General Chat

i cook meals in a primary school. recently a healthy menu was introduced and the numbers of kids staying meals dropped dramatically. my argument is on the whole they dont want healthy food. some dont even know what a carrot is. i know this will vary according to the areas that they live in but how can i make them eat healthily if they are not used to it. some dont even know what it is to have a Sunday dinner. dont mums cook anymore or is it all bought ready prepared from the supermarket. I want them to go home happy after enjoying a good meal but i get upset when i cant achieve it. what can i give them when all they really want is nuggets and chips. brenda x

Hello Brenda, I don't envy you and your job! I used to work in a nursery and here are a few tips I picked up. Puree veg and 'hide' it in meals like spaghetti bolognese, finger foods such as carrot/cucumber sticks, get the teachers involved have them discuss with the children what they would like to eat, discuss healthy/unhealthy foods,offer food from around the world one day a week e.g Chinese day, make the things they like healthier such as home made chicken nuggets and burgers ( I know this is difficult with budgets but it is possible) also maybe the children could be invited to the kitchens to 'help' cook they are more likely to try things if they have been invovled in producing it. Good luck and i'm sure all your efforts are appreciated x

hi brenda..my mum used to do the school dinners when me and my brother were little(mmmmm loved em)even though we werent well off my mum cooked sunday lunch every week and i took the same values with my own three,two of mine are faddy but the youngest eats all his veg etc,as you say its if they are not used to it,they pull their faces..mine dont eat veg because faith and regan their friends dont!! but they still get veg dished up and we sit down religiously like the waltons every sunday and they have to try and eat some.kids just want to eat rubbish but then its up to the parents to encourage the exercise and brushing of teeth etc not a solution i know but it all helps.x

My 5 year old grandaughter stays to school dinners and begs the staff for extra broccoli, carrots, cabbage and brussels sprouts. She adores salad, is not keen on chips but loves mashed potato. Hope she continues to like these foods, her friends think she is strange. Christine

Strange isn't it? i have five grandchildren aged from 2 to 16 and they all enjoy vegetables and love salads. So it must be what they are used to at home. Very difficult for you but it is the parents really who need educating. maybe one meal with chips then the next day a healthy meal. Children like dips so perhaps raw veg with dips on their plates. Ann glos

probably a sign of the times brenda,working mums are too tired to come home,and cook. think it depends on the area as well. i loved school dinners,but being brought up on a small farm,i was used to cabbage,and other veg,that a lot of todays kids wont eat. we also had a ..waste not,wont not..rule at home,if you didnt eat your dinner,it would be re-heated tomorrow! bryan..............wish you had cooked my school dinners lol.

When my son was younger there was no way would he eat veg so I used to buy chips that were made out of carrots or peas and he wolfed them down....havent seen them for ages though but they were great to get kids to eat healthier

whenever we had meals with the Grandchildren we all had to have some of everything. veg was in bowls for them to help themselves. So Nana had/has to have carrots which i don't like, Grandad has to have at least one sprout which he doesn't like, Mumhas to have sweetcorn which she doesn't like etc. After a while we realised that middle son of my daughter eally didn't like parsnips, tey made him feel ill, or bananas, so he is always excused those. But other than that there has never been any trouble with them and veg, in fact eldest preferred veg to meat and is now a non meat eater. Daughter has had to stop her youngest age 12 having school meals because he was living on burgers and chips and putting on too much weight. he now takes healthy sandwiches and they have a cooked meal in the evening. Ann Glos

hi again last day today, no more dinners to cook for a while, except at home of course. when i was a child we had very little money but mum always made us good meals. something which i have passed on to my children. daughter at uni buys loads of veg chicken potatoes and makes herself some lovely meals quite cheaply. even knows how to make soup from the bones. what do the boys do? send out for pizzas! i let the children eat what they wanted today. the best bit tho was one of the mums brought me in a prezzie to say thanks for trying to help her daughter, who is a faddy eater, by making her what she likes. i would really be in trouble with my office if they knew half the things i was up to. happy hols everyone brenda x

My 7 year old daughter is going back on to sandwiches after crimbo after a year on school dinners. She says the veg is soggy, they won't let her have vinegar on her chips(she won't eat them without), the fish is mushy and the chicken nuggets aren't breast meat. Needless to say she comes home absolutely starving! She does like healthy food (she buys raw carrots from the tuck shop) but she would also live off chicken nuggets every day if she had the option!

i steam the veg for my kids and its always lovely. a mother came in to moan at me the other day, i put out salt and vinegar on the days we have chips, and her son had put salt on his chips. she informed me she wanted the salt taking off the tables. isnt that up to her to educate her son on the perils of salt if that is what she wishes. needless to say it still goes out! brenda x