Lately this debate is going on in the media in UK. Some schools already did it.
I think it is absolutely outrageous!!!
I think it is absolutely outrageous!!!
Banning packed lunches -- seriously?...
- Thread starter TabascoNatalie
- Start date
The officially stated reason is that parents pack unhealthy stuff for kids lunches -- real reason is the rip-off -- make them pay for rubbish in school cantines.cybele said:
Never heard of anything like this in here. My son has his lunch utensil set, yes it includes a knife, but you can't hurt anybody with that sort of knife.Maser said:
Yeah, we know how good a school lunch is....
I don't have a problem with a school lunch, it's one meal a day, but to say that parents aren't packing healthy enough meals just sounds like rubbish.
I don't have a problem with a school lunch, it's one meal a day, but to say that parents aren't packing healthy enough meals just sounds like rubbish.
I'll tell you something I know for a fact that if they ban packed lunches in Caitlyn's school she wouldn't eat anything the school give her she tried school lunches and hated them - she's quite a fussy eater. Personally I think it isn't anything to do with lack of nutrients the parents I know pack plenty of healthy food. Me and Fern pack a sandwhich, a small veggie salad, chrisps, a bottle of fresh orange or apple juice, a yogurt and a piece of fruit. Other parents we know are the same but the school is for the changes. Personally I think its the schools trying to make money.
Over here, all school lunches are subsidized (even if you're not on an income-based free or reduced-price lunch plan), so I can't imagine they would make a lot of money off them. You have to be creative to make sack lunches cheaper. I mean, the little single-serving juice boxes and ultra-pasteurized milks that you don't need to refrigerate are over a dollar apiece. A fruit snack is easily a dollar a serving. A loaf of bread is $5 and you get about 10 sandwiches out of it, so the ingredients alone can easily reach the $3 it costs just to buy a school lunch.
There are ways around it, but sometimes it's more effort than it's worth and I just send my daughter to school with some money. When I have more kids in school, I might be less likely to do that. If they tried banning sack lunches, I would be very upset. The school's job is to educate; I wouldn't like them forcibly encroaching on my jurisdiction as a parent, which includes nourishing.
There are ways around it, but sometimes it's more effort than it's worth and I just send my daughter to school with some money. When I have more kids in school, I might be less likely to do that. If they tried banning sack lunches, I would be very upset. The school's job is to educate; I wouldn't like them forcibly encroaching on my jurisdiction as a parent, which includes nourishing.
Wow, that just does not seem okay to me! Some kids follow a special diet or have allergy concerns, etc. Not to mention it should be within every parent's rights to feed their children the way they see fit (although don't think I don't realize that a lot of parents out there are doing a crappy job, but you'd think simply having a list of things they'd rather see you not send would be sufficient enough). I would be fighting this for sure! My oldest is a VERY picky eater, and I can see many days ahead of us where I will have to pack his lunch because they serve so much at school that he will not eat. :/
akmom where do you live that bread is $5 a loaf? Holy moly!! Here a loaf of regular white bread is like 85 cents lol, or if I am feeling in the mood for the expensive stuff I might spend as much as $2.29. Even the freshly baked stuff from a local bakery doesn't tend to exceed like $3 or so unless you search for something crazy fancy. I try to bake my own when I can, though. I imagine that way is the cheapest, but I don't always have time for it. I need a bread machine or something.
akmom where do you live that bread is $5 a loaf? Holy moly!! Here a loaf of regular white bread is like 85 cents lol, or if I am feeling in the mood for the expensive stuff I might spend as much as $2.29. Even the freshly baked stuff from a local bakery doesn't tend to exceed like $3 or so unless you search for something crazy fancy. I try to bake my own when I can, though. I imagine that way is the cheapest, but I don't always have time for it. I need a bread machine or something.
Well, I'll just say that if they want to ban packed lunches, the food they serve better be super-healthy and cheap.
I can't help wondering, though, how do they cater for everyone? Allergies? Vegetarians/Vegans? Kosher? Halaal? Surely, if they want to force you to eat their food, they have to cater for your requirements (both dietary and budget)?
I can't help wondering, though, how do they cater for everyone? Allergies? Vegetarians/Vegans? Kosher? Halaal? Surely, if they want to force you to eat their food, they have to cater for your requirements (both dietary and budget)?
I was thinking that Xero about the bread prices we probably spend that on about four loaves which would get us just about through a week. More if we went for the ecomony brand or supermarket brand. I'm with you on fussy eaters we have to disguise a lot of stuff we give to Mathew and Caitlyn hates cheap mass produced things.
