foopsy

School meals in UK are fatty, sugary and salty (chips, chips , sausage rolls, chips etc...)... bad for kids.

How about in Oz?

Any comments.

Thank you.

Vash the Stampede

Australian schools do not serve meals. Children are expected to bring lunch from home.

Most schools offer a small canteen at which various foodstuffs can be purchased by students; the quality varies from state to state.

Bella Donna

Dd's school offers a *canteen* menu which they promote as being a *healthy choice*. Yes....well..... Sausage rolls, pizza slices, pasties, hot dogs, hash browns, pies, flavoured milks, flavoured waters, juices, hamburgers, *yummy drummies*, meatballs.....need I go on?

To be fair, Tuesday is *pastry-free*, and they do offer salads, sandwiches (white bread), and rolls (wholemeal or white) with assorted fillings (cheese, egg, tuna, chicken, salad) and low fat yoghurts, and bottles of water. However, all are pretty expensive for daily consumption - I know I wouldn't pay the price they charge!

My dd takes a lunch bag every day.

Sue

rossfive5

Carine Junior school do school meals. Orders have to be in for the day in the morning when they arive at school, and it gets delivered from the local deli. They do sandwiches, Cakes, Snacks, Hotfood, ie. Pies, Hotdogs, Burgers, Pizza, Lasagne, Toasted sandwiches, Soup; Drinks. So you can choose a healthy sandwich or greasy pastry.

foxall22

Please don't generalise about UK schools!

I teach in a school that doesn't serve chips or any fried foods. Fruit and vegetables everyday, limited refined carbohydrates.

We're not all bad!

Thanks,

Gemma

moneypenny20

There are new rules coming in for the tuckshops of Aus schools. It should have started last month but it's now either New Year or a bit later. They are having to remove all the rubbish and create new menu's which consist of Red, Amber and Green. Most things have to be green - very healthy, some amber - fairly healthy and a few reds every now and then - burgers etc.

The same will go for drinks - fizzy drink dispensers will go and only milk, some flavoured milks, slush puppies etc.

mysnix

Our UK school had fantastic meals, rice and pasta with stews, curries, homemade meatballs etc. baked spuds or salads .. never had chips etc. and no tuck shop, they had fruit at recess. and this was all way before the days of Jamie Oliver!

Here in Aus the recess is a snack shop, with crisps and chocolate .. and lunch is things such as sausage rolls, pizza, hot dogs etc.

My 2 now have lunches from home everyday .. I will let them have lunch from school maybe once a month or so.

A long way to go over here in my opinion!

Nikki
xx

foopsy

Sorry Gemma didnt mean to offend - just drawing on my experience of visiting around 30 uk secondary schools.

foxall22

No problem, hope you have better luck in Oz!

Gemma

NickyC

All school canteens/tuck shops in NSW have to abide by new guidelines to only offer healthy food.

http://www.schoolcanteens.org.au/med...stes_flyer.pdf

Wendy

My daughters school has a "take out" canteen type thing

If I send her to school with $5 she can get a not too unhealthy lunch and a milk drink, she goes through stages of wanting a packed lunch then she wants a canteen lunch

BTW - I saw an ad for a TV programme the other day, you'd better all hide..........






Yes you've guessed it JAMIE OLIVER is coming :scared:

Vash the Stampede

I agree that Australian schools need to improve the quality of the food offered at tuckshops, but your post compares apples with oranges.

UK schools have an entire catering facility which provides sit-down meals for students. Australian schools only have tuckshops, which are not equivalent to UK cafeterias and aren't intended to be.

sunnyj

I worked in several school canteens in England and they varied in what food was served.
The high schools had a fast food counter but there was also a healthy counter with salads and home cooked meals.
The primary schools didn't have so much junk food and we always made sure that the kids had a serving of carbs, veggies and meat or veggie alternatives.
The special schools were different again because some children were lactose intolerant or non dairy, low fat, wheat intolerant etc and chips were only served on Fridays.
I miss the kids having a square meal for what was then £1.45.
Here, it is mainly pasties, pies, pizza's etc, but they are trying to make it healthy by introducing more salads, fruits, yoghurts and low fat pies.
The trouble is my kids will prefer a burger to a salad.
The food works out expensive in my opinion here too.
They also don't give them much time to eat their food, about 10 minutes, I think in the classroom.
Now if they adopted the english way of serving home cooked foods and sat them down in the dining hall it would be much better. It would also mean I could have a job. I am a casual canteen assistant but have only been called up to do 5 weeks work since March. Most people volunteer to work in the canteens here, so there is no need to employ someone.

Julie

killamarsh

having 'suffered' the lunchbox of aus schools, it is fine, and the tuckshop was always a treat not there to feed a child lunch each day. It's not been reflected on here but Mr Oliver, some time ago thought taking a lunchbox to school was some sort of blight on a childs life and I was fuming at his offhand commet.

It's a different culture in oz, and the lunchbox rules. My view, and it's mine, is that at least I will know what my son is putting into his body. I choose school lunches at the moment as I got fed up with him changing his mind every few days as to whether he wanted school or home meals.

Jimmy Cliff

Thanks OP for this post as I was just wondering what you do for lunches (purchased meals or pack up) and was about to put thread on.

Do you have the same character type lunch boxes (younger kids) that they have over here? or is something else generally used. I wouldnt want the kids to be poked fun at for bringing in their Dr who/Dennis the menace/ whatever, lunch box etc!!

Many thanks for any replies,

Vics x