Food at school / nursery

[iwantone]

Would anyone who has a lo that eats at school or nursery be willing to share what they get to eat & what you think of the quality of the food?

A friend told me about a local mums blog about the food her daughter (age 5) was being offered in one of the local public schools here. Every day she went into the school to photograph / investigate what her daughter was being fed. It was shocking to say the least. There was meat that they claimed was steak on a huge white roll that she referred to as 'mystery meat' and it really did look suspicious.

This really got me thinking I wonder what school / nursery meals are like in the UK especially after the Jamie Oliver campaign.

Thanks for any input. x

[dara07]

My LO gets fruit, plain biscuits etc as snacks, mid-morning/afternoon.
He also gets a cooked dinner, potato, pasta, veg, meat.
I wander down to have a look if I see them eating but I don't see them eating at dinner so don't actually see it. Believe what I'm told I suppose.

[Anna07]

izzy goes to a private nursery and i am happy with the food.

she gets cereal and toast for breakfast.

lunch is the main meal and tends to be the kind of things we might have at home (chicken casserole, fish etc) i have seen the lunch on a few occassions and always looks fine to me and she always eats it.

tea is more snacky meal like cauliflower cheese etc

they get puddings too, fruit and yoghurt or sometimes things like rice pudding.

they frequently tell us that they get the fruit and veg delivered daily (which i see when i drop her off) and get all the meat from the butcher. i believe this. the menu repeats fortnightly and changes once or twice a year.

they also do things like pancakes on shrove tuesday a christmas lunch before they break up etc.

i have been very happy with the food.

[EvansMum]

Evan gos to a private nursery too and he gets a snack which is always 3 different types of fruit/veg and either a choice of milk or water. He has tried loads of stuff which I would never buy and things that I thought he wouldnt like so its great in that way. He doesnt stay for lunch/evening meal but they put up a board with the evening meal every day and its normally things like spag bol with hidden veg, fruity curry, occasionally they do smileys fish fingers and beans. Its just what I would call normal stuff really.


I was actually reading in the paper yesturday that since they done the Jamie Oliver thingy in schools, pupils SAT results have improved and there have been less kids off ill and stuff so it obviously works! Oooh here it is

TV chef Jamie Oliver’s campaign has ‘improved exam results’ | The Sun |Showbiz|TV

[acad]

Aub's and Will's go to private nursery, and there food is lovely, the girls are always having 3rds

Breakfast-cereal/toast

snack-fruit

Dinner-a few of what they eat, so tuna pasta bake,Meat balls and pasta, fish pie, sweet and sour pork and steak pie, all with veg ect

The meals are made by there cook daily as are all the puddings and biscuits . and everything is brought by butcher across the road

Tea-sandwich ,fruit

[iwantone]

Thanks ladies. We have Olivers name down for private nursery in UK from Sept and they cook all of the food on the premises from scratch using locally sourced ingredients so I am sure I will be happy with the food there but haven't witnessed it as such myself yet.

Jamie Oliver is doing a series here trying to improve on the public school meals in Virginia and he is really up against it as the cooks in the kitchens just seem to have no idea about 'real' food. Has been really interesting so far. Kids were getting pizza and chocolate milk for breakfast chicken nuggets for lunch & even the mashed potatoes they got was powdered stuff. x

[isabellasmum]

Isabella goes to a state nursery, we pay extra for her to have breakfast/lunch.

She has porridge and milk for breakfast, sometimes toast as well.

Lunch they send out the menu termly, usually one day will be pizza, one day some sort of curry, one pasta, one fish and one red meat.

So if Thursday is fish day they might rotate between fish pie, breaded cod, fish fingers etc and keep rotating those dishes for all the Thursdays in that term.

Today she had beef bolognaise, pasta and veg. They always seem to give bread and butter with lunches, I guess in case the child isn't so fussed on the main. She also gets a hot or cold pudding.

Snack is always a plain biscuit and fruit which I'm not so happy with but that's the public funded part of the school so I don't feel I get as much say as the private part!

Overall I am happy with the meals, they are all homecooked but I wish they'd be a bit more inventive (and healthy)with the snacks!

[rachaelmae]

Ours is ok, all home cooked. Main meal at dinner time (spag bowl/chilli/curry/stew/poached fish etc) then they normally have cake/fruit loaf/brownie for pud. Tea is sandwich/beans on toast/macaroni cheese with yoguart for pud.

Snacks are fruit/crackers/toast

all normally food i think!

[Nickit]

I'm pretty happy with the nursery meals my two get. They get cereal for breakfast, usually rice crispies, shreddies, cornflakes or weetabix.

Lunch is the main meal of the day and is all home-cooked on site. It's a variety of meat, fish or veggie dishes and is pretty varied. Tea is then a smaller meal usually soup, omlette, baked spud, sandwiches. Pudding after lunch and tea is offered and I think they get a choice of pudding or fruit. Puddings include rice pudding, blamange, cake etc.

Snacks are rice cakes, oat cakes, breadsticks, popcorn. They only drink water at nursery during the day - if only I could get Isabelle to do that at home.

The nursery also makes sure they get their 5 a day so I don't need to worry about that!

[rhianwen]

Jamie Oliver did alot to change the school meals here and there are not set guidlines to what the schools can provide it has to all be hime cooked food this is the main page for his website about his campaign

Jamie Oliver - School Dinners