Singledad: here in the UK they usually have Halal meat as standard and have a veggie option and while I'm not too bothered about the price at about £3.50 a day its the fact that a lot of it is crap that the cooks and teachers probably wouldn't eat themselves
Singledad: here in the UK they usually have Halal meat as standard and have a veggie option and while I'm not too bothered about the price at about £3.50 a day its the fact that a lot of it is crap that the cooks and teachers probably wouldn't eat themselves
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One of the factos of school lunch programs is that you need a certain "critical" mass in order to make delivering the program reasonably efficient. Consider two scenarios, one in which 350 out of 400 students eat school lunch and one where only 200 out of 400 eat school lunch. It takes the same amount of planning, a similar amount of preparation and serving labor and equal (if not more for the latter) to clean up. Soo, it does make sense that they could be pushing the school lunch program.
My kid's school was going to bring in a vendor with a super high quality program in terms of freshness, taste, nutrition, presentation , all of it, and add the cost of lunch to tuition, so everyone paid for it whether you ate it or not. You can imaging that didn't go over well. So, the idea is tabled but not dead. The notion now is that if the program is offered it will be so exciting and good, that no one will want to do anything different. So, the approach is not to force purchase, but entice it. I'll let you know how it works out.
My kid's school was going to bring in a vendor with a super high quality program in terms of freshness, taste, nutrition, presentation , all of it, and add the cost of lunch to tuition, so everyone paid for it whether you ate it or not. You can imaging that didn't go over well. So, the idea is tabled but not dead. The notion now is that if the program is offered it will be so exciting and good, that no one will want to do anything different. So, the approach is not to force purchase, but entice it. I'll let you know how it works out.
I'm told the further north you go it gets cheaper but yeah I think its because they contract the catering to third parties.
Haha probably if you went far enough. You know what the scottish say - you can't beat a bit of haggis
My daughter's school does actually serve healthy lunches (low sodium, low fat, low glycemic, recommended balance of protein/grains/carbs). But that doesn't mean she eats all of it or always likes it. They do not, however, cater to any special diets. Not even peanut allergies. I imagine school lunches would get very spendy if they had to do that, which would be even more disconcerting if it was mandatory. I agree that making it more enticing is the key. Making it optional keeps it competitive cost-wise too.
Xero, my example was Alaska prices. They are higher than Lower 48 prices, but so are wages, so you can really only compare it to the school lunch price I gave. I realize it's not comparable to other areas' prices! And yes, you need a bread machine. They are great!
Xero, my example was Alaska prices. They are higher than Lower 48 prices, but so are wages, so you can really only compare it to the school lunch price I gave. I realize it's not comparable to other areas' prices! And yes, you need a bread machine. They are great!
We don't really have school lunches here the way other countries do.
The kid's primary school does the same as most other primary schools in the country do, a tuckshop once a week, the kids write their order on the brown paper bag, chuck some money in, hand it in that morning and the paper bag comes back with food in it at lunch time. Every other day of the week a packed lunch is the only option.
The high school that the kids go to is a community school, so they don't have a budget for a canteen as the school is run on community funds, but they do have a student run café that has some pretty decent food. It isn't exactly cheap though. most of the kids either bring their own or go to Subway, as they are allowed off school grounds when they don't have classes.
I wouldn't be too happy with a 'school lunch' every day. Ash and I refer to tuckshop Fridays as "junk food day" for Lux and Sasha, because that is exactly what is on offer. Pizza, mac and cheese, flavoured milk, fruit flavoured drink that they call 'juice' that only contains about 10% actual juice. They have very limited options because they are vegetarian, but the meat options are no better honestly, things like hot dogs and party pies.
Lux does have a cooking class once a fortnight (the school is part of a kitchen garden program) and they cook their own lunch out of produce that they grow themselves, and that is usually something fantastic.
The kid's primary school does the same as most other primary schools in the country do, a tuckshop once a week, the kids write their order on the brown paper bag, chuck some money in, hand it in that morning and the paper bag comes back with food in it at lunch time. Every other day of the week a packed lunch is the only option.
The high school that the kids go to is a community school, so they don't have a budget for a canteen as the school is run on community funds, but they do have a student run café that has some pretty decent food. It isn't exactly cheap though. most of the kids either bring their own or go to Subway, as they are allowed off school grounds when they don't have classes.
I wouldn't be too happy with a 'school lunch' every day. Ash and I refer to tuckshop Fridays as "junk food day" for Lux and Sasha, because that is exactly what is on offer. Pizza, mac and cheese, flavoured milk, fruit flavoured drink that they call 'juice' that only contains about 10% actual juice. They have very limited options because they are vegetarian, but the meat options are no better honestly, things like hot dogs and party pies.
Lux does have a cooking class once a fortnight (the school is part of a kitchen garden program) and they cook their own lunch out of produce that they grow themselves, and that is usually something fantastic.