School lunches

I enjoyed that link, Mamie, thank you.
I was amazed when I was having my first house in France renovated. The two workmen set up a brazier in the garden, until my cooker was connected, and cooked themselves a proper meal, such as coq au vin, washed down with a bottle each of red wine. I was used to workmen in England bringing a sandwich and stopping for about 15 minutes.
The larger supermarkets near me now stay open all day, but there is a very much reduced staff between noon and 2 p.m., so there are often long queues at the tills.
Parking in many town centres is free between these hours, as almost everybody goes home for lunch.
However, I see lots of older French men with very large wine bellies!
The French take food seriously.

Yes they do Greatnan, but tbh I find there is a level of preciousness around it that I find annoying. Everything French is best and we are not interested in other cuisines seems to be the attitude. I think restaurant food has got dull and failed to move on. I prefer eating out in the UK.
Sorry - off topic!

I do get bored with the endless mounds of boiled French beans, Mamie! I don't eat out much now, unless I have a guest staying, but I have learned to avoid roast beef, as it is like leather. The French would have us believe that they shop mainly at markets or little shops - this is bunkum as I believe 70% of their food shopping is from supermarkets! And of course the youngsters go mad for MacDonalds and there is one in almost every town (I just go in to use their toilets when I am on my travels!)

I used to do school exchanges with schools in Normandy and Epinal in the Vosges, and the school dinners were excellent. Each day there was 2 choices of starter, a salad or mini-quiche for example, the 2 choices of main meal, and the plate had to consist of one of the meat/fish on the menu, one of the carbohydrates, rice or potatoes, etc, and then a choice of 2 or free dessert, usually a yogurt, a fruit or a tartlet, or cheese.

The reason they could provide for such excellent quality and value is that parents have to pay in advance for the whole month - therefore the kitchen knew exactly how many would be having lunch, and could cut waste down to a minimum.

Anyone know what are school dinners like in Germany or other countries in the EEC?

Most countries in the EU do not have school dinners.

Citation, please, jura. Where is that information from?

www.eufic.org/article/en/artid/School-lunch-standards-in-Europe/

This is an interesting site too. There is a quiz which, if you do it, helps feed hungry kids. This site makes all our over-eating and fussing about 'wrong' eating look bad.

Thanks for the WFP link, B. I did the quiz and found a couple of my assumptions challenged!

The range and depth of the 5 Main Outcomes very informative.

As I said, they don't get lunch in Spain, but then you have to provide childcare from 2pm onwards (with lots of homework). As my DiL, like so many others has been made unemployed, it isn't an issue for them at the moment.
Good lunch in France, but our four year olds (and younger probably), leave by bus at 8am and get home at 6pm.

I got all the questions correct, but mainly by luck. The information given on the site is very illuminating and worrying.

Sorry Bags, no link for personal experience as a teacher who has had exchanges and close links with schools all over Europe

Excellent link, thank you Bags.

This is so awful
school children die after eating dinners contaminated with insecticide

I heard that too, Aka! So sad, and avoidable..