.

I think schools should offer guidelines or even ban certain items (or quantity of certain items) but the government bringing in a policy that just bans them outright I think is ridiculous.

Are they right to do this or is it just Nanny State gone mad?

[Kiddleywinks]

My DS wouldn't have eaten in primary school if he'd not had a packed lunch.
I tried him on school dinners for a while and he stopped eating loads of stuff at home as school food put him off so switched him back

[Mouse]

Going back to my days at school (ok, a long time ago), there wasn't the choice of taking a packed lunch. You either had school dinners, or went home.

But back then we weren't fussy eaters. You got your lunch and you ate it, whether it was awful or not! Most of it was freshly made on school premises and, from what I can remember, was pretty healthy. I don't remember ever being hungry at school, or going home hungry.

Nowadays my children's school dinners are dreadful. The glossy, printed menu that we get sent home is supposed to entice us into believing our children are being provided with wonderful meals. The reality is completely different. The full choice is only available for the first lot of children that go in for dinners. By the time the later ones go in, there is no choice. They get what's left - whatever no one else has wanted. My daughter has often ended up with a plain jacket potato, the size of a golf ball, with no filling as there's none left. Or she'll be told she has to have something that she really doesn't like as it's the only thing left.
Through all the time my children had school dinners they were encouraged to take something to eat at break and I had to take food for them to eat on the way hme from school. My daughter, in particular, has a tiny appetite, but even she would be hungry. I'd often wonder what I was paying for and would switch back to packed lunches.

I would have no problem in limiting packed lunches (I'm not so sure about banning them completely), but school dinners have got to improve massively before that can happen.

[ziggy]

I so agree, school dinners will need to improve!!

I used to work in a school where my grandaughter attended and i paid for her school dinners. I went into dining hall one day and was appalled at what children were eating, i wouldnt feed it to my dog

[sarah707]

My main worry is that lunches sit in little boxes and bags on trolleys in hot corridors for hours and hours - and might have been out of the fridge for even more hours - and often don't contain freezer blocks :(

We often collect children who say 'I'll just finish my lunch sandwich now' and open their boxes .... errrrr NO! :panic:

[Mouse]

My main worry is that lunches sit in little boxes and bags on trolleys in hot corridors for hours and hours - and might have been out of the fridge for even more hours - and often don't contain freezer blocks :(

We often collect children who say 'I'll just finish my lunch sandwich now' and open their boxes .... errrrr NO! :panic:

Oh, I've had that. It's even worse when the half eaten fromage frais has tipped out and congealed around the half eaten sandwich :panic:

[tulip0803]

With 2 children at school and the current school dinner prices here I would be paying £25 a week! A couple of years ago there would have been 3 children at school so that would have been £40 a week!!!!!! 2 in secondary at £15 each and one in primary at £10. I don't qualify for free school meals but most people around here cannot afford to pay that much for school lunch particularly if there is more than one child in school.


DD2 would not eat most of what they serve. I try to keep her lunch box healthy and she has popcorn instead of crisps and the chocolate penguin bar has been in her box for over a week cos she doesn't feel like eating it. She likes carrots, salad and tomatoes in her box.

[Kiddleywinks]

I got around that problem by freezing yoghurts and drinks and popping them inside the lunch box.
These days there are some really good insulated 'mini cool bag' style ones

Showing my age, but we never had anything like they do now, and it never did us any harm ;):laughing:

[bindy]

School lunches can be awful, cheap food, no thank you, my child will be taking a packed lunch ( not full with rubbish) if she does not get into the local free school, which grow their own veg and eat good quality meat, which of course I will not begrudge paying more money for.

[Mouse]

I got around that problem by freezing yoghurts and drinks and popping them inside the lunch box.
These days there are some really good insulated 'mini cool bag' style ones

Showing my age, but we never had anything like they do now, and it never did us any harm ;):laughing:

My children are horrified when I tell them we used to have rabbit pie :laughing:

[Glitter]

Our school has lovely fresh cooked meals everyday. They are restaurant quality and the dinner ladies serve everyone (not quite silver service but almost!).
I know most schools are not like this, but the teachers all have a school dinner so they must be good.

My oldest daughter has food phobias and will only eat a dry bread bun, some pineapple and a biscuit for her packed lunch. If anyone tries to get her to eat anything else she will not eat for the rest of the day. It will be interesting to see if the school will allow her to keep bringing a packed lunch, or if she will have to starve.

