School lunches

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

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

Excellent link, thank you Bags.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Most countries in the EU do not have school dinners.

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

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.

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!)

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 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.

There is an interesting article here by Helena Frith-Powell.
helenafrithpowell.com/daily-telegraph/french-school-dinners

I think she has a bit of a rosy view and I never saw anything as nice as that, but interesting.
I do know that when we had French headteachers visiting our LA, they were always amazed by how good the equipment was for learning (especially books, computers, art, music, science and PE), but appalled by the food and the five minute sandwich for the teachers.

I've been reading this thread with interest and it has certainly provoked some strong feelings. When I was a child we were forced to eat the revolting school dinners and I have unpleasant memories of distressed children vomiting and of kids crying who were kept at the table all afternoon with their congealing food in front of them. My DD developed eating problems after her dad left when she was 9. She went to a school that banned packed lunches and so she went hungry all day, returning tired and with terrible headaches. So I don't go along with those who think 'fussy' eaters can be starved into submission. There is a large secondary school on the corner of my road and the kids there vote with their feet, streaming out of school into the chippies and take aways. I can't see that banning packed lunches will do anything to help our children eat a balanced and nutritious diet. I think that the growth of childhood obesity is inexorably linked to the examples they see in the adults around them. Many adults simply do not practice what they preach.

Her school (all Argyll secondary schools) have a cashless catering system. Parents put money on a card which gets swiped to pay for the meal. You can put money on it online or give your kid money to put on it at a machine inside school. The dinner ladies don't take money directly from the kids. It also means the kids don't have to carry money at school.

So, you see, there are good systems in place.

BTW, from what she tells me the other choices sound good: hot 'traditional' meals (meat and two veg type stuff), pasta, salads, soup, fruit, yogurt.

That does sound like a good plan, aka, and I would be in favour of it. Currently DD3 buys her lunch at school. The choices on offer clearly include what she likes, namely cheese and/or ham sandwiches (although they call them panninis).

It would be nice if I didn't have to pay for them, but of course I always would have to pay for them – through taxes if not directly as at the moment.

I liked the idea that school kids should not be allowed to leave school premises at lunch time when I read it (can't remember whose suggestion it was), but then when I thought further about it I wondered if that could mean more lunch-time supervisors would be necessary – possible hidden extra costs because I think teachers should get a kid-free lunch hour. Plus, who'd want to supervise hundreds of teenagers who just wanted adults to leave them alone for an hour?

Not easy.

Rational and interesting argument Aka. If only governments were as sensible !

The argument against banning packed lunches seems to boil down to cost for parents and children who are fussy eaters and may not eat school dinners.
If school.dinners were free for everyone and there was a reasonable choice then the problem would be solved.
Is that too much to cost out?
I've mentioned before that type 2 diabetes costs the NHS £1,000,000 an hour and this is largely preventable. And in so e cases reversible.
Think what extra hospitals, schools, better care for the elderly, etc could be bought if we can save £24,000,000 every day.

Would add that everyone here in France eats school lunches, no packed lunches allowed and very difficult for vegetarians. When I was teaching here, all the staff sat down to a three course lunch (no four there was always a cheese board) and it took most of the lunch break. Resources were very poor compared to English schools, but we ate well. My grandchildren in Spain go to school from 9 until 2 when they finish for the day and come home for lunch. They have a yoghurt or a piece of fruit mid-morning. It seems to work for them.

My GDs always sit at the table with my DD for their evening meal, though my SiL is back too late Everyone at the table for all three meals at the weekend and the tele is off.
The norm here, and in other parts of France I have visited, is for the table and chairs to take up a large part of the room (separate sitting rooms still unusual) and the television is on the wall so everyone sits and watches while they eat. It is usually the news that is on.