# Cold packed lunch or hot school meal?



## BethK

I always thought I'd give DD a packed lunch for school.

When I was growing up hardly anyone had hot school meals but now it appears to be more common.

I've been reading up and it seems better to give them a healthy hot meal to get them through the day and give them energy and help them concentrate.

So which will/are you doing and why?


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## MummyMana

I don't have a school age child yet but it completely depends on the child I think. When I was in (primary) school everything was turkey and I don't eat meat so I bought a packed lunch, my sister has just gone up to high school and there's no way she'd touch anything the school could serve up to her! 

It also depends on how nice the school's cooking is... I once saw the local primary school receive a delivery of pre-peeled frozen potatoes :/ 

When Imogen starts school I'll just see of I can get hold of a menu then ask her what she'd prefer :)


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## mummy2o

DS was on school dinner. The reason being we took him off as what they wrote down what he had, we knew he didn't eat half of it as he didn't like it. Then when he had pirates day before the end of year last year we had to give him a pack lunch. So on the final day he said 'I want a packed lunch for school' Since we already paid for school dinners for that day he had them. But this year he still wants packed lunch so he does. It works out cheaper also and worked out we spend about £1 a day on his lunch, plus we can see how much he is eating. It in the long run has worked out better for us, but it depends on the child. As of next year all children until the age of 7 get free school dinners, so that's food for thought also.

P.S. I'm just below you in Bristol :)


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## lozzy21

Niamh will be having a packed lunch. They might have made school meals healthier but the combinations my brother was having was not healthy at all. Mash, roasties, a portion on carrots and then cake or a chicken sandwich on wholemeal with some cucumber, peppers and carrot sticks on the side with a yogurt, grapes and a banana? I know what I'd pick.


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## alicecooper

mine have the hot school dinners


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## mum22ttc#3

Mine started with hot school meals but have decided that they now want packed lunches so that's what their going to have, in sure they'll change again during the year though. 

Next year when DD3 starts primary she will be having school dinners as that's what she has at nursery and loves it, plus theyre now apparently going to be free for the first 3 years :)


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## suzib76

Mine have always been allowed to choose day to day what they want


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## Natsku

Maria will be having school dinners (they're free here so I'd be crazy to pack a lunch), I like that she'll get to eat things that I won't cook at home like liver casserole so she'll get a bit more variety in her diet.


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## kerrie24

Mine do a mix,Aimee has packed lunch mon-thur but stays for pizza friday and Nathan Takes Lunch money when I have it and packed lunch when Im skint lol.


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## Vickie

They don't give food in the schools here so I always pack Hannah's lunch. I kinda like it actually. I know exactly what's going in her lunch and know what she's eating which is nice


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## LaDY

I think it is down to personal choice...when i was growing up i had packed lunch however my son has school dinners as he loves them, they are healthy...and they are not allowed packed lunch at hs school...(maybe thats why the food is so yummy!) 

Its honestly upto you...i believe that even if my son could take in packed lunch i would still probably let him have school meals as he is one of those little boys who wants the same as his friends...see you how feel and see what your son prefers xx


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## MummyJade

My daughter just started school and went and had dinner, but shes not a massive eater and found herself getting upset cos she was left at table alone.. So we moved back onto sandwiches (like nursery) and so far shes ok with them.. No upset and shes having the amount she can manage.. 

I would rather her be sandwiches as I know what she likes and shes actually eating x


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## Racheldigger

No way on this planet am I packing up three lunches every morning - we'd never get out of the house, my lunch and OH's are quite enough! You can't sign up for less than a fortnight's worth of meals at a time at Rowan's school, as the school buys them in and needs to order in advance, but you get the month's menus to look at, and if you see that there's something coming that your child can't or won't eat, you can send extra supplies in on that day. Rowan was resistant to the idea of having school meals at first, but we agreed that if she didn't like them after the first fortnight, we'd renegotiate... fortunately, 'school dinner is yummy'! I'd think otherwise if we were vegetarians, though, because the vegetarian menu looks well dreary.


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## JASMAK

No hot lunches here....they have ordered food that you can buy on occcassion, but its overpriced and junk food like french fries and gross food.


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## Mrs Doddy

Lo has hot dinners at nursery and as long as schools give healthy options I will carry that on - they are talking about them being free from next September so that's a bonus too


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## karlilay

Marinas packed lunch as she literally wouldn't eat a thing on her school menu.


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## RachA

Mine have a packed lunch. I prefer to know what they are having. 
Also my youngest is a funny eater. If she had a proper meal at lunch time then she wouldn't eat any dinner in the evening. This would totally break up family meal times and I'm a big believer in us all sitting down and eating together as often as we can.


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## amymum

Wren takes his lunch Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and he gets school lunches on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Estella just started school, but has brought her lunch most days so far. I like being able to know exactly what my kids are eating.


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## Eternal

Not in full time here yet but will be packed lunch, he prefers "picnic" food anyway and they school meals here are terrible, chips, pizza, nuggets etc. If they improve then maybe but I'm not impressed.


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## Dream.dream

Wow . You guys are luck there is a choice . Here they don't have school lunches . It has to be packed every day until high school when they have a cafeteria

I would love it if the school had hot lunches. My son use to get them at daycar everyday and he got to eat things I could never cook at home and got to try a lot of new foods . He's even ate things like butter chicken because that's what the other kids all had . 

I wish there wasa choice here , sandwiches and stuff every day really is terribl


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## lindseymw

School dinners. Joshua loves them & I can't be arsed packing him a lunch every day.

The dinners they do are relatively healthy & quite varied (my mam is a dinner lady so I know exactly what they do for dinners every day.)


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