Free School Meals for 5-7 years old - A brave move or just another bribe? [Merged Thread]

[Philzo-93]

I have been saying this for years but at long last Nick Clegg has said that his party are going to give a free hot meal everyday to all primary school children. The cost wll be £600m but I think that this should be partly deducted from child benefit paid and ensures that every child has a hot meal rather than the money be spent down the pub or in the bookies.

Brilliant ask him how those free tuition fees policy is coming along wont you?!

 

[beorhthelm]

this sounds like a good idea until you remember that kids from poor households already get free dinners. this is a nice sounding policy that will benefit the already ok off financially. if this is a gap between "poor" and "ok off" households who qualify for free dinners, that should of course be addressed. we should be moving away from universal benefits, not creating new ones, especially that are inconsistant with other policy (removing child benefits from the 60k earners, but then give their kids free dinners)

 

[supaseagull]

I don't trust the contents of school dinners and so we've always given our lads a decent packed lunch. They prefer it...I know what they're eating and they are eating what they enjoy.

We don't include any type of junk food, but give them something that will sustain them during the afternoon.

As Ernest has said, why should I pay for the free school dinners of middle to upper class parents children. This is just another cheap Lib Dem election gimmick, which ironically, Michael Gove has not agreed to.

The reason why children targeted in this gimmick are obese is nothing to do with what they have in their lunch boxes, it's about the fact that they and their parents are too lazy to get off their arses and get them out doing excercise and no amount of healthy food will do anything to stop them getting overweight, if they aren't prepared to change their lifestyle.

I have a couple of families on my road and their recycling boxes are full with take away pizza boxes, where they eat takeaway pizza 3 times a week AND are claiming housing and incapacity benefit...THAT'S the reason why there's a childhood obesity epidemic and giving kids free school dinners will not change what they eat at home!

 

[Monkey Man]

I think most of us could find a much more effective way of spending £600m of taxpayers' money than this.

Despite all the publicity, celebrity campaigns etc etc, school meals are still disgusting, and produced with the cheap and factory farmed meat that I wouldn't inflict on my kids at home. I don't care if they're free. Why not use the money to allow school caterers to buy better ingredients and create more imaginative menus?

 

[chimneys]

.......this is a superb idea for those kids to have a great introduction to healthy food, dining rules, and general socialising....its a win win.

Why not go the whole hog and make them board! That way they will get 3 square meals a day, get to bed at a sensible hour, not be allowed to play computer games/watch TV or roam the streets all night and can learn social skills 24/7!

What happens when the target kids hit year 3? Yes, their parents go back to their old ways!

And its a farce that in certain parts of the country, mine included, there are free meals for those who can absolutely afford it and/or who have the sense to give their kids nutritional packed lunches. Much better to broaden the free meal entitlement from 4-16 for a much bigger proportion of the less well off than at present.

And a lot of primary schools are not geared up to suddenly produce 300 or more school meals when years of cut backs have meant they have had to close kitchens etc. Where is their funding for new compliant kitchens going to come from?

Headline grabbing tosh!!

 

[Billy the Fish]

Its for five to seven year olds, those kids will eat together as classes, , and you cant apply cosseted leafy Sussex standards to discussions like this......in vast tracts of this country, parents ideas of a hot meal is a pot noodle, and a packed lunch is a packet of Wotsits and a chocolate bar.......this is a superb idea for those kids to have a great introduction to healthy food, dining rules, and general socialising....its a win win.

Similar to what I was going to put. I know someone who works at a primary school in mid Sussex and some of the stories I've heard about what kids get sent to school with make you wonder how they managed to conceive in the first place.

As long as they do it properly and don't deep fry everything.

 

[chimneys]

Mods-can this be merged with the main thread "At last" please.

Ta.

 

[Nibble]

Why not go the whole hog and make them board! That way they will get 3 square meals a day, get to bed at a sensible hour, not be allowed to play computer games/watch TV or roam the streets all night and can learn social skills 24/7!

What happens when the target kids hit year 3? Yes, their parents go back to their old ways!

And its a farce that in certain parts of the country, mine included, there are free meals for those who can absolutely afford it and/or who have the sense to give their kids nutritional packed lunches. Much better to broaden the free meal entitlement from 4-16 for a much bigger proportion of the less well off than at present.

And a lot of primary schools are not geared up to suddenly produce 300 or more school meals when years of cut backs have meant they have had to close kitchens etc. Where is their funding for new compliant kitchens going to come from?

