School Dinners

[90DC]

I usually keep myself to the business forums, but I thought I'd ask a non-business question about school dinners.

My child came home from school today with a letter saying the school are doing a 'St. George's Day' school dinner next Monday which we can opt into.

My problem is the menu, or lack of one;

Sausage Roll OR Chicken Nuggets
Chips OR Curly Fries
Peas OR Beans
Bread and Butter
Mr Whippy Cake (Whatever that is) OR Apple Pie

The cost of this failure in nutrition, I hear you ask. £1.80

As far as I know, the £1.80 covers the cost of ingredients, but I could throw up a meal for 100 or so kids at less per head than that, and I am not Jamie Oliver either.

Out of curiosity, I made the poor kid the chicken nuggets (Made myself, I don't keep that frozen crap in my kitchen), with a few chunky chips and peas. I gave him a slice of bread and buttered it too. All at a cost of 90p.

Now, I here you say, I missed off the apple pie. I didn't make the apple pie, but I could make that fresh at around 35p per head, with custard.

The school probably aren't making the nuggets fresh, the chips will be cheap fries and the peas wont be anything to shout about, either. £1.25 I reckon I could do these school meals for, literally by shopping at Sainsburys. So where's the justification?

My biggest problem at seeing this was the lack of nutrition on offer. The choice between sausage roll or chicken nuggets struck me as being a bit of a cost cutting exercise. I could draw up a menu with more nutrition for less than £1.80 any day of the week.

Schools are supposed to be there to teach children. Healthy living is not throwing a couple of nuggets and some curly fries in an oven and leaving to cook for 15 minutes whilst you twiddle your thumbs. I am disgusted at the school for this. If the dinners were more nutritious, my child would have school dinners. I'd prefer that they have a hot meal as opposed to a packed lunch.

Am I the only person with this mindset? What can I do without the assistance of a Channel 4 film crew?

 

[wilwong1971]

They will probably use overheads like wages, equipment etc as a justifaction.

But it still desn't excuse the quality and choice of some school dinners. It would probably be cheaper to use fresh produce (but more labour intensive) than buy in bulk catering stuff, plus it's for our children, it should really be freshly made!

However, with budgets tight, schools won't be employing trained cooks with the skills to do this.

In saying that, the food at the school I work in are of good quality, and they do have lots of variety( they do international food themes fo example..goat curry anyone?)

 

[papverpoppies]

It is only for one day though - so what is the harm - and £1.80 is that such an issue.

Let your child have their lunch with their friends - I would.

Poppy ~xx~

 

[90DC]

Thanks WilWong,

Something told me that the overheads such as staff wages were covered by council tax or something else. The work the kitchen staff are doing is hardly labour intensive or takes forever (A few chicken nuggets in the oven) yet the actual kitchen staff work from about 8am to 2pm. (Sorry, they also serve toast in the morning for 20p a slice).

When councils are cutting back on staff and services, they should be looking to make certain services more efficient. A school of 200 kids with a 50/50 school dinners/packed lunches ratio serving food like that does NOT require 4 cooks working a six hour day.

Some schools are better, which makes me wonder why others cannot follow suit.

 

[Cobby]

However, with budgets tight, schools won't be employing trained cooks with the skills to do this.

Well there's £300m being wasted on bibles for schools. I guess the kids can sustain themselves on god's lovhahahahahahahaha no seriously school dinners are appalling.

 

[90DC]

Poppy,

I've said the money is not the issue. I merely stated that it can be done for a lot less than this to fend off opinions that it cannot. It is the lack of nutritional value and focus on healthy living that I don't agree with.

At a school where 50% of children eat packed lunches, my child is hardly not eating with their friends. I'd rather they ate what I packed in their lunchbox than cheap cuts of animal found in cheap sausage rolls or chicken nuggets.

It goes against anything the government's Change4Life framework suggests and is a complete contrast to what I teach my children.

 

[90DC]

Well there's £300m being wasted on bibles for schools. I guess the kids can sustain themselves on god's lovhahahahahahahaha no seriously school dinners are appalling.

Do you have citation of the cost of bibles?

 

[Consistency]

I think it is not a very good menu but I think it is marvellous they are doing anything at all to celebrate Saint George's Day.

