right we are all talking about how bad school meals are and i am just going to make it slightly worse.

i had free school meals through school as we has a very low income and with the token we could have what we wanted up to the value of £1:20

now you may think this is a reasonable amount for a school dinner but it is not

as the sandwiches ranged from £1:50 to £2:00 so we were unable to get sandwiches even if we wanted.

the meal deal (as it was called) was £1:40 so that was not an option either. (not that it was edable anyway it was just crap)

so what was available for students on free school meals you may well ask well the answer to that is



CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS and yes more CHIPS!!!!!!!!!!

that was all we were able to get and if we got the chips then we were able to get a drink

and i will be the first to admit for the first 2 weeks that is what i ate CHIPS because that was all i like the others was able to get and whether it was healthy or not we had to eat at dinner time.

after the 2 weeks it got to the point i would not even go for my token to get the free meal because i knew that all o could get was chips so after that 2 weeks i had nothing at school at all to eat at lunch time

so from 8 in the morning till 5 when i got home i had had nothing to eat.

we were not even able to get a peice of fruit on this token because the token did not cover fruit and to but the fruit on its own the prices were through the roof

it was like 80p to £1 for an apple £1 for a banana 90p for an orange

it was like they were becomming extinct (if that is the right word) but they were not available to us.

we could not even get water!! if we wanted water we had to pay for it and even then they only got it out of the tap.

and contrary to what people think teenagers will eat healthy if they are given the option but we was not able to on them tokens.

yes now i will occasionally eat chips and will occasionally have Mc Donnalds but i dont eat it like come teenagers do

God that's terrible people @ our skewl get bowt 1.50 put on there dinner card and they can add money to that and go back in the canteen as many times as they want they can get sandwiches fruit salad traditional meal jacket potatoe youghurts cakes all varieties of drinks

WE ARE ONLY ALLOWED TO GO IN ONCE AS THEY TOOK THE TOKEN OFF YOU

How can they justify charging so much for fruit? That is discusting.
It's not the same where I live though.

This is terrible. I can believe such a system could have existed in the US back in the days when Ronald Reagan was president but it is almost unbelieveable in Britain. Was it possible to supplement the token with cash to buy something costing more than £1.20 or was there some stupid piece of bureaucracy that prohibited mixed cash and token payments? Why was the fruit so expensive? How on earth could a school get away with charging for tap water?

no monterio the token was not allowed to br supplemented for money

and they did not like mixing tokens and money although there was 2 dinners ladies who wou accept it but the others would not

i dont know why the fruit was expensive.

and if we wanted water we had to pay for it and that was it no exceptions

quote:

Originally posted by hotgirl:

Im very suprised to hear this as I too was on free school meals and we had a meal card that entitled us to a main course and a drink or dessert, there was no monetary value placed on it though, as for charging for tap water, from what I remember there were alsways jugs of water placed on the table for us to help ourselves. Ive never heard of such a thing in any school[/QUOTE]

well it was sad at our school it was like being in the 1900 and this is what they did we had to pay for everything even salt and stuff like that

we did not get deserts on teh tokens just as i sadi before CHIPS!!

excuse me

but it is true



they made you pay 4p pre scahet of slat and the reason they did this was because of teh constant and nasty habbit of some of the boys in the school

who thouhg it was funny to spit and put other thing (ie from the nose) in the salt shaker

i did not state anything about travelling i just stated about what happened in my school!!

Our dinners are terrible

caitlyn

thats terrible, i hope the food at my old school is better than it was

i know it is chris

hte meals were as bad as you could get

unless you wanted chips that is

i'm gobsmacked. My son gets free school meals but he is only 4 just started, they have their own water bottles that they have access too all day, they get fruit/veg as a snack to get them trying different fruit and veg.

I admit i didn't know what the catering was like there before he started although i tried to find out, but i didn't sign him up for the meals until i knew what the menu was and it includes veg, fruit. I always ask him what he ate for lunch to monitor what he is eating as much as i can.

But in that token way of getting meals what are children going to choose there is no choice is there apart from chips its a disgrace

in the school where i work the tokens enable you to have a main course meal valued at 1.60 but does not entitle you to a pudding or drink but there is a water drinks machine which is free.

when i was at junior school i went home for lunch but at seniors i had a packed lunch but occasionally school meals in which i paid for and some of it was really nice and some not so nice and i think its the same as today too as there are both good and bad things on the menu,which is all due to change now to healthy dinners.
*fortells vision of great queues afoot of the burger king outlets*

we had terrible school dinners way back in the 70's and 80's but everything has improved 60%.

more choice these days. but saying that I had packed lunches or went out for lunch....