Headline grabbing tosh!![/QUOTE]

Precisely. If it ever did go ahead it would probably be outsourced to some company they have an interest in and get trucked in each lunchtime. But it won't go ahead. Because it's not designed to happen, it's designed to grab headlines as you say.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

And a lot of primary schools are not geared up to suddenly produce 300 or more school meals when years of cut backs have meant they have had to close kitchens etc. Where is their funding for new compliant kitchens going to come from?

Headline grabbing tosh!!

I like the idea but as you've pointed out - most school kitchens were closed years ago - many were turned into extra classrooms. The alternative that the meals will be bussed in by a private contractor like Capita will mean we're back to pre-Jamie Oliver campaign meal standards.

It either needs doing properly or not at all.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Dairylea sandwiches that lazy mummy normally lobs in a lunchbox is going to make the slightest difference to our society, then you are truly deluded.

As I said above, from what I've heard a few don't even get that. Try a piece of bread on it's own, or just a packet of crisps.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Mods-can this be merged with the main thread "At last" please.

Ta.

Agreed. Though this has a title that is quite obvious whereas the other one could be about literally anything.

 

[Nibble]

Unhealthiest lunch box I ever saw contained the following: A cold Big Mac, a cheese string thing, a weird chewy sweet bar thing with popping candy in it, a packet of Space Raiders and a can of pop.

This is what a parent deemed lunch for a 6 year old.

 

[chimneys]

Agreed. Though this has a title that is quite obvious whereas the other one could be about literally anything.

Good point but wouldn't expect anything less from Ben's Grandad! So mods can you merge the posts into the other but keep this title!!

 

[Guinness Boy]

Unhealthiest lunch box I ever saw contained the following: A cold Big Mac, a cheese string thing, a weird chewy sweet bar thing with popping candy in it, a packet of Space Raiders and a can of pop.

This is what a parent deemed lunch for a 6 year old.

And this is exactly the sort of rubbish they'd be fed at home. Rather than giving free food to the middle classes how about we spend the money educating parents about food and nutrition?

Under the changes Clegg announced you're simply putting off the age they get a cold big mac in their lunch from 6 to 8.

 

[The Large One]

And this is exactly the sort of rubbish they'd be fed at home. Rather than giving free food to the middle classes how about we spend the money educating parents about food and nutrition?

Under the changes Clegg announced you're simply putting off the age they get a cold big mac in their lunch from 6 to 8.

More generalisation.

What is this obsession with 'middle classes'?

Children from the poorest families may well get free school meals, others according to you only get fed Big Macs, and everyone else is 'middle-class'? Is that your view of the education system and how it relates to our class system?

 

[Nibble]

And this is exactly the sort of rubbish they'd be fed at home. Rather than giving free food to the middle classes how about we spend the money educating parents about food and nutrition?

Under the changes Clegg announced you're simply putting off the age they get a cold big mac in their lunch from 6 to 8.

I don't disagree. I didn't realise really poor kids get a school lunch anyway so yes, this money would be far better spent improving communities and educating fat ****ers in the first place.

 

[Nibble]

More generalisation.

What is this obsession with 'middle classes'?

Children from the poorest families may well get free school meals, others according to you only get fed Big Macs, and everyone else is 'middle-class'? Is that your view of the education system and how it relates to our class system?

I think KFC is more popular with pikeys these days.

 

[Guinness Boy]

More generalisation.

What is this obsession with 'middle classes'?

Children from the poorest families may well get free school meals, others according to you only get fed Big Macs, and everyone else is 'middle-class'? Is that your view of the education system and how it relates to our class system?

Your irony detector is on the blink again. You've just made a huge set of sweeping assumptions AND mis-quoted me. Good work.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

And this is exactly the sort of rubbish they'd be fed at home. Rather than giving free food to the middle classes how about we spend the money educating parents about food and nutrition?

Under the changes Clegg announced you're simply putting off the age they get a cold big mac in their lunch from 6 to 8.

Class or income doesn't define how good a meal a parent is capable of producing so narrowing it down to those types of sterotypes is pointless. I've seen some horrific packed lunches in private schools where quite clearly the parents have more money than intelligence.

 

[Nibble]

It is a fact though that people who are educated and from higher income families will eat better and generally have better health. Except for Arab kids, they always seem to be stuffing cream fancies into their faces when I see them.