Ok - I'm p*ssed off.. this probably belongs in 'venting', but I'm interested to see what you all think:

Our daycare centre currently provides lunches. They dont provide mornign or afternoon tea - so we have the pain-in-the-butt task of filling lunchboxes with suitable snacks and then filling the dishwasher with a gazillioni little plastic tubs at the end of the day!...

Anyway - recently they wrote to us saying (and I'm paraphrasing) "Due to a number of complaints that our lunches are not wholy organic, may contain too much gluten, lactose or other commonly found ingredients we have decided to cease the provision of lunches".

Lunches used to be a varied rotation of balanced meals, pastas, vegetable bakes, fruits etc etc... Now things will go downhill:
1) The rush to prepare the school bag will get WAAY worse
2) The quality ofthe food provided will be WAAAY worse
3) The amount of staff time dedicated to food prep instead of childcare will surely go UP as opening 30 lunchboxes and retrieving and serving the wide variety of lunches will surely be harder work than delving out the same dish to 30 kids?!

Is it right that these vocal food-people should be able to spoil it for everyone else?

(I have absolute sympathy for the CC director who has had to endure their complaints - so can completely understand her position!)

This also happened at my DD kindy aswell. So I began sending her with lunch./ Last week another note came home saying we were not allowed to send Chocolate yogurt, some biscuits, and various other things as well and I was furious. It is a struggle to pack her something she will actually eat that is on thier list of what she can and can't take.

Sounds like a few parents have gone a bit OTT.

So if you are packing the lunches yourself now, why will the quality go down? Can't you pack healthy stuff? Sorry I'm a bit confused by that comment.

Try packing the lunches the night before, it is so much quicker and easier than trying to do it on the day.

No - now we pack morning and afternoon tea - lunch is provided.
in future we will have to provide lunch too.

IMHO - a hastily packed cold lunch can never meet the same standard as a wholesome cooked meal.


Haa!! very funny!!.. but I dont think I could manage the guilt of removing another skilled midwife from the already small workforce struggling to look after the wonderful pregnant women of Brisbane

It's not hard to pack a sandwich, some fruit and rice crackers. They're kids for gooness sake - they don't need a three course meal for lunch

It should only take you a couple of minutes a day to spread some vegemite on some bread......

yeah - you've never met my daughters have you? They have voracious appetites and can be very demanding when it comes to the quantity of food they require!

Pack lunches the night before, so much easier.

Stop and think why some parents might not want lactose/gluten etc in their childs lunches, it may not be a health kick thing but an intolerance/allergy thing.

Once children attend school you have to pack lunch every day anyway.

If your child was at home and not at daycare you'd be making lunch anyway.

What's the big deal?

well that depnds on how many lunches you are making doesn't it.

I make three and they are all different. I am sure DH would not survive on what I pack for the kids, and both kids have different lunches due to dietry needs. I do make mine at night because I simply would not have time in the mornings to do them. However this is not practical for all people either.




edited to add




if thats the case, then why does the rest of the kids haveto conform as well, wouldn't it be a whole lot easier for those parents to pack special lunches for the kids?

Dont schools have a kitchen/canteen/cafe? any more??
I had hot food for lunch at school every day until about yr8


So many plastic tubs, so little time... and so little space left in the school bag! Pretty soon DD#1 is gonna need a 65lt rucksack just to carry food and a spare set of clothes to CC!

Their tiny bellies are so small - they don't need a huge amount of food to sustain them.

Send them with a vegemite/jam/cheese sandwich, two pieces of fruit, some plain rice crackers and a packet of sultanas or tub of yoghurt. That is more than enough.

Children today are give WAY too much - it sets them up for eating problems down the track.

You're not in the UK now DadAgain

I love the fact that I only have to send a piece of fruit to pre school with DD. If I had to make her lunch and was given a list of what she can and cant take, I would tell them to stick it.

What I find interesting in this though, is how they are going to control the food intake of kids with allergies. All kids share their food, especially at this age, and it will be a might big task for the teachers to be making sure there are no food exchanges happening.