Know this an old post, but read it and shocking to read caitlyn..and so sorry you had it bad. shouldn't have been like that. I was in a similar situation but no food vouchers, and as we didn't have food money it was either walking the many miles to school or home again or having something to eat at lunchtime and many times I didn't have anything to eat at all. I did find out how much dinner would cost and more than ma could afford, but one lunchtime I had some school dessert which was rice pudding, which is filling, and then walked home after school. This was in the so called "swinging 60s".....a new happening, but no change in schools. You still went hungry in a Secondary School. But, when I was a kid in Primary School, the meals were free, and we got corned beef in a lovely tasting roll, a small bottle of milk and some fruit juice, and this was every day. This helped kids whose families weren't well off to have something to eat.

What I used to do in the Secondary School during some lunch times was to go to the cake shop and buy a small cake, then walk home after school as I'd have spent the bus money on a cake....but didn't do this every time....just when I felt I needed something, and a cake is better than nothing. From 7am to after 6pm is a long time with no food. I'd loved to have had a voucher as it would have made a big difference, but they weren't around then, or not used for people like me...or the school didn't bother with them...don't know....as everything ahd to be paid for and if you didn't have it then that was it. Not very good for school kids to starve though....but few noticed that fact.

Shocked me that you went through what I did Caitlyn...

if the schools are going to offer free meals(not just free school meals but paid for meals too)then they should make the appeal of the healthy food more appealing to eat,

[QUOTE]Originally posted by caitlyn:
right we are all talking about how bad school meals are and i am just going to make it slightly worse.

i had free school meals through school as we has a very low income and with the token we could have what we wanted up to the value of £1:20

now you may think this is a reasonable amount for a school dinner but it is not

as the sandwiches ranged from £1:50 to £2:00 so we were unable to get sandwiches even if we wanted.

the meal deal (as it was called) was £1:40 so that was not an option either. (not that it was edable anyway it was just crap)

so what was available for students on free school meals you may well ask well the answer to that is



CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS and yes more CHIPS!!!!!!!!!!

that was all we were able to get and if we got the chips then we were able to get a drink

and i will be the first to admit for the first 2 weeks that is what i ate CHIPS because that was all i like the others was able to get and whether it was healthy or not we had to eat at dinner time.

after the 2 weeks it got to the point i would not even go for my token to get the free meal because i knew that all o could get was chips so after that 2 weeks i had nothing at school at all to eat at lunch time

so from 8 in the morning till 5 when i got home i had had nothing to eat.

we were not even able to get a peice of fruit on this token because the token did not cover fruit and to but the fruit on its own the prices were through the roof

it was like 80p to £1 for an apple £1 for a banana 90p for an orange


we could not even get water!! if we wanted water we had to pay for it and even then they only got it out of the tap.

What country/city do you live in?
because i'm afraid i don't believe you!
If you live in the UK then what you have stated is untrue.
i have been in school catering for 20 years and have worked in and run both primary school kitchens and secondary school kitchens and never has a piece of fruit been that amount.
and also the tokens usually pay for a "meal" not just chips as you state,
perhaps you just didnt want the food on offer? i dont know,but dont run down school dinners just for the hell of it.
I await your answer but i doubt if you will bother

What makes anyone think they should have a choice when they get it for free, if your not happy with the menu give your child a packed lunch.


I know of many unmarried mothers, long term unemployed and single parents who are better off than many hard working married parents, because they take so many freebies.

If you want it for free, gratefully accept what you are given, or get off your backside and earn your own way. Or maybe, and i know this is a really off the wall suggestion, get the bloody fathers to pay.

well done ANNIE1...I also work in school catering where i am the manager..and this is in South East London..the meals are £1.40p a day..and they get what they want..we also provide a salad bar and fresh fruit which the kids help them selves too, also we do a veggie option..so what people are saying is wrong..the kids in our school do bloody well.They get a choice of three meals or a choice of 4 different sandwiches, a choice of 3 different desserts, or fruit or yoghurt. .

up north england , i hardly ever see anyone with anything healthy . i was talking bout it and my teacher said its cos there wasnt anything on offer . my bf is on token so i dunno how much is on it , but you get to go up once .
there are things like biscuits , chips (only allowed one potion per person) , drinks , sausage rolls , tea cakes , toast , pies . not much else , i dont know what the token can afford but hes not dieing . i personally never use the canteen , were supposed to , but its crowed and stuff ,.

quote:

Originally posted by Jan&Michelle:
well done ANNIE1...I also work in school catering where i am the manager..and this is in South East London..the meals are £1.40p a day..and they get what they want..we also provide a salad bar and fresh fruit which the kids help them selves too, also we do a veggie option..so what people are saying is wrong..the kids in our school do bloody well.They get a choice of three meals or a choice of 4 different sandwiches, a choice of 3 different desserts, or fruit or yoghurt. .

Hiya yes i also work in the SE London area, great a! haha,i'm so fed up with all this crap that is being said about school dinners that i am thinking of giving it all up.
perhaps our new Polish workers will cook something better for these idiots lunches? or better still they may even bother to cook their childrens lunches themselves???? HEAVEN FORBID!!!!!!