[hectors house]

A lot of our primary schools did away with their kitchens to convert them into classrooms about 20+ years ago when there was a baby boom and very high intakes for several years - these schools now have meals delivered in a taxi that are prepared at the middle schools - not sure the middle schools could cook for all the primary school children each day.

[bunyip]

Ooh, now let's see.

"Tory Ministers Find New Way to Boost Usage of their Pals' Highly Profitable School Catering Business Rackets."

Yup, it's right up there with "Ursine Defecation Discovered in Arboreal Habitat." :rolleyes:

[emma04]

All good if you get free school meals, but at £1.90 per day! I can't afford it! £50 per month and I'd still have to buy the Packed lunch stuff, as my children eat yoghurt, fruit, ham and cheese etc. at other times!

Really gets my goat when they forget about how much MORE money parents are going to have to pay!

[BuggsieMoo]

I have 4 kids to pay school dinners for if I chose - no way can I afford £8 a day on school dinners! (sometimes they are more, as their new school is £2.20 a meal). My kids have a balanced healthy lunch and they all eat it. We allow them school dinners on Friday as we sometimes have to do lots of travelling on a Friday night so I can ensure they have had at least one cooked meal. Feel free to bring it in, but look at the costs as well. x

[Rubybubbles]

Our school has lovely fresh cooked meals everyday. They are restaurant quality and the dinner ladies serve everyone (not quite silver service but almost!).
I know most schools are not like this, but the teachers all have a school dinner so they must be good.

.

Same here :-) we have eaten in the school canteen too and the food is lovely. But then they go to private so the cost is taken within school fees xx

[covgalxxx]

I was on free school lunches when my daughter 1st went to school never complained once about the food, then I moved out of the city to a little town and school is posh but in my dd eyes the food was not very nice a week she was on it and had to move to pack lunch, she said there roast potatoes tasted like fairy liquid, that was enough for me to switch, so if they ban pack lunches my daughter coming home, I'm not paying what nearly £10 week for food she won't eat, having a laugh xx

[Petshrinklj]

I wouldn't be happy with that. It's too expensive for my son to have school diners everyday. His school makes a big thing about lunch boxes having to be healthy (which my kids lunches are) but then serve school dinners with suaasges and chips and cakes and stuff for pudding.

[AliceK]

My DS has a school lunch every day, his choice, but the new catering company they bought in last Sept are rubbish and a lot of the meals he now wont eat at school so on those days (usually 1 day a week) he will have a filled jacket potato which is an option every day. My DD however with her limited diet would not eat a hot school dinner so she takes a packed lunch. If they banned them I would have no choice but to bring her home for lunch otherwise she would actually starve. She will happily sit in the dining hall for the full hour and not eat if she doesn't like it.

xxxx

[Bumble Beez]

Here they have brought in 'school packed lunches' which cost the same as a cooked school lunch. My boys have tried them out today and were pleasantly surprised but I would still prefer to send a packed lunch I think.
My boys have school dinners on a Thursday and Friday as its their favourites on those days...
At my boys school too they have a chilled area where the lunches are kept until lunch :D

Sarah x

[funemnx]

We were on benefits for a couple years so my children had free school dinners - they would come home and say they had burger and pizza for dinner EVERY day! I would tell them that it wasn't proper dinner and they had effectively had 2 main courses but they would say there was nothing else..... :panic:

[Nicola Carlyle]

Just out of curiosity - has anyone ever heard if a child staving to death in this country? I'm just wondering because I havnt. I actually like the idea. I would hope that the price would come down as obviously they are guaranteed their numbers so don't have to allow for excessive waste etc. I do feel though that their HAS to be a huge overhaul in school diners to make this a viable idea. X

[teacakepenguin]

I know this is just an idea being bandied about, but I can't see it happening.

I've got 4 kids and recently came off income support, am missing the free school meals like mad!! The cost of packed lunches can be quite high, plus the hassle, esp if you are trying to keep them containing semi decent food.

Mine struggled with school meals sometimes, with food they didn't like, but we have 2 main choices and a packed lunch choice so normally there was something. Very occasionally I'd have to bring up a sandwich for them too as they just really didn't like the options.

It would cost me about £10 a day to have mine in school lunches, they are £2.50 for ks2 (for 2 of mine), £2.25 for ks1 (for one) and I think at least £2.50 for secondary school. It's a no brainer and they are annoyed as they miss their school lunches, but I just can't afford that, even tho it probably costs about half that for their packed lunch.

Jx

[Velleity]

Concerns me that the school serves Halal meat. I'd need assurances there were humanely-slaughtered options on the menu before I'd allow the switch.

