When School Dinners Don't Hit The Spot

When Child 1 started school last year, Catherine Morgan thought she was free from having to plan at least one lunch for five days a week. But it was not to be, as she soon found out...

- Catherine Morgan

When Child 1 came home from school declaring that he “hates” school dinners, I wasn’t particularly overjoyed. It had been rather nice not having to think about lunches for five days of the week, and the fact that it was free was a bonus. The problem was, he wasn’t actually eating the food, and began to become distressed at the mere mention of school dinners.

Now, I’m aware he is only four and relatively new to the whole school thing; it can take time for some children to settle. But the problem is that Child 1 is an exceptionally slow eater, and also easily distracted. With only half an hour or so to eat his food before having to go back in line for play time, it just wasn’t working. He was also overwhelmed — by the mob of children, the noise, the expectations...

So, after a few stressful weeks, we decided to opt for packed lunches (at least for now); which means I have to think up quick and healthy ideas for his lunchbox. Easy, right? Perhaps not.

A 2016 survey of primary school children’s packed lunches showed that just 1.6 per cent of lunchboxes met the nutritional standards set for school meals.1 According to the research, conducted by the University of Leeds, less than a fifth of packed lunches contained any vegetables or salad, more than half contained too many sweet snacks, and few met the standards for vitamin A, iron and zinc. The research was a 10-year follow-up to a previous study which found that only 1.1 per cent of children’s packed lunches met national standards for school food in England2 — meaning that packed lunches have improved by only 0.5 per cent in the last decade.