No such thing as a free school lunch…

LHS, serious question here. What do you give your children for lunch?

Also are you saying that chips, wedges, products involving pastry / cake mix etc are strictly off limits? If your child was invited to a party, say for example a BMX party at the local velodrome or a pool party and the food afterwards was either a trip to McNasties or traditional party food then would you stop them going?

Question to LHS only please. No need for others to pitch in.

Coyote,
Based on your argument surely education of parents is required.
How many do you actually think send their kids to school with such rubbish? That falls into child abuse territory and the schools should be acting on such behaviour.

The link you provided LHS is to an academy school. Note :

“Academies are not required to comply with the national school food standards”

And :

Some academy schools are doing well at providing food and drink that complies with many of the national school food standards. Others are doing less well, with children being exposed regularly to foods high in fat, sugar and salt which the standards were specifically designed to reduce or eliminate.

http://www.childrensfoodtrust.org.uk/research/schoolfoodstandardsresearch/academyschools

My kids today will be choosing from

Chicken korma, rice, mini naan
Cheese and tomato pizza
Jacket potato topped with chuck korma
Fruity flapjack
Strawberry sparkle

Along with veg of the day or side salad & fresh fruit

I like my kids menu wish I could have it

To slightly back up LHS, the pilot report notes that:

no change in the total reported consumption of chips, vegetables or whole pieces of fruit on school days, despite the changes in food eaten at lunch

So the implication is parents were feeding them worse food in the evening as they felt they’d had a healthy lunch. So we can conclude the policy will lead to no positive outcome in food behaviour and in some aspects is letting parent off the hook for providing their kids with quality meals. Genius.

Apology accepted.

I do however await their return to find out what strawberry sparkle is

Education of parents is required, true. However again this will be a costly programme and one not guaranteed to garner results. Are you happy to fund this from taxes with the associated risk that it may not work? After all you do seem very particular on what your taxes are spent on or should we adopt an approach that has a higher chance of success?

You honestly need me to explain to you why Sausage and Chips and Chocolate cake isn’t the healthiest of lunches for children?

No, I didn’t ask whether or not it was the healthiest lunch, I asked you to explain why it was particularly unhealthy.

Local authorities are required by law to provide healthy, nutritious meals. Without an understanding of the ingredients and methods of preparation used, I don’t think you can conclude that this would be a particularly unhealthy meal.

The budget allocated to school catering makes meals based on recipes taken from the Observer Food Monthly an unlikely sight in the school cafeteria, but for many children the school lunch is the only proper meal of the day. This is not a good state of affairs.

Quinoa salad with za’atar and roast seasonal vegetables and grilled sourdough bread is lovely, but in the unfortunate absence of it as a menu option, a well-prepared lunch of sausages with roast potato wedges and a vegetable (main meals always feature at least one vegetable or salad), followed by chocolate sponge pudding, with fresh bread and a drink containing no added sugars constitutes a healthy meal for a young, active schoolchild. To snort at this notion in a derisory manner betrays an ignorance of what nutrition (and specifically the nutritional requirements of a young age group) actually constitutes.

If you don’t want your children eating school meals, that’s fine – I don’t want mine eating school lunch every day either – but please don’t assume that what’s being provided is not up to regulated nutritional standard because it doesn’t scale the same gastronomic peaks as your own kitchen. That’s just snobbery mate, and doesn’t help anyone.

Education of parents is required,

In camps presumably comrade?

I realise that he’s a man of very few words, but I’m dying to know what LHS feeds his kids. I expect he can tell us in a single sentence…?

mini naan

A mini naan??

😯

Kids these days don’t know how lucky they are in my day we could only dream of a mini naan bowl of cold gravel if we were lucky had to lick road clean wit’ tongue father would kill us and dance on our graves etc etc…

That’s just snobbery mate, and doesn’t help anyone.

If that’s snobbery, then I am a snob.

My kids will not be eating Sausage, Chips and Chocolate cake for lunch.

A typical lunch bag for my kids would have a banana, an apple, some trail mix or nuts, a yogurt and either a small sandwich or pot of salad.

then I am a snob.

You really didn’t have to point that out, you know! 😀

So the implication is parents were feeding them worse food in the evening as they felt they’d had a healthy lunch. So we can conclude the policy will lead to no positive outcome in food behaviour

No, the pilot report notes that:

Children in the universal pilot areas were less likely to report eating crisps at least once a day than children in the comparison areas. This was seen to suggest that the reduction in crisp consumption at lunchtime did not lead children to eat crisps in the afternoon and/or evening instead.

Which sounds like a positive outcome to me. As does this :

The universal pilot was seen to have had a significant positive impact on attainment for primary school pupils at Key Stages 1 and 2, with pupils in the universal pilot areas making between four and eight weeks’ more progress than similar pupils in comparison areas.

You don’t have kids LHS, do you?

If that’s snobbery, then I am a snob.

My kids will not be eating Sausage, Chips and Chocolate cake for lunch.

What? Ever? I bet your kids will really, really thank you for that.

Anyway… you seem bizarrely reticent with furnish us with what your own children’s culinary utopia consists of

Are you going to tell us then? I thought a self-confessed snob as yourself would be itching to show off their superior (organic? Free-range?) menu choices.

