school dinners are pricey...

Hi, I noticed no-one had commented on school gruel...so I thought I would...I have two Children at Primary School (and a baby at home)...My children refuse to stay school dinners, as over the years they got fed up feeling hungry because they would get tiny amounts of food.  The Jamie Oliver campaign was good, but in my children's school they barely made any differences, other than the price going up.  The funny thing the other week in the school newsletter was that it is chips day on a friday...you need to send an extra 20 pence in with your child if you want them to have tomato ketchup with there chips !...no, my children have pack lunches and at least I know they won't starve during the day and they also don't have to queue for food...Are school meals any good at your childs school ?

Re: school dinners are pricey... In reply to: Hannah

Me, again...really is anyone going to comment on school dindins...when there are subjects like sex, pregnancy and lots of other gripping topics ? !!!

Re: school dinners are pricey... In reply to: Hannah

My kids school is pretty good when it comes to school dinners. They have a good variety, the only problem i find is that the younger kids dont understand the food groups. Instead of choosing an item from each they often just get what they fancy. I asked my daughter once what she had for dinner at school .... (spagetti, chips and pizza) three carbs! Since then i drill it into my kids about what they should choose. Youd think the school would have some kind of system set in place to help kids choose a well balanced meal. I thought a traffic light system would work well, the kids choose one from red section, one from amber section and one from green, then GO for pudding. To much like hard work for the staff i recon. And yes  the meals  are expensive, if you think of the amount of money schools recieve from most of the children and some schools are subsidised by the govenment too, surely theres enough money to give the kids acoss uk a greater choice.

Re: school dinners are pricey... In reply to: looby

I think the school's need to pay more attention to school meals - my girls go to an inner city school and there are kids there that have free school meals (nothing wrong with that, I was a free school dinner kid) and that is their only proper meal of the day so they need to eat well. But the school's kitchen manager seems to think it's her job to spend as little money as possible on the food she cooks and the food really isn't all that good.

Good job I'm a parent governor and can have an input! I give lots of feedback about it and all aspects of the school because the school can't act an what's wrong unless they know what's wrong and also because I like to have my say *lol*.

My girls won't eat school meals - mostly because they don't like the plastic trays they are served on! But also because they're used to having chips and pizza as occasional treats, not every other day. Also, because of the Indian food I cook for them 4/5 times a week at home, they find the school food a bit bland (would it kill schools to use garlic and ginger?!).

Anyway, that's my say. I think even if the meals at the girls' school were spectacular, they wouldn't want to eat it. They're too used to packed lunches and I'm too used to making them in the evenings - for my eldest two, me and my husband!

Keep Smiling and Eat Well :o)

Re: school dinners are pricey... In reply to: Nina

Thanks for that Looby...I like the idea of your green, amber and Go system...it would make lunch time a little more interesting for the little ones, whilst teaching food groups too....and yes, the cost, when you think that prisoners still get more money spent on there food...huh...it shows there's a problem with this country.

Your right Nina, it doesn't cost much to add a little flavour to food, a bit of garlic and fresh herbs in some ratatouille, even my 11 month old eats that...my older two love chinese food, some saturday's we have a chinese banquet(homemade, as chippy chinese as lush as it is, is full of fat), you don't see many overweight chinese people, healthy boiled rice etc would go down a treat in schools.

At what age did your children eat indian food ?, I havn't introduced that to my 11 month old yet, he loves his food and is open to try new things...bye for now

Re: school dinners are pricey... In reply to: Hannah

Wasn't Jamie Oliver brave visiting Rotherham this week. Im surprised he didn't get pelted with chips and turkey twizzelers. I wonder if the girls from Rawmarsh were there, who he wasnt very nice to about their weight and about them being northern. He's always shouting the odds about healthy food, does anyone remember when he first came onto our TV's?There was fresh cream, butter and greasy fry ups everywhere.Shame on you Mr Oliver  for calling us Northern lasses names. 

Edited 6 months ago

Re: school dinners are pricey... In reply to: looby

Thanks for the comments - I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks like this!

 I think Jamie Oliver started with that Naked Chef programme didn't he? Not that I watch that much TV *lol* Still quite cute though :o)

I started giving my girls Indian food from about 6 months, but very bland food. Chapattis are just flour and water and I was giving them these from about 4/6 months old (about the time they started having bread). Then I would make a very mild curry and give them that too. I still make my curries very mild because I'm a pathetic Indian - I don't like my food too spicy!

There are so many different types of curries, and they are SO good for you. You can have lentil, vegetables, meat, all sorts. My eldest (in the picture, she's 9) loves potato and chick pea, my 6 year old loves chicken curry and my youngest likes those yellow split lentils (forget the English word for them). But they will eat all sorts of curries. We don't have Indian for every single meal, but we do try to eat one Indian meal most days. The good thing about how I cook the curry is that I boil the lentils and then add the onions, garlic, spices, etc so I'm not draining any of the water and the nutrients stay right in there.

A good thing to remember is that if you go to an Indian household for an Indian meal, then the food will be VERY different to what you've had in an Indian restaurant or from an Indian takeaway. Unless they've used Uncle Bens (which I do sometimes!).

Huh, sorry, got a bit carried away there! I could post some recipes if anyone's interested?

Keep Smiling and Eat Well :o)

Re: school dinners are pricey... In reply to: Nina

Yes plse Nina, I would like a mild curry recipe suitable for my children aged 9, nearly 8 yrs and nearly 1 yr old ? ? ?...I make a basic "makeway" curry ( just add the powder to boiled water and add to chicken and onions)...but I need more variety, I get sick of cooking the same old stuff....I didn't know Jamie Oliver said something about northerners, what a cheeky chap !...i'm a northern girlie too....anyway, best go, baby is getting grumpy !  X

Re: school dinners are pricey... In reply to: Hannah

Hi I came across your chat on school meals and since as i am a kitchen manager in a primary school and a mum i thought i would explain a few things, as a cook i get no say whatsoever in the menu planning at all, this is all sent out by head office who sit there and dont have a clue what kids like and dont like all they are bothered about is there budget whilst us in the kitchen cooking the meals only want the best for the kids and try our best to get them to eat a balanced meal they have to choose a protein, carb, veg, pud and fruit! not sure what school your kids go to but they should be making them have a balanced meal! We also go out of our way often doing things not in our job discription to make things nice for the kids. I agree the meals are expensive, but the money certainly isnt on our wages as a cook I work 35hrs a week for less then 8,000 a year. In high schools though the prices are ridiculas so unfortunatly I have to send my son to school with a packed lunch!  p.s i am also a northen lass!

Re: school dinners are pricey... In reply to: sophia

Hi sophia, thanks for explaining that, we are aware it is not the cooks fault, blame tends to fall down the pile, it's all arush in my kids school, throw a bit of "food" down them and quickly get them into the playground out of the way.  Maybe if they trained you all as Chef's,(bigger wages as an incentive aswell), gave you a better budget and started to care what our Children are eating in School, we wouldnt have a problem ! 

Re: school dinners are pricey... In reply to: Hannah

I'm a dinner lady at a comprehensive school and yes, i think dinners are too expensive.  Chips is 3 times a week and the other 2 days are "healthy eating" days, so we serve hot dogs, pizzas, burgers, bacon burgers!  There is a choice of "proper dinners" but the majority of kids go for the fast food.

Re: school dinners are pricey... In reply to: Nina

i would LOVE some recipes! my stepfather is a parsi and i have lived in india so would love to try them out!