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School Dinners


Thunderbird
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Went into our sons school (he starts properly in September) today for a 'parents tasting day' of school dinners. Well impressed. All cooked on the premises using fresh stuff, locally sourced where possible, loads of choice blah blah blah.

 

Man they've come a long way since being delivered by vans in huge metal vats like at my school, where there was no choice, and you were forced (literally in some cases) to eat it, whatever it was.

 

Thinking of infiltrating the PTA and get a bit of rabbit and pigeon on the menu!

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What sort of decade are we talking?

 

I was curious too so i took a peak and he's an 80's child so i would guess through the 90's it was when meals got better.

 

I was a a 70's and school dinners sucked big time.Meals like Hungarian ghoulash which looked like cat food,pink blamange,mashed sweede-awful.

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I think that all children in school should be given a proper cooked meal at lunch time and no snacks or sandwiches should be allowed also they should have to stay in the school grounds at lunch time none of this going off to the chip shop.

 

The meals should be free to all but paid for by reducing the family allowance after all that is what it is meant for not to buy fags or boos for the parents.

 

I should add that my father died when I was ten so I had free meals at school from then on this is in the 60s and for the most part I enjoyed them and the puddings was out of this world rhubarb crumble apple pie and custard need I go on.

Edited by four-wheel-drive
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School dinners for me from 1954 onwards were really good, secondary school ones were even better, especially steak and kidney pie. Served in a big roasting tin. :good:

 

A farmer used to collect any left over's for his pigs. I once went to my lads school to try their dinners out in 1977, awful, frozen chips and something in batter :eh:

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I had school dinners from about 1974 till about 1981 and my enduring memory is that they were awful.

 

I went to school at a time of educational 'experiments' and I think I caught the first part of the cook-chill delivery meal phase (:sick:) followed at secondary by the 'everything fried' option. :angry:

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I had school dinners from about 1974 till about 1981 and my enduring memory is that they were awful.

 

I went to school at a time of educational 'experiments' and I think I caught the first part of the cook-chill delivery meal phase (:sick:) followed at secondary by the 'everything fried' option. :angry:

 

The memory's a bit hazy, but I think they must have been tailing off, as I seem to remember taking sandwiches or not bothering in the last year :hmm:

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I teach in a secondary school and I have to say that the quality is variable. My main issue is that the food is cooked and left in hot trays for ages leading to mushy vegetables and some stuff getting very dried out and it is often very bland. Wednesday roasts are good, there is always a variety of other food available (including sandwiches) and for £2.10 for a main plus pud or fruit, I think reasonable value. Friday fish 'n' chips is 'interesting' - the fish is never identified by species and is a strange grey colour. The chips are excellent though! My son never complains at the food at his school and he tells me that there are always returns for those who want it.

 

My own school in the 1970's offered three choices - hot (well lukewarm), salad or go hungry.

 

Nick

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I had school dinners from about 1974 till about 1981 and my enduring memory is that they were awful.

About the same as me...

 

Mushy peas - with hard and gritty bits in

Mashed swede & carrot - with hard and gritty bits in

Boiled potatoes - with hard and gritty bits in

Mashed potatoes (reformed boiled potatoes :hmm:?)

 

Everything seemed to be as above or boiled to within an inch of it's life :lol:

 

The stew was usually pretty good but even Tesco doesn't sell beef that tough these days. :blink: :lol:

 

Best bit was definitely the puds - rhubarb crumble a definite winner :good:

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School dinners for me from 1954 onwards were really good, secondary school ones were even better, especially steak and kidney pie. Served in a big roasting tin. :good:

 

A farmer used to collect any left over's for his pigs. I once went to my lads school to try their dinners out in 1977, awful, frozen chips and something in batter :eh:

I am with you there one thought that has occurred to me is I went to a secondary modern in a market town in Wiltshire all of the food was cooked in there own kitchen we had proper food not twizlers etc and if you did not like something you could take it back and there would give you something different.

 

All that I can say is perhaps it was different in the city's with larger schools more to cook for but in a medium size school's there is no excuse for badly cooked food if they could do it for us and as a kid I was very fussy if I did not like it it would go back but it was not often that it would happen. :good:

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The meals should be free to all but paid for by reducing the family allowance after all that is what it is meant for not to buy fags or boos for the parents.

 

 

 

That would be a fantastic idea.

 

The food has improved over recent years but the main problem is the salary offered only ever interests dinner staff, not chefs.

 

The other problem (in my school anyway) is the council has franchised out the catering, therefore the company wants to make a profit out of the kids, minimise costs.

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