[FussyElmo]

It would cost me £50 a week to send my 4 on school dinners. I can do healthy lunchboxes for a fraction of that.

If the dinner were prepared properly and cooked from scratch it might make a difference but it doesn't and the mixtures our primary school will serve all because the child has asked for them. Im sorry but salad with gravy :eek:

[shortstuff]

The problem I have with this scheme, if it comes in, ive always given ds the option of hot lunch or packed. He flatly refuses the hot option for 2 reasons. He often doesnt like whats on the menu, oh n he spends most of lunch queueing and doesnt get time to eat it all or play! How do they propose I sell it to him? It would suit me as I could do easier dinners but not a good option as it stands.

[bindy]

Just out of curiosity - has anyone ever heard if a child staving to death in this country? I'm just wondering because I havnt. I actually like the idea. I would hope that the price would come down as obviously they are guaranteed their numbers so don't have to allow for excessive waste etc. I do feel though that their HAS to be a huge overhaul in school diners to make this a viable idea. X

The prices may even go up, if one has no choice but to pay, they can charge what they like. The reason why there's lots of waste is probably they taste, look and smell awful. Why are you happy about the idea? Parents should have a choice. Some choose to have dinners others not, what' s the problem!! Nothing to do with healthy eating, I always have a look at the menu stuck on the class room window, nothing healthy about them at all, the odd veg normally peas, less is spent on food for school meals than on prison food.

[CLL]

At my sons primary school there is no choice of dinner. It gets delivered in and they all have the same. Monday pizza chips and beans, Tuesday hamburger chips and beans, etc. my son has heightened senses so can not eat a lot of the things as it makes him sick. I have tried him with packed lunch but they sit them in a noisy section so he can not cope with that either. His behaviour got so bad at school this week due to him not coping I am now allowed to bring him home for lunch. I did ask months ago but they said not, he is the only child that has gone home for dinners in 5 years. They refuse to make provisions for him to eat elsewhere in a quiet room so now I have to take the babies back and forwards 4 times a day. I do think that things need to be more flexible not more rigid. How can the government dictate what we eat? Especially when school dinners here are so rubbish.

[bindy]

At my sons primary school there is no choice of dinner. It gets delivered in and they all have the same. Monday pizza chips and beans, Tuesday hamburger chips and beans, etc. my son has heightened senses so can not eat a lot of the things as it makes him sick. I have tried him with packed lunch but they sit them in a noisy section so he can not cope with that either. His behaviour got so bad at school this week due to him not coping I am now allowed to bring him home for lunch. I did ask months ago but they said not, he is the only child that has gone home for dinners in 5 years. They refuse to make provisions for him to eat elsewhere in a quiet room so now I have to take the babies back and forwards 4 times a day. I do think that things need to be more flexible not more rigid. How can the government dictate what we eat? Especially when school dinners here are so rubbish.

I think its disgraceful the school do not want to help your son. What trouble is it, to find your son a quiet place for him to eat his packet lunch.

[nikki thomson]

Well my children's school don't offer school meals you have to take a packed lunch and I always put freezer packs in them, I just couldn't afford school meals it would cost me £133 a month, I'd have to go and pick them up and bring them home for lunch.
Whoever came up with this idea isn't in the real world it's just not practical. X

[Tinkerbell1979]

My main worry is that lunches sit in little boxes and bags on trolleys in hot corridors for hours and hours - and might have been out of the fridge for even more hours - and often don't contain freezer blocks :(

We often collect children who say 'I'll just finish my lunch sandwich now' and open their boxes .... errrrr NO! :panic:



But it's not done any harm.........

[Supernanny86]

Guess we'll have to wait and see what comes of this but In my area school dinners are not rubbish! The catering is very good and the parents got a sampler eve. There's 2 hot options everyday including a vegetarian one and packed lunch option. The packed lunch option is actually very healthy. But the point is, as usual down to cost. Don't see how they can force school dinners on kids, I know the ones on packed lunch now would just insist on feeding them at home!! Very disruptive for school and parents!!

[Koala]

It's a good job they don't look in my packed lunch - crisps, pack of biscuits, chunky kitkat and cans of coke. :angry: i'm a naughty one :angry: :thumbsup: and I love it :D

[bindy]

Guess we'll have to wait and see what comes of this but In my area school dinners are not rubbish! The catering is very good and the parents got a sampler eve. There's 2 hot options everyday including a vegetarian one and packed lunch option. The packed lunch option is actually very healthy. But the point is, as usual down to cost. Don't see how they can force school dinners on kids, I know the ones on packed lunch now would just insist on feeding them at home!! Very disruptive for school and parents!!

