Do you have this arrangement?

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mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Do you have this arrangement?

Post by mystery »

After years of being able to have school lunch on just certain days of the week, school is saying that at the start of each week we have to decide if our child is going to have 5 packed lunches or 5 hot lunches that week.

Lunches are ordered in daily from an external supplier.
talea51
Posts: 522
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2011 5:10 pm

Re: Do you have this arrangement?

Post by talea51 »

We have to fill in a form to order our school lunches in advance each week and if you want the vegetarian option, you had better do it otherwise there won't be available.

We don't have to have school lunches every day, we can have them as and when but we do need to say when we are having them.

Not too much of a problem for me because my children never have school lunches anymore. My children feel the quality of school lunches are not up to their exacting standards! :lol:
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Do you have this arrangement?

Post by mystery »

Filling in a form at the start of the week saying which day you will have them sounds sensible. Our school will not consider this as an option.
ginx
Posts: 2151
Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2011 2:47 pm
Location: Warwickshire

Re: Do you have this arrangement?

Post by ginx »

At our primary, parents can go into school on the morning and request a school lunch for that day.

Can't afford four cooked lunches every day. £50! Kids don't particularly like them, either, or the older ones just buy pasta and cake. Not desperately healthy. Their lunch boxes are not exactly exciting but they are healthier.

Talea51, my oldest three dc feel the quality of school lunches isn't great and they aren't fussy. Youngest dc loves them because they seem to have chips in one disguise or another every time he has a cooked lunch.
kenyancowgirl
Posts: 6738
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:59 pm

Re: Do you have this arrangement?

Post by kenyancowgirl »

Our primary is like talea51's - we are issued with a 4 week menu approximately termly. On a Monday, we tick boxes on a preprinted envelope for the days your dc want hot dinners (usually selected via what pudding is on offer by my ds2!) Money goes in the envelope and they "register" each morning for hot dinners/packed lunch as per the boxes ticked. If he is absent on a hot dinner day, he can register another day for a hot dinner - or carry that over into the following week. They are very fair about it - the dinners are actually prepared in the local high school and driven over to the primary as the kitchen is very basic. It is currently £2 per day for a hot dinner.
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Do you have this arrangement?

Post by mystery »

That sounds sensible too. I can't get anywhere discussing this one with school so I am going to ask my children who currently has lunch pretty regularly from their classes and check they are continuing.
Snowdrops
Posts: 4667
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2007 5:20 pm

Re: Do you have this arrangement?

Post by Snowdrops »

At dd's old primary I used to be able to pick and choose which day she had hot lunches, as long as I did it on the Monday of each week.

Can you not do a week of packed lunches and a week of hot lunches if you can't mix the days up within the week? (Or two weeks of one and one of the other, etc)

Dd now has one week packed lunch and one week hot lunches. 1) I get fed up doing them (hmmm, she's big enough to do her own now :roll: and 2) it gives her a bit of variety too.
Image
Tinkers
Posts: 7240
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 2:05 pm
Location: Reading

Re: Do you have this arrangement?

Post by Tinkers »

DDs former primary was very much reliant on the kids sticking their hands up everyday.
As long as you had paid for meals in advance, you could decide on the day.

Saying that we had issues early on with one firm who claimed I owed them money and threatened to not allow DD to have lunch. Series of emails later, where I stated the dates (sent and cashed) and amounts of all the cheques, along with dates DD had had lunch hat they finally admitted I was right. I wasn't the only one. After that they changed their payment procedure.

New firm started last year. They didn't factor in for the odd child who forgot to put their hand up at registration and very early on they run out of food, with 12 kids still waiting. My DD being one of them. She ended up with some disgusting mix of noodles and grated cheese they managed to rustle up.

We got a refund.

Colleague at work has to order meals in advance the week before, but can at least decide which days. Making you pick all or nothing is not very conducive to getting kids to have meals. Even with a reasonably not too fussy eater, there were days were DD didn't fancy what was on offer.
Minesatea
Posts: 1234
Joined: Sat Oct 31, 2009 12:08 am

Re: Do you have this arrangement?

Post by Minesatea »

We also pay on a Monday morning stating how many school dinners are required that week and which days. Each morning at registration the children state whether they want the meat or vegetarian option. The vegetarians are then "stickered" so the dinner ladies can identify them (not sure what happens if they lose it!)
The meals are all cooked on site though, no external company, so it is relatively easy to adjust quantities on the day.
kenyancowgirl
Posts: 6738
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:59 pm

Re: Do you have this arrangement?

Post by kenyancowgirl »

Our school moved to a system of red bands (for meat option) and green bands (for vegetarian), which the children collect just before lunch, because the stickers kept falling off of getting caught up in girls' long hair etc. They are like the charity armbands that kids love to wear. The dinner ladies collect them in as they order their food - seems to work quite well - and they are washable so relatively hygienic!
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