The school lunch police

kittenkat wrote (see)

why should my perfectly healthy weight kids be taught that some foods are bad (by them not being allowed in school), rather than everything in moderation, which makes much more sense.

 

Is it not true that some foods (well, I am thinking particularly of drinks) actually ARE bad?

I didnt used to mind school dinners too much and it certainly taught you to eat most things except i had to draw the line at the blancmange with the skin on top

Ahh great ban packed lunches and make them eat the horsemeat bolodnaise instead. As thats the level of produce that most state schools can afford to use in their school lunches.

I own horses and I'm not against people eating horses, but when it's not even supposed to be that meat what are the chances that it was even fit for human consumption in the first place?

Sorry off topic, rant really. I hated school dinners as a kid too, my packed lunch was ham sandwich a packet of crisps, and a chocolate bar. Two thirds of which would be banned now a days but I was never over weight then.

About the only thing mine will eat from the school menu is fish and chips, pizza and baked potato. He only has a meal about once a week and usually if we are doing something in the evening which means we wont be cooking meal.

If they plan on banning lunchboxes then I'd like to know how much the schools will plan on charging for a meal, is the price going to remain the same, go up, go down even.

I'd also be interested to see how the schools plan to handle hundreds of youngsters needing to be fed within the space of a couple of hours, with the size on the canteen at my son's school that will be an incredible challenge.

School lunches at our place are great and healthy, and I eat them every day. You would be amazed at how many young people are brought up never sitting at the table and eating garbage, pot noodles, takeaways, etc. We all eat with the boys at lunch-time and try to model what a proper meal-time ought to look like. That said, I do work with SEN/Behaviour students but they do mirror a large proportion of today`s society.

JvR - you make a good point - my daughter often complains that her whole dinner time is spent queuing and she has about 5 minutes to finish her food and get to form - in fact she's had a late mark simply for not leaving the meal she'd just paid for because the bell went.   

The size of the refectory is ridiculously small - and there is no excuse because it is newly built - add in much shorter dinner break than when most of us were at school and there is no way they can ban packed lunches without major investment in school canteens.   

the school "dinners" served up by my secondary school were dogshit. my own packed lunches at the time weren't exactly health food, but they were better than that crap. No idea what shit they serve up at most schools now, but i doubt it's much better

I skipped school dinners as a kid when at high school. I used the money to go to the chippy and get two rolls and potato fritter with brown sauce and a bottle of fizzy drink that had to be spiked in the cap and drank in a "cool" squeezy fashion. Pretty much everyday for the entirety of high school.

A less diverse or unhealthy diet is hardly possible. It was lucky I was a naturally skinny runt.

It's not just the kids that have to queue for a hot meal that get squeezed on time.  My little one frequently comes home saying the dinner supervisers hurry them out when not finished so they can clear up.  He's in Year R and has even been told that he *doesn't need to eat all his lunch* so they can get them out of the hall.

Never understood the 'school lunches make kids fat' argument; 3 meals a day x 365 days = 1095 meals; school lunches, 1 meal x 5 days x 30 weeks = 150 meals (or 13.6% of total meals)

Educate parents by all means; educate children by all means...but if I choose to feed something to my child, the state can mind its own business.

i think that the big problem with this plan, isn't it. school meals are shit.

I remember meals at my secondary school being half decent actually.  It's the first time I've come across Chicken Marengo.  And the last, come to think of it.  Maybe they just made it up?

My blazer pockets didn't half smell of old biscuits though.

Oh no, here we go - chicken marengo.  Hmmm... now I'm a bit pissed off that the ILEA couldn't stretch to cognac and crayfish. 

Sounds quite nice

the dude abides wrote (see)

i think that the big problem with this plan, isn't it. school meals are shit.

Thankfully, Jamie Oliver changed that significantly. Our LEA have very strict guidelines and, by and large, the food is healthy and well balanced. The Govt are trying to relax the situation so that dogshit will probably reappear.

David Falconer 3 wrote (see)

Lets cut to the chase here .........

Ban kids bringing ineir own lunches if they live on a council estate. If they live in the suburbs then its fine.

Job done.

 

Off you go back to the Daily Mail, there's a dear.

School meals are moderately better than when our generation were at school (I was in primary in the 70s), but unfortunately do still pander to what seems to be the majority parental view that "little Johnny/Clarice will only eat pizza", no doubt partly based on our experiences of being force fed liver and tapioca!  I think there's certainly a lot to be said for educating *all* parents about how best to feed children from as early as the weaning stages (and I think there's a great deal of store in the newest, trendiest weaning methods - baby led weaning),  Unforunately I think the generations that are now producing offspring are, for the most part, too entrenched in the fast food mentality.

Our eldest takes a huge packed lunch to school as they don't have the facilities to provide hot dinners - small, independent school.  Even that is barely enough for him as at 14 he's over 6'1 and still growing and is very active playing basketball 3-4 times a week.

Our youngest is on school dinners at his primary school but is asking for a lunchbox cos the portion sizes are way too small for him - he eats as much as an adult male at age 8 but if you saw his skinny little body you'd think he was malnourished (he ain't, our weekly food bills are huge and it all get eaten). We're taking him on his first holiday abroad soon, via airplane, and we know the child meal won't even cause a dent so we'll have to take some extra food with us.

Both love their veg and fruit and understand the need to limit chocolate n sweets etc on a daily basis and we eat the same meals together most days (well, with their mum as they are so hungry they can't wait til i get home to eat their dinner/tea).