I know at DD's pre school, there are a few kids with different allergies, nuts, eggs etc. All food is prepared accordingly, ie, they don't use anything that any child may be allergic to in any meals. They go sa far as to not allow parents to bring in a cake for their child's birthday, we pay $3.00 to the school and they bake and decorate a cake especially. (I love this idea)

Dadagain, I wonder how much thought they have given to the allergy issues?

I'm with you - that sounds bloody annoying.

I suspect the creche is just trying to get out of running a kitchen rather than trying to meet the needs of organic parents.

I don't see why they can't make an organic, vegan meal all the children can eat anyway. It will be sure to be healthier than what parents provide.

TheCrone, I don't know where your kids go to school, but at my bigger kids canteens, they can and do buy hot food everyday. It is available, before school, they do breakfast both hot and cold, recess and lunch. All food is healthy, as in low fat etc. My kids would never cope if they couldn't get a hot lunch during winter

DadAgain, DS's centre has always had the parents send the lunches in - there are no proper kitchens (just microwaves and fridges in each room).


As DH and I took in packed lunches anyway, adding in one other lunch was not a big drama.

DS usually has leftovers from the night before that get heated up. Occasionally he gets a big sandwich. Plus yoghurt, rolled oats and fruit in a tub (as we make our own yoghurt), crackers with cream cheese and sultanas, cheese cubes and olives/a small ham and cheese sandwich.

It takes me a maximum of 10 minutes to assemble that each night (DH and I have the yoghurt tub too) and a mere minute or two to put it in a bag the next morning. The centre provides fruit for morning tea.

I like it because
1. it's cheap
2. it's easy
3. I don't have to stress about DS accidentally being given somethinng he's allergic to
4. DS being given stuff I would think is too processed/junky/sweet

Our centre also has rules about what we can send in:
no chips/lollies/chocolatey museli bars/fizzy drinks/sugary cordial etc (they provide water and milk)
no nuts
pies/pizza/fried goods to be a very rare thing

Julie, who is stunned at the number of Aussie parents who think a vegemite sandwich is an adequate lunch when it's really better as an afternoon snack!!! (Oh, and was also stunned to hear two parents say that they liked their kid's centre being catered as 'at least that way X gets one good meal a day' )

Do you get a reduction in fees?

Sorry but what a f'ing lame OP. I would also state that I would like the "nazi" word removed too....this is a blanket rule on EB to the best of my knowledge. I (in a roundabout way) resent being referred to as a "food nazi" on the back of my kid having a disease in relation to food - no coeliac is not an allergy but indeed a disease., google it for some education. Do you think Mothers like myself enjoy having appointments with Directors of childcare centres on the back of their childs strict dietary requirements - hell no! My kid didn't ask for it and for that reason alone I refuse to let her be victamised because of it.

Quit whingeing *** and be glad you have such perfect girls with such voracious appetites _ I would kill for one of them. This is all about tollerance and understanding and parents bending a little for other parents in order to help their kids.

Get up 5 mins early and make them their own hot lunch if it's that important to you ~ you may have had hot meals everyday until Year 8 but I certainly managed to survive on whatever my Mum threw in my lunchbox, and I assure you it wasn't bloody hot either.


Dani...has a bee in her bonnet about ignorant people today!

Do people really have their kids eat at the school canteen every day??

*shock*

I think mine has had it twice in the last 12 months.

How hard is it to make lunch?

Oh, and DA, surely sending in a packed lunch has to be better than the overboiled veggies and tapioca that you and I probably got for school lunches in the UK?!

ETA, because I just saw Anna's post - Anna, in the UK it was very common for children to get hot meals at school. Until the mid 80s, they actually did meet strict nutritional standards and were a good way of encouraging good table manners. At my primary school, a senior child or teacher would help serve the little ones and help with those who still weren't great with using cutlery. And we'd help to clear the tables and learn not to reach over to get the salt etc. Have a squizz at what the Japanses do for their school lunches - canteen doesn't have to mean chips and burgers.

CC a vegemite sandwich, piece of fruit and bottle of water is more than enough for a 3 yo for lunch They don't need a hot meal - they get that in the evening.

\
I have to agree

Yes Anna, mine do. They prefer it, it is pretty uncool in high school to take your lunch. I know they get healthy foods, because none of their schools serves junk, they aren't allowed.