GO on….. dazzle us thick chip eaters……. you know you want too…..

EDIT: On second thoughts, I agree with Yunki. You’ve definitely not got kids. If you had there is no way on this earth you could make a statement like that 😆

I can’t see how Nick Clegg can possibly claim this was his idea when the thinking behind it, and associated pilots in deprived parts of London actually came from a review that Gove sponsored and which was delivered by Henry Dimbleby (yes, it is the same family…) and his co-founder of Leon, John Vincent.

Gove signed off all of the recommendations put forward by the review months ago including “free school meals” for all so Nick Clegg is at best disingenuous at best to claim this is his work.

A typical lunch bag for my kids would have a banana, an apple, some trail mix or nuts, a yogurt and either a small sandwich or pot of salad.

Assuming they receive a proper breakfast and a proper evening meal, then this is an excellent lunch.

The issue originally under discussion here however is that there are a large number of very young schoolchildren in the UK who routinely receive neither a proper breakfast nor a proper evening meal, so your lunch would be nutritionally inadequate for them, and its those children that this proposal is seeking to help the most.

Education of parents is required,

In camps presumably comrade?

Yes if you must… 🙄

Some people choose to eat unhealthily for a number of reasons, their choice. Others have been brought up that way and know no different. Educating parents about the importance of providing your children with a balanced diet can only be a good thing surely? Not quite sure how this equates with a left wing politics.

I didn’t say ever did I, but in your hysteric reply you selectively like to miss things and make things up.

My kids rarely eat sausages, that is one food I try to ensure they don’t have and yes, they will thank me for it. Chocolate cake is fair game, but not as a healthy lunch every day!

A typical lunch bag for my kids would have a banana, an apple, some trail mix or nuts, a yogurt and either a small sandwich or pot of salad.

Lots of sugar in there. Not really very healthy.

Some people choose to eat unhealthily for a number of reasons, their choice. Others have been brought up that way and know no different. Educating parents about the importance of providing your children with a balanced diet can only be a good thing surely? Not quite sure how this equates with a left wing politics.

You’re talking about educating children who go on to become parents. I hope. Which is fine.

You can’t educated adults can you. Without sending them to camps.

Not quite sure how this equates with a left wing politics.

Of course it does. You hardcore commies are all the same. I bet you agree with fluoride in drinking water, to make “your teeth strong”. Yeah right.

You can’t educated adults can you. Without sending them to camps.

😆

You can’t educated adults can you. Without sending them to camps.

😆

EDIT : Snap !

So would you stop them going to parties where typical fare or a trip to a fast food eaterie was on the cards?

Their lunch looks very healthy, a little on the light side depending on their age, but no doubt they are thriving so well done. Still interested in the party food question and not as a pop at you or your parenting. Mine have / do get quite a few party invites over the course of the year and I’m pretty sure that trail mix has never been part of the offering. 🙂

#edit

You can’t educated adults can you. Without sending them to camps.

OK, sorry I didn’t spot the trolling earlier. Hands up, you got me hook, line and sinker. 😳

Coyote – Member

Some people choose to eat unhealthily for a number of reasons, their choice. Others have been brought up that way and know no different. Educating parents about the importance of providing your children with a balanced diet can only be a good thing surely?

+1

Why no sausages then LHS? Why is the humble banger on the verbotten list then?

and yes, they will thank me for it.

Yes…. good luck with that! 😆

My kids rarely eat sausages, that is one food I try to ensure they don’t have

Why on earth are they not allowed to eat sausages?

This thread has descended into comedic farce, with one or two contributors making themselves look like complete dicks. I’d say it’s done.

BUT

The serious bit. I simply can’t ignore the issue of overprivileged kids gorged on mini naans. I can’t.

See; your mini naans: that’s your immigrants that is. Corrupting our good honest hardworking stodgy, bland and utterly unappetising British School Meals , with their exciting, nutritious and flavoursome foodstuffs.

Undermining traditional British values and Democracy. Thin end of the wedge. Rivers of blood.

BAN THE MINI NAAN! BAN IT NOW!

Why on earth are they not allowed to eat sausages?

Because they are unhealthy, they are a processed food coming from the left over bits from the animal, usually containing a high level of fat.

Why on earth are they not allowed to eat sausages?

It could be a religious thing.

EDIT : No, it’s because they are leftover bits of animals.

Binners, you seem to be very angry and rude. Not sure why.

. You missed sarcastic simpleton as well

Because they are unhealthy, they are a processed food coming from the left over bits from the animal, usually containing a high level of fat.

All that sugar you’re giving them is worse for you than a little bit of fat. It’s not the 1970s any more – thought most people knew this by now?

Do you think bread isn’t a processed food btw?

I like this thread

I’m hungry

left over bits from the animal

Ensuring that all the animal is used with little waste, surely a good thing? Even those Mediterranean types with their ridiculously healthy diets eat chorizo and salami.

Why on earth are they not allowed to eat sausages?

Must be the shape. Penis envy is a terrible affliction.
What about cocktail sausages ?