Too often swept under the carpet and these children are only young once, memories have to be made. The food is only a part of it, you can give them a humous bagel to make up for it later perhaps.

 

[90DC]

Hummus bagel? No thanks! They did the same for Valentine's Day. Forever celebrating at that school. Glad I'm not the only one who doesn't like the menu.

 

[90DC]

I've solved the issue of £300m bibles anyway.

Look at Consistency's signature!

 

[papverpoppies]

I think it is not a very good menu but I think it is marvellous they are doing anything at all to celebrate Saint George's Day.

Too often swept under the carpet and these children are only young once, memories have to be made. The food is only a part of it, you can give them a humous bagel to make up for it later perhaps.

Surely you mean a humourless bagel

 

[Cobby]

Do you have citation of the cost of bibles?

Sorry I put m I meant k, and yeah it's like £375k

 

[90DC]

Sorry I put m I meant k, and yeah it's like £375k

Bit of a difference, but still too much. I say that as a non-religious person, though.

 

[Consistency]

I've solved the issue of £300m bibles anyway.

Look at Consistency's signature!

Ha ha ha ha ha - it says Bible - not plural.

We have had requests before now saying "please could you send us 500 Bibles to our ministry in whatever country". We can do the individual ones but can't do bulk of hundreds and especially abroad. Not that we would not love to, it would be a pleasure but we could not afford that.

 

[papverpoppies]

Ha ha ha ha ha - it says Bible - not plural.

We have had requests before now saying "please could you send us 500 Bibles to our ministry in whatever country". We can do the individual ones but can't do bulk of hundreds and especially abroad. Not that we would not love to, it would be a pleasure but we could not afford that.

Connie I thought you hand delivered them.

 

[Consistency]

Sent one to the Phillippines last week - I may have liked to hand deliver that one!! I might have been late for my tea though.

 

[CKG]

My company does a quite a lot of work for council educational catering departments. I really don't see a lot of waste going on. Most food is prepared fresh.

They have nutrition targets to meet and deep fat frying is being used less and less Some schools only fry every 2 weeks now.

Where the private sector is involved in school catering it's generally junk food ahoy.

 

[90DC]

Where the private sector is involved in school catering it's generally junk food ahoy.

My other child's private day nursery takes food and health very seriously. They are fed fresh food bought mainly from a local farm and there's a great variety.

Yes, the nursery dinners are slightly more expensive at £2.05 a meal, but for the extra 25p, the difference is substantial.

 

[terryuk]

Schools are supposed to be there to teach children

Society?

If I had a kid I think it'd be a packed lunch, cheaper, healthier, and I know what's in it - not a cat sausage

 

[vvaannmmaann]

Chinese stir-fry has now replaced chicken tikka masala as Britain’s favourite dish, a new survey revealed today.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...cked-spot-Chinese-stir-fry.html#ixzz1sPyKG1WI

 

[Consistency]

Asda rainbow stir fry is my favourite one with Bird's eye crispy chicken.

 

[terryuk]

Asda rainbow stir fry is my favourite one with Bird's eye crispy chicken.

I prefer to make my own chicken recipes from fresh

 

[papverpoppies]

Bag of rowntree's randoms
2 packs of pringles
1 can coke
1 diet pepsi
1 blueberry muffin
1 cupcake

For breakfast - why to go
I do make my own mug of tea.

 

[90DC]

Asda rainbow stir fry is my favourite one with Bird's eye crispy chicken.

Birds Eye products are tasteless, watery and contain too many additives. Wouldn't feed them to my cat. Maybe if they spent more on quality control and less on branding, they'd have a brand worthy of people talking about.

All frozen convenience food is of far inferior quality to fresh produce.

 

[terryuk]

Bag of rowntree's randoms
2 packs of pringles
1 can coke
1 diet pepsi
1 blueberry muffin
1 cupcake

For breakfast - why to go
I do make my own mug of tea.

Has to be two spoons of coffee

 

[90DC]

Bag of rowntree's randoms
2 packs of pringles
1 can coke
1 diet pepsi
1 blueberry muffin
1 cupcake

And for the same money, you could set yourself up for the day with a full English. I would.