Nope, it's not hard to make lunches, I do it for DH, but my kids prefer to buy it, it's no skin off my nose.

CC, I didn't see anyone post....

Dani, I cant even see it??

Not all schools do. The one I used to work at (before I became a SAHM) didn't have tuckshop. There was the building but Parents have to run and there was no one to do it. They did have a sausage sizzle one day per week.

I think it would end up quite expensive if your kids are buying lunch everyday at school.

Do you have to pay for school lunches in the UK?

My kids prefer lots of things. Doesn't mean I give in

Absolutely Anna! For us, canteen was a treat - not a staple.

It doesn't mean I give in. Like I said, it's pretty uncool to take a sandwich and a tub of yoghurt to high school But hey if you're happy to send your kids off to school with a packed lunch every day, good for you. Doesn't mean everyone else should/has to do it.

Ok - so your child has special dietary needs - is that a reason to deny the entire community? I'm sure it would be acceptable for some kids to 'opt out' of the provided food.

There are all sorts of special needs out there and whilst I agree tolerance and understanding should be encouraged, I'm not sure that 'repressing the masses' to satisfy the needs of the few is a good way to achieve that? Surely promoting coexistence is a beter way of achieving understanding and tollerance?

I'm sorry your children have dietary issues - but they WILL learn to exist in a society where not everyone shares their condition. Simply expecting everyone else to fall into line to match your expectations and your needs seems an over-simplistic and unrealistic solution to the problem.

Plenty of things are "uncool" in high school.

Whats the difference between taking a sandwhich and buying one at the canteen. Bar the "coolness" factor.

Wow, think of the things it could teach kids!

Dad Again, sadly there aren't many child care centres in Brisbane that I know of that serve lunch. Most of them you have to provide your own lunch. I am lucky to be sending my dd to a centre that does serve lunch but if they didn't , it honestly wouldn't bother me because I care more about the quality of care than a hot lunch for my dd.

Put it into perspective, even if they don't provide food a centre with good staff, who you trust and who your children love, is worth it's weight in gold.

Hayley

If its truly at a risk to other children in regard to gluten/alergies and the like then the sensible thing would be for the creche to cater for the kids, as once its put in the parents hands you will get ones who will send items that are on the 'not permited' lists.

My sons daycare provides morning tea, lunch (yes a cooked one) and afternoon tea. they also provide an additional late snack for kids who are there later and breakfast for kids who are there earlier in the morning. They provide the option of water or milk for drinks and they have lists in each room for all the kids with allergies and they cook for them accordingly. doesnt seem too hard really, when I worked in a creche it was the same.

As for a vegemite sandwhich and an apple being ample to send for lunch for a 3yr old i can say it wouldnt do my 3 year old boy. He is very active and eats a bit. Maybe 2 vegemite sandwhiches and an apple and a banana would do him.

I know it was asked, but I haven't seen it answered (though I could simply have missed it).

Is the centre going to reduce fees? If lunches were included in fees, then parents are entitled to request a reduction.

When they do buy sandwiches, they like salad, I don't know about you, but I don't really like soggy sandwiches that have been banging around in a lunchbox for a few hours. So I would rather they bought something that they like and will enjoy, and know they have eaten, than for them to throw out the soggy sandwich and go hungry. I suppose that's the difference between you and I though.

Yes, lots of things are uncool at highschool, but if my kids buying their lunch is one less thing for them to worry about as far as being cool and fitting in, then I am happy for them to do it.

Given the amount of food that my almost 16 year old son eats, he would need a whole other bag to carry it in, not just a lunchbox

I hear you, DadAgain.

The pre-school at our school (NSW here) does lunches for the kids and I loved having one less lunch to prepare. It was the only thing I was sad about when the youngest moved up to kinder.

I also see your point - that those who were unhappy with what was provided could have been the ones to make the change, rather than everyone being asked to.

It doesn't appear to be an allergy issue, or the note would most likely have said so.

If you want them to continue having a hot lunch, thermoses are good.

Dad-Again - I hope they are going to reduce your day care fees!!!!???! Now that they don't have to pay a cook, more cleaners & for food etc!
Was that even broached on your note home? I doubt it!

