Ok im totally agreeing with ashura and now im starting my own topic...
What if a kid just came back from school feeling exhausted, tired and hungry because he hadnt had a proper dinner as the dinners were disgusting, vile and non filling. So he comes back from school and tucks into his hearty curry from a take away while eating loads of poppadoms to eat from his non - filling dinner.it isnt healthy at all not ahving a proper dinner and isnt even healthier eating more junk food covering the loss. And the goverment encourage more children to join clubs and of course that burns up more energy and kids will feel even more exhausted.

Do you agree theres no point in all this?

The school dinners are not disgusting !
The only reason the kids don't eat school dinners is because most parents dont give a damn and feed their kids takaways and convenience foods because it suits their "life style"so by the time the child gets to school it has no idea as to what good food is!I'm fed up with people slagging off school meals,
Children that come to my school don't even know what the different types of vegetables are!!!because their parents have't bothered to feed them with veg,........ too much trouble.

i agree with anniex1
i saw an episode when jamie was asking young kids in an italian school the different types of vegetables and they could answer every single one yet when he had previously asked kids in an english school they had difficulty naming a leek
i have just left high school and i am disappointed that i wont be there to see what they serve up when the junk food ban kicks in my friend used to live off of a bag of chips and a bottle of coke a day (bought from school) and she became fat and got worn out easily
i think the junk food ban is a brilliant idea and will teach kids what real food tastes like and not disgusting processed foods

hiya, yes it is a good idea banning junk food.
But unfortunately what is happening now is that a lot of children who now have the healthy food at school take it from the counter but then dump it in the waste bins,So some children are actually not eating anything at lunch time,
I have been cooking for 20 years at school and have seen the changes in what children will eat ie burgers/chips etc,But am amazed at what the children do not eat ie meat pies/lasagne etc simply because they are not used to the food at home so i'm afraid that a lot of parent's are to blame for this state of affairs so as i have said before over to you parents

yep
i have been brought up with decent meals and always have vegetables for dinner or a salad or something healthy and i always have fruit for desert both my parents have encouraged me and my brother to eat fruit and vegetables and it has worked
i have had packed lunches because my mum always puts fruit and vegetables in it and no junk food
i am not big on sugary foods or drinks and that is because of the way i have been brought up
i know when i have children i will alsio encourage them to do the same
i think if children are encouraged from an early age it will stick with them throughout life

my daughters went back to school the middle of this week, so far one had to forego dinner as there werent enough portions to go round and have a bottle of water, when she complained to a teacher about the lack of food she was told it was jamie olivers fault

the other has had to throw her dinner away because the potatoes were rock solid and the accompaniment was burnt, she did have a bit of sweetcorn tho, there was no pasta as that had run out before she got served.

theyre both in secondary school.

both of my kids have been brought up to know and eat their veggies and fast food is a treat not a staple.

while i understand that some schools and dinner ladies are brilliant and dishing up great food there are places that are really falling short.

is there anyone that actually spot checks schools at dinner times to make sure theyre meeting standards?

i can see where you're coming from annie, it must be frustrating for you too

i asked my youngest who started secondary school this week what day she'd be having cooking lessons but apparently theyre off the menu.

my oldest used to have cooking lessons at school until the courses she chose didnt include them.

i've made sure my girls have been taught to prepare and cook food from scratch at home, starting from when they were weeny, but there must be a lot of kids that will never see a mixing bowl or learn to use anything but a microwave, never mind recognise their veg or any meat unless it comes in the shape of a burger sausage or nugget.

Hiya yes it is frustrating for myself and other cooks and dinner ladies.
I cook all morning really lovely food and it just goes into the bin!
In my area we are constantly monitored to make sure the standard of food is kept high.
but to be honest most dinner ladies love to see the children enjoying the food they have spent time cooking,It makes the hard work all the more worthwhile,but as i said the children have been bought up to believe that to go to Macdonalds etc is a treat and therefore something they want all the time.
I'm not sure this way of thinking will be able to change while the parents who are irresponsible let their child eat what they want at home because they can't be bothered to cook after a "hard days work" so they moan and bleat and make it someone elses resposibility.
I have seen what some parents put in the childs school pack lunch box my god you would be shocked! yesterday a poor child have 2 cream cakes in it nothing else!!!
Today one child had hoola hoops and a cake,what makes me laugh is i always give these poor children bread if i am asked to just to fill them up Honest!
I know some of this stuff i have said sounds unreal but it is happening right now!
anyway going back to your question about who checks up on the dinners in all the schools OFSTED will be including school dinners in their reports from now on.

well so u think we should just keep goin the way tht were goin and end up with alot of health problems, at our school we eat the healthy food with the vegetables and barely anything goes in the bin but when we had unhealthy food we would chuck it in the bin cause we would find pieces of fat and things in everything, it's much better now and jamie oliver is doin a gr8 job. i dont go 2 a school in england it's in scotland and i think the meals are different here

Yes there is, kids need better food at school if all their parents are giving is junk.

My 13 yr old came home the other day complaining that she was on 2nd dinners and wasn't able to get anything as ther was nothing left, I am going to write to the school as I think there should be enough food for all the kids that want it, there were only sandwiches left. She has started to eat healthy food more and loves pasta,tuna and things like that but if is on the menu and not enough made for the numbers of students it is a sad reflection on our school dinners, not enough money is being put into them.

I hope the dinners at my 4 y old son's school will have vastly improved too. As it has no on-site kitchen, dinners are cooked and bought in resulting in food looking un-appetising. He is used to cooked food and he loves veg, I do not want to start packed lunches.

Thing is its very difficult to judge how many children will eat each type of food,and a certain amount of each food has to be cooked.
i have 2 vegetarians in my school but i have to cook more just in case anyone else wants it.each cook is on a budget of 65p per meal thats for the main meal all the veg including the carbohydrate option ie potatoes/pasta etc and the pudding ie apple/cake/yoghurt now a piece of fruit is at least 17p so that leaves the cook 48p for the complete dinner the meat pie the 2 veg and the mash/gravy can you cook a meal for that amount at home?it's very difficult to get the balance right, if your child is at the end of the queue then i'm sorry but it's not the cooks fault that he would have whats left.
It's not a 5* restaurant at the end of the day and until parents are willing to pay a realistic price for the childrens food then where you are in the queue will continue.
cooks are under pressure from our various employees to stick to the 65p per meal and if we dont basically we would lose our jobs.

The majority of the time when kids come home and say there was nothing left, what they REALLY mean is that there was nothing left that they liked. Totally different things.

Exactly
If a child was hungry he/she would soon eat!