Yes, been to one of those evenings, was not impressed. The vegetarian option is normally a baked potato , every day! My problem is, I cook with organic food, I spend a great deal of time making sure my child(and mindees) eat good quality food and school dinners no matter how they dress it up, is not good quality food. One of my mothers is a teacher at the local school, her daughter goes to the same school, she takes a packed lunch, to me that says it all! I see the menus at both local schools and I would not say they are healthy.

[charlottenash]

So nobody's thought that we may have an extra school run when parents decide they want their kids fed out of school for lunch... Can you imagine!!!

[scottishlass]

Our school would struggle to do this as they are already struggling for space in the dining hall and that is with more than half takin packed lunches.

My youngest will happily do a mixture of the two and does enjoy going school dinners but she is in the younger section of the school so gets to go in the first lot to the hall.

My eldest refuses to go now as they are left till last and has already been said spends a long time queuing to then get to the front and find there is barely anything left! Once she had a plain baked potatoe as there was no filling left that she liked (she would have eaten cheese or egg mayo but not happy to try anything else) and they also often have no puddings left and so I just leave her to have her packed lunches - not happy to pay £1.80 for 1/2 a lunch!

[shortstuff]

I encouraged DS to have a hot lunch at christmas as he enjoys a roast dinner. The cheeky little thing told the dinner lady that their potatoes arent as good as his Aunt Bessies, lol x oops x my lazy cooking habits have been broadcast lol x

the dinner lady is also his class assistant and couldnt wait to tell me at the end of the day how they all had a giggle at his sense of humour and how he told them lol x His little character shines through even when he is being negative lol x

[bunyip]

The quality issue seems very patchy. The menu at my local school looks good, though I've not actually seen the dinners. Children's reporting of it seems dependent on whether they like the items, not whether it is well made. Judging by members' posts, some schools do it very well, others very badly.

To be fair to the Gove-being, yesterday's Independent reported that he wanted to ban packed lunches and at the same time provide free lunches for children up to 11yo. Of course, this will raise the question of what happens for the 12yo+ pupils/students/inmates? :huh:

I'd be interested to see how the catering companies cope with multiple allergies, 'cultural' diets, health fads, etc. My local schools effectively takes a 'ban it' approach to every perceived food problem. Any child with an allergy is warned not to have any school meals, but to bring a packed lunch. They then circulate a list of banned lunchbox items to all parents, on the basis of known allergies present across the whole school (to avoid accidental ingestion from 'swapped' items.) That system is already lazy and unfair, and would break down completely if no lunchboxes were allowed.

And the whole thing ignores the fact that you can put a "healthy" meal in front of a child, but you can't force him/her to eat it. I had food issues throughout my childhood. A huge contributory factor was the rule of "clean one's plate" in the school canteen. :(

[The Juggler]

Here they have brought in 'school packed lunches' which cost the same as a cooked school lunch. My boys have tried them out today and were pleasantly surprised but I would still prefer to send a packed lunch I think.
My boys have school dinners on a Thursday and Friday as its their favourites on those days...
At my boys school too they have a chilled area where the lunches are kept until lunch :D

Sarah x

ours too :panic: it was in a bid to encourage more children to take school dinners when they brought the school dinner service in house rather than paying for an outsourced service. There is no way I'd pay £2.20/day for a packed lunch when I can do it so much cheaper myself.

[little chickee]

I don't see how they can enforce it. I don't think they could "force" parents to pay for a school meal.

I have one child left at primary school. He has always taken a packed lunc despite me trying to persaude him to take a school dinner.

His scholl does good meals and after losing a lot of kids to pack lunches for many of the reasons mentioned before mainly the lack of choice if last into the canteen they have rec ently changed the system.

Those taking a school meal are now asked to make their choice in the morning. Always 2 choices of main and a veggie choice. The canteen then cook the correct amount of each dish so you are guanteed to get your choice.

Seems to be working well. My son goes into Primary 6 after the holidays and i am going to try to get him to try school dinners. Especially in the winter , i think its good to have a hot meal.

[bunyip]

I don't see how they can enforce it. I don't think they could "force" parents to pay for a school meal.



I agree. they can't force parents to pay, and I can't see how they can persuade catering firms to manage all the different diets without inflating the costs beyond what the exchequer would be prepared to pay. How can they impose it without obliging LA' to breach 1000's of existing contracts with the school catering rackets ?

If schools are to take responsibility for ensuring a child is fed, and if a child refuses what is put in front of him/her will that represent a welfare issue?