Ahhh! See, I don't make soggy sandwichs! Probably why my kids have no such issue


That's really sweet of you Nicole. I prefer my kids to be proud of who they are, not having to buy their lunch so they fit in. But to each their own

Fair enough Susan - some children obviously have greater appetites. I'm jsut trying to highlight the importance of not overfeeding our babies with hot meals and excess snacks - a couple of extra pieces of fruit/vegies is not going to harm them

One of the biggest factors contributing to the obesity in our society is the quantity we are eating in conjunction with the quality. eg I rarely eat take away but my extra kg's can be attributed to an oversized pasta bowl - full of healthy nurtrients but a lot more than I really need IYKWIM

FWIW - The issue of fees has not yet been addressed.

I can see that they could drop since they are no longer porviding food - or they could go up since now they have to open 30 different lunchboxes and sort them out which has to use MORE labour than simply serving up 1 dish to 30 kids....

Either way I'd be happier to pay $10 extra a day and have both my girls fed with than have to organise and provide it ourselves!

(Anyone of you who think its "sooo easy" want a job $20 a week to prepare and deliver enough healthy nutritious and varied food to satisfy a 3.5yr old and a 1yr old to a CC in Brisbanes inner-west on Thu & Fri every week? )



(yeah I hear the obesity argument - but this appetite thing seems to be genetic - I've always eaten a frightening amount and struggled to stay above 'minimum' healty weight until I hit 30 - I'm not overly worried about the girls eating too much!)

I know, thanks. But that's just the kind of mum that I am.

see but thats actually more of the problem. Much research indicates we should really be eating a larger meal earlier in the day and a smaller one for lunch. We have it all backwards. So a hot lunch of significant size and a msaller dinner is really the ideal and tends to be what my kids naturally do.
I on the other hand tend to still eat biger dinners as it is how i was raised.

LOL, Can't wait to hear what you say to them when they want a piercing/tattoo/bottle of vodka to "fit in"

Yes I did understand that I was meaning now that you'll have to pack them, what do you mean Surely it's not hard to make a healthy lunch ***. If you want them to have a "hot lunch" then give them dinner leftovers in a sandwich or something.

ETA - Are you serious? imagine the cost!

Absolutely agree. Large breaksfast and tapering meals through the day is the ideal.

Oh Anna, you're about as funny as a funeral

Oh OP! I am sooooo with you!

Both DH and I work and it is an absolute weight off us that our son's before school care provides breakfast - either cereal, toast, baked beans, cooked eggs etc... sure sure I COULD get up half an hour earlier and wake DS at 0530 on a wintery morn to give him breakfast myself... but I can tell you that is the last thing either of us want to do when I am working a late-early shift (finished at 2330 the night before, starting again at 0700)... that extra 30 minutes sleep is a godsend and I am reasured that DS is getting a nutritious breakfast!

Boosmum, it's the fact that it's a vegemite sandwich, not that it's a sandwich that I have the issue with. DS does get sandwiches - but they have ham, cheese and tomato, or chicken and caponata or simliar in them. Just vegemite seems a bit meagre and not very nutritious for the main part of their lunch. I'd have the same issue with jam/nutella/peanut butter sandwiches.

Nicole, this was something I heard IRL (about getting one decent meal a day).

Oh PLEASE That is the lamest reason I have read in a long time. Kids have to do plenty of things that aren't "cool", it's part of life!

Salad sandwiches - put the salad in a container and the bread seperate. It takes 30secs to make up at lunch time. Or is that not cool?

You said:



No need to feel sorry for my kid coz she can't ingest gluten (which means wheat, barley, rye & oats ++++) but like I suggested you Googling coeliac disease because you'll learn it's a shedload more than a "dietary issue" - it's a freaking disease, derrr!

Now DA - go and read my post, again. If you're going to be saying 'sorry' for anything let it be to me for not reading my post correctly! As you're such a huge fan of the [quote] feature here how about you quote where I said I expect to 'repressing the masses' and 'expecting everyone else to fall into line to match your expectations and your needs '. Walk me through where I said that? Humour me.



Right now you've worked out that's not what I said at all, what my post was about was your ignorance and tone (and petty gripe should the truth be known.)

