School Dinners vs Packed Lunches

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Fans of school dinners may scoff at the idea, but packed lunches have far more redeeming qualities; this is according to parents we surveyed by phone and at our Funplex event during October half-term.

Cost seemed to play a major part in the choice, and may play an even bigger part during the recession. “Packed lunches are so much cheaper,” said one mum. “I have a daughter and a son. Together it would cost £3.80 each day for them to have school dinners.  The prices also keep on rising. Although food prices at supermarkets are going up, there’s no way a packed lunch would come to that.”

Packing a lunch for a child also seems a good way of dealing with fussy eaters – the kind of child who would ‘not ever never eat a tomato.’ At least one mum declared, “My son won’t eat vegetables!” Another parent even said her child “doesn’t like hot food”. Really?! Several parents remarked that their children would rather go hungry if they didn’t like a school dinner. Or they might always go for gobbling the ‘unhealthy option’. Or, even, they might only eat the pudding! So packing a lunch the night before ensured their child would be able to eat something they liked.

More than that, many parents said they would rather know what their children were eating. “My children have brought home the menu for school dinner. It all sounds very pleasant, but I have never seen what the food actually looks like,” one mum said. Another, who had, added, “The food at the canteen may be healthy and balanced, but it doesn’t look very nice. At least when I prepare the food, I can make sure it’s something healthy and looks tasty.” Maybe some caterers, stung by Jamie Oliver, were unrealistically trying to make school dinners into examples of haute cuisine as they were even dubbed “too fussy and ambitious” by one parent.

So what is inside the lunchboxes in schools across the city? Apples and bananas featured highly prominently. This may be wholly down to fruit being rebranded as ‘sports candy’ in recent years by the health-conscious character Sporticus in children’s TV hit Lazytown, But I doubt it. “For my kids,” said one mum, “often, I pack a sandwich, bread sticks, a piece of fruit, frube [frozen yoghurt] and juice. If they’re lucky they’ll get a chocolate bar, but not on most days”.

Mini pizza, cocktail sausages, and ham and cheese roll ups also made it into Brighton & Hove lunchboxes. Cooking extra the evening before in order to have leftovers was also a popular strategy.  Which led the way to chicken, pasta and wraps adding variety and creativity to lunchtime. Even so, one highly perceptive child we asked commented how similar the packed lunches were at school, because what got into the lunchbox was highly dependent on what was a special offer at ASDA!

But isn’t it a hassle to have to pack a lunch each morning? Don’t parents have enough to do? It may be surprising to note, but most mums didn’t think so. “You can get things ready the night before,” said one, “and it only takes about ten minutes in the morning.” Another talked of preparing sandwiches for the whole week in one go and then freezing them.

Some parents have adopted a mix and match approach, whereby their children have school dinners on some days and packed lunches on others.  “My husband thinks it’s important that my son gets a hot meal at least on some days, especially during the winter,” one mum said. Another said her child only had school dinners on the days when she liked what was on the menu. Another mixed and matched because school dinner children at her school had to sit in a different area to the children with packed lunches, and she liked sitting with different sets of friends on different days.

The parents we asked seemed pretty clear that packed lunches were the way to go. A few preferred school dinners for their children. “I think they’re really nice at my kids’ school,” one mum said. “They’ve made a real effort and the menu is healthy, delicious and varied. It’s a lot less hassle and my children get regularly exposed to more types of food than if I just prepared meals for them.” Another liked the fact she got them for nothing. “I’m on income support,” she said, “so my girl gets her school dinners for free. The menu looks very good and she likes all the food.”

Kuen-Wah Cheung