 

[Beachcomber]

All frozen convenience food is of far inferior quality to fresh produce.

It's scary what is allowed to be sold as food - have you read up about mechanically recovered chicken?

Enjoy those nuggets - Yum!

 

[terryuk]

It's scary what is allowed to be sold as food - have you read up about mechanically recovered chicken?

Enjoy those nuggets - Yum!

Was there a bit of meow in that??

http://mainstreettakeout.com/chines...cat-and-dog-meat-sold-as-beef-pork-or-chicken

Looks delicious

 

My problem is the menu, or lack of one;

Sausage Roll OR Chicken Nuggets
Chips OR Curly Fries
Peas OR Beans
Bread and Butter
Mr Whippy Cake (Whatever that is) OR Apple Pie

The cost of this failure in nutrition, I hear you ask. £1.80

Blimey if you lived in the Congo that would be a feast.

1 day eating what the majority of kids probably like is not a recipe for instant death.

small stuff.

Hell of a lot better for kids than a ready meal from the supermarkets.

Earl

 

[Beachcomber]

Hell of a lot better for kids than a ready meal from the supermarkets.

How is mass produced, lowest price available sausage rolls or nuggets any better than a supermarket ready meal?

:|

 

[terryuk]

Blimey if you lived in the Congo that would be a feast.

1 day eating what the majority of kids probably like is not a recipe for instant death.

small stuff.

Hell of a lot better for kids than a ready meal from the supermarkets.

Earl

Chicken Nuggets, bread, chips & peas in a school with pudding = 2k calories my guess

That's why Jamie Oliver went old school on them, whilst benefiting himself and Sainsburies

 

[90DC]

To clarify, is it the responsibility of the head cook at a school to work within a budget set to buy the food, or does the school have no say in what food is provided?

 

[owas]

My daughters school, have a strong policy on healthy eating, when she has packed lunches, anything deemed unhealthy, crisps etc would be sent home, we then decided to pay for the school dinners, they don't seem to bad. Yet despite a healthy eating plan, a few times she has come with a small flyer, which is £3 for a chippy meal for the chipy in town, so when there's cash involved for the school, its a different story! she 5 by the way.

 

[90DC]

Owas,

I hate it when people have double standards. It's an interesting point that you make about the chippy meal, especially being £3 as I think around here and in most of the country, you can still get a sausage/fishcake or something else, with chips and a drink for less than £1.50. When ordering in larger quantities, the chances are you'd also receive a bit of a discount.

 

How is mass produced, lowest price available sausage rolls or nuggets any better than a supermarket ready meal?

:|

sodium chloride by the bucket load a poison for humans in anything but the smallest quantities.

Also masses of unpronounceable fillers made from god knows what.

Fish and chips contains half the fat of your average supermarket ready meal.

Earl

 

[90DC]

Fish and chips contains half the fat of your average supermarket ready meal.

Woohoo... I know what's for dinner tomorrow.

 

[Beachcomber]

Fish and chips contains half the fat of your average supermarket ready meal.

Earl

From a chippie maybe.

But mass produced catering packs of sausage rolls / nuggets are going to be packed with hydrogenated fats, trans-fats, additives, salt, sugar and all kinds of nasty slop.

'Fat' is a catch all phrase that really is meaningless, and not the worst thing in our food by a long shot.

 

[Cobby]

All frozen convenience food is of far inferior quality to fresh produce.

Not all the time. It's been a couple of years since I've had them but they were way nicer than some meals I've had fresh.

Generally you're right, but, you know, there are exceptions.

 

[matt seymour]

Hold on a minute, school dinners are supposed to be disgusting. It's a tradition surely?

They wouldn't be school dinners if they actually tasted nice. Surviving eating school dinners is part of growing up. It builds character!

I have to say that menu sounds rather nice compared to the crap I had to eat when I was at school back in the 70s. Kids like chicken nuggets. I don't know why but they do. I dare say I would much rather have eaten chicken nuggets than the Spam fritters and semolina that I was forced to eat by militant dinner ladies back in the day.

 

All frozen convenience food is of far inferior quality to fresh produce.

Not true:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...itious-than-fresh-vegetables-says-report.html

Earl