If my 3 yr old attended the CC that your girls go to the ONLY reason for any appointment I had with the Director would be to ensure that a staff member observed my child whilst eating...meaning they all sit around (like they do) and be overseen by a member of staff. That's all I would be asking for. Over my cold dead body would I trust a CC canteen to cater for my childs meal - I'm the mother, that's my problem. So for that exact reason I wouldn't be one of the parents that are complaining at your CC, I would have always run my race with my childs lunchbox so what gets done in the kitchen is of little interest to me.

You to me are one of those Dads that if your 3 yr old had an airborne anyphylactic peanut kid (for example) in her class you would begrudge not being able to maybe smear that mornings toast with peanut butter for DD, the whole while thinking "Sheesh why should *I* have to care because some kid could die if my DD breathed on him/her" and for that reason alone people like you infuriate me. It's ignorance and quite simply put it's dipping well laziness! I'm not in agreeance that the kitchen ban hot lunches on the back of allergies/intollerances ~~ I never said that, ever!


To the PP that couldn't find the word "Nazi" - it was there but clearly mods have (rightfully!) edited his title as well as content of his OP.

Nicole - I hear ya on the tuckshop thing too...but my reason is different. Now that Mac can't have 'normal' bread IYKWIM I no longer keep bread in the house - my waistline loves me for it. LOL That means I'll order Em's lunch at the canteen (therefore supporting the fundraising efforts of the school and providing full-time employment for the Manager of the tuckshop!!) so bread doesn't live here and if it doesn't live here I can't eat it, I'm a carb queen after all. ROFL So a win/win for us really.....Em gets super fresh sannies everyday (although today she took last nights roast pork & roast vegges, YUM!) and she gets a nice variety. Also one day a week they do hot lunch (pizza) and I let her have this as they're healthily made and that's another meal we don't have here because of Mac IYKWIM? Nothing wrong with supporting the tuckshop my girl, like I said win/win all round.

I am slightly perplexed here.....

Who cares if someone's kids buy their lunch everyday? Seriously? Does it impact on your lives? Does it make me a bad mother?

I can honestly say I really can't see my kids sitting in the playground, taking out their little containers of individually packed salad items, and laying them ever so neatly on some bread and proceeding to eat them, hillarious Oh you have a lot to learn about teenagers

I hae 2 school age boys they get last night's leftovers for lunch (they eat more at lunchtime and like cold food anyway). Out of the fridge and into the lunch box.

We also have a compulsory fruit snack we have to provide which can be fresh, packaged or dried fruit. Normally my boys have Goulburn Valley fruit tubs. As they are bigger they also have a muesli bar/cake/biscuit with vegimite etc and a tub of yoghurt. The lunch box is an insulated bag and we send an ice brick in it in summer.

I hope that helps with some quick and easy ideas DA.

As a 3yo DS was having a 2 course lunch every day and morning and afternoon tea. If I had sent a sandwich, a piece of fruit and water I would have had a very upset little boy at pick up time both tired and hungry.

BTW my son's preschool banned any food from being brought into the centre due to food allergies/restrictions of some of the children (one mother was told no to providing a bowl of boiled rice each day). The reasons your centre is giving don't make sense to me, surely they would want to prevent banned food from coming in rather than encouraging everyone to make their own choices. Sounds more like a lie to cover a cost cutting exercise than anything else!

Well when your kids go to school, you'll find you have to make them lunches anyway. Where my kids go to school (primary), their canteen is only open two days a week. They have also changed the "official" name of recess to "Fruit break" and they are supposed to take fruit and not muesli bars or those sort of things. To make it easier, they have an ongoing competition where they get a class trophy that goes to the class who has used reusable containers, taken fruit, not wrapped their sandwiches in cling wrap etc. I used to give my kids muesli bars or other snack bar things etc because they refused to eat fruit. I thought it was a bit harsh that school would now be "judging" students for having these snacks. I guess I'm lucky that they now eat fruit.

I think by law now, preschools and daycare MUST keep lunches bought from home in a fridge (at least the preschool that DS's went to did), so you could at least pack things like a yoghurt or salad or something. Check with your daycare if they do this.