A school near me has banned children bringing their own packed lunches to eat on health grounds, instead offering free meals they insist are healthier.
Parents are up in arms about it but the school is sticking to its guns. If the school that your child went to enacted this policy, would you support it or no?
As long as they really were healthy, I wouldn’t mind. Less work for parents 
I’d have a problem with it if I had to pay, and it was more expensive than bringing our own though.
Anyone who watched Jamie Oliver’s series on school lunches years ago knows that there are a lot of parents who send their kids to school with rubbish to eat and an awful lot of kids who had never seen a salad. I know it was exaggerated for television but I’ll never forget the parents pushing bags of McDonalds through the school fence.
However as a parent who always sent my kids to school with a healthy lunch, I would object to the nanny state intrusion into my parenting. Besides, I’ve seen my kids’ school kitchen. No healthy meal ever came out of there!
“If the school meals were free and healthy” sure, but it’s a BIG “If”. I’m all in favour of a nanny state as long as it’s a good nanny.
I fully support the idea of the school offering a free healthy lunch program. But it shouldn’t be mandatory.
How can it possibly be a free program? Obviously it can’t. The money has to come from somewhere.
Sure, but then it slowly evolves to be more like a British nanny.
If it’s healthy AND free, the parents will come around. Count me in with the “free lunch good, mandatory bad” crowd.
Granted, it’s been a while - my daughter is nearly 29 - but how healthy are school lunches? I have memories of lots of deep-fried stuff, over-cooked veggies, mystery meats, and pizza of questionable quality. Perhaps school lunches are better in England, but my experience with Maryland, Virginia, and Florida tells me that the sandwich and baggie of veggies or fruit that I sent with my daughter was definitely healthier than what was available at school.
I would not go along with such a plan. What’s next - pantry inspection for the homes of their students??
Is it kosher? I doubt it. Vegetarian? I doubt it. I’d end up having to pull my son out of public school, and send him to a private Jewish school I can’t afford.
To clarify, the free lunches thing is something that’s happening anyway so it’s budgeted for in the Dept. of Education.
This is the school in question for more specifics (warning: Daily Fail link), which gives the school’s menu.
If there’s one way to make that famous quote scarier, it’s to add “I’m from the British government…and I’m here to help.”
I went to a public high school in a place where public school offers free breakfast and lunches to all students. When I learned that students in the US have to pay for their public school lunches, I was surprised.
Was the food good? Not necessarily. Was it healthy? Well, it was certainly healthier than the school cafeteria options of fried things and cheese sandwiches, and healthier than the fast food places around. Perhaps, depending on day and menu, about as healthy as the diner down the street.
It did offer a salad bar and veggie options, which looked suspicious and I seldom tried, but at least it was offered. It had rice and beans, which were the main staples, and a mystery meat. Sometimes the mystery meat was good, sometimes it wasn’t touched. They also offered milk, fruit, and/or juice.
I don’t remember fried stuff. Once in a blue moon a pre-heated, poor excuse of a pizza. The best days where when they cooked chicken.
I think school lunches should be free to the students, no student should pay for food at their public school. I also think they should strive to make it healthy, reduce the fried food options, and increase the salad/vegetarian options to something more pleasing than canned veggies and wilted lettuce.
I think you’re probably wrong - the system in general already accommodates these and other dietary specifications - and obviously if they’re going to make the meals mandatory, they would have to cater accordingly.
I’m not sure it’s a good idea, anyway. It seems to be a symptom of a common modern theme of wanting to help people without highlighting the fact that you think they need help - our collective desire not to ever stigmatise anyone about anything means we have to apply stupid blanket rules to everyone, to try to solve what may be a small localised issue.
I know of cases, for example, where a teacher identified that a specific child had head lice (not impossible to do if the infestation is serious and the child has very fair hair and skin), but the only recourse was to send a bulletin letter to all parents in the school asking them to be vigilant.
In a sane system, someone would be able to talk about a problem they had pinpointed, offer help, and the people being helped would feel able to receive it with good grace.
I’d be pleased and shocked if a school offered healthy lunches, rather than healthier, which is what they seem to be shooting for. I don’t think it should be mandatory, provided the school has the ability to check the kids’ lunches. In the sake of fairness, the parents should be able to check to see what’s actually in the healthy lunch.
How many 5 to 7 year olds are going to be thrilled with this menu?
M) Vegetable ravioli with garlic bread
T) Chicken tikka curry, rice, naan
W) Butter pie (onion and potato)
T) Hot turkey filled sub roll
F) Cod and salmon fishcake
I mean, I’d have no problems with it, but cod and salmon fish cakes? And what if the kid’s a vegetarian, or has food allergies?
Does every school have functioning kitchen? I’ve never seen a primary school here with a kitchen.
This can be a problem in those that don’t have kitchens, but since many schools already seem to offer food (which students have to pay), then there shouldn’t be a problem.
And again, while I know they exist, I’m still a bit surprised at schools that don’t have a kitchen area (even if they don’t offer free lunches).
These things are already catered for. The linked article is about a scaling up of an existing system (it’s already in the process of scaling up for another change - giving free school meals to all infant pupils)
Most do. Those that don’t are generally already provided for by external catering services etc.
Well, in that case maybe it’s not such a bad idea. I was responsible for making lunches for my kids when they were small, and it was a pain in the ass to keep coming up with something day in day out.
It seems draconian. It’s the parents’ responsibility to feed their children, not the state’s.
Just curious, what is the problem with that menu? Sounds like a really good mix of things and all child friendly.
Personally I’d be all for it. For those worried about the school intruding on your parenting. Err…what do you think a school is for?
They are in loco parentis to start with. Their attitude to maths, literacy, physical activity, etiquette, health, sex and relationships *and *food are all part of the wider education and ideally none of it should be discretionary.
Would you ask your child to sit out a maths lesson and read a text book of your choosing instead?