I can see another repeat of mum's passing food over the school fence, like they did in the wake of the ridiculous Jamie Oliver 'turkey twizzler' rant.

In fact, that's the nub of the problem: egotistical and hypocritical self-publicists dictating a ridiculous food agenda instead of teaching some useful science and giving people the knowledge, income and dignity with which to make good choices. :mad:

[bindy]

Yeah I remember having to eat all on my plate at school to the point of throwing it back! The reason I never make a mindee eat anything he/she does not want, nor do I use food as a reward or punishment and never say if you don't eat A you can't have B. Probably the reason why I don't really like the idea of my child eating school lunch, to me its not only the food , its how someone I don't know is going to be telling her to "Eat up Eat up" giving a sticker for a clean plate, which I really hate.

[Bumble Beez]

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=500

Look what I just had come through via email...
Some good ideas...maybe if we all try a little harder (although my boys eat well anyway) the whole abolishing packed lunches won't happen.
I'm gonna bring this up with my school (where I'm a governor) at the next meeting and maybe see if we can hand out some of these ideas for parents...anythings worth a try hey?!

I do agree tho that I don't think as parents we can be forced to use school lunches for our children.

Sarah x

[Samijanec]

I think it's ridiculous, all my children have had packed lunches and will continue to have for as long as possible. It's not packed lunches that are making children bigger. It's play stations, computers and the likes!!!!

[bunyip]

I think it's ridiculous, all my children have had packed lunches and will continue to have for as long as possible. It's not packed lunches that are making children bigger. It's play stations, computers and the likes!!!!

Well said. :thumbsup:

But Gove isn't going to mention that. Too many vested interests between the regime and the ICT industry. Which is why we're encouraged to increase the amount of screen time our lo's are exposed to.

Children watching other people doing sport: the great Jubilympics legacy. :panic:

[AliceK]

Healthy & Fun Lunch Ideas for Kids | SparkPeople (http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=500)

Look what I just had come through via email...
Some good ideas...maybe if we all try a little harder (although my boys eat well anyway) the whole abolishing packed lunches won't happen.
I'm gonna bring this up with my school (where I'm a governor) at the next meeting and maybe see if we can hand out some of these ideas for parents...anythings worth a try hey?!

I do agree tho that I don't think as parents we can be forced to use school lunches for our children.

Sarah x

Doesn't the author realise that packed lunches containing anything with nuts is banned in most schools? She mentions nuts rather a lot in her advice.

xxx

[Samijanec]

Well said. :thumbsup:

But Gove isn't going to mention that. Too many vested interests between the regime and the ICT industry. Which is why we're encouraged to increase the amount of screen time our lo's are exposed to.

Children watching other people doing sport: the great Jubilympics legacy. :panic:

They know its the problem though, playing fields get built on, open spaces are harder to find and streets just aren't soft for kids to play on, so what else do they have to do? They need to invest money in local councils for play areas and spend less paying all these nutritionalists that give different advice each time the wind changes...

[Tunja]

Well said. :thumbsup:

But Gove isn't going to mention that.:

Give him enough rope. TEE HEE.

I know how he can save more money too. Start school at six.

[madredann]

I used to work at an Infant school and at lunchtime I had the dinners and found them to be acceptable and even sometimes nice lol. I also used to be a dinner lady and the amount of waste was huge both for children that had dinners and sandwiches. I also used to see children chatting to their friends whilst eating the things they enjoyed- I could see what was in the lunchboxes so maybe just targetting the children that always come with foods that have little nutritious content and empty calories instead of all of the children.
I am sick and tired of hearing of new ideas which takes away the fact that parents have a responsibility for their own children. Educate educate educate both parents and children. We are all told and rightly so that children are individuals and should be treated as such children eat different things/eat different amounts etc etc what is wrong with that a balanced lunch box can contain a chocolate bar hopefully after they have eaten they are going to go and play outside with their friends or maybe have a led activity to burn off the calories perhaps thats where they need to make improvements. They cannot enforce this and if it seems that they will then parents really need to make their voices heard-it is taking away the freedom of choice for goodness sake! makes me sooo mad

[LauraS]

My dd forgot her lunchbox last week and the school kindly provided her with a school lunch. She came home delighted to tell me that she had eaten pizza and chips and jam sponge and custard, cleared her plate and had seconds of both courses because the kitchen had leftovers.

Strangely, the school newsletters often request that parents don't put unhealthy items in lunchboxes but yet they happily serve pizza and chips?

I don't see how compulsory school meals could ever be enforced for all the reasons mentioned above