What price school dinners?

“How much?  £450 for school dinners?”  I almost fall over with shock when the school secretary tells me how much they cost.  But £11 a week for three children adds up to £450 a term.  It’s an awful lot of money.  Can it possibly be good value?

Eleven pounds a week, or £2.20 a day, is at the high end of the scale for school lunches.  A quick twitter poll revealed that the cheapest place is Scotland, with Erica Douglas' daughter’s school charging £1.65 a day for hearty local fare.

Most schools charge around the £2 mark, some a little under, some over.  For £2.20, my children get an interesting, varied and healthy menu with favourites including chicken korma with naan bread, homemade pizza and chocolate courgette cake.  I’m not sure I could replicate the school menus for the money they charge.

The bigger picture

Siobhan O’Neill, a freelance journalist who specialises in writing about school dinners says: “I think school dinners do represent good value for money, because you have to look at the bigger picture and understand it's not just about filling your kids' bellies, it's about giving them good nutrition to ensure they can maximise their potential at school.

"Research is coming in thick and fast now from controlled studies by the School Food Trust that genuinely seem to demonstrate that children's concentration and behaviour is improved when they eat a nutritionally balanced meal at school. We all know that nutrition is important to athletes who want to perform at their peak, so why do we roll our eyes when people talk about using nutrition to help kids perform well at school?”

But surely it’s possible to provide a balanced packed lunch, for less than £2?  Jane Blackmore(@northernmum1) thinks so.  By shopping in Aldi and buying in bulk, she estimates she spends £7 per week per child.  For this, they get a tuna wrap, some raisins, half a packet of crisps in a pot, an apple, some grapes and berries, a squeezy yoghurt and a biscuit.  It’s a balanced meal and a lot cheaper than the £11 each she’d pay for school dinners. 

When talking about the price of school dinners, I think it’s also important to think about the other meals in the day.  Because my children have had a big cooked meal at lunch, I often give them something cheap and easy, like soup or eggs on toast, for their tea.  If they’d had sandwiches for lunch, I’d want to give them a ‘proper’ meal in the evening.  This makes my weekly food bills much cheaper in term time than during the holidays. Jen Walshaw (@Mum_TheMadHouse) agrees, “School dinners are cheaper for me.  My boys eat for England.”

A question of quality

Some parents choose packed lunches over school dinners because they’re concerned about what schools are serving up. Wendy Mallins (@WhimsicalWife) says “I don’t like the quality or the variety of dinners on offer”.  I’m jealous of Wendy’s children, I’d like her to adopt me, so that I can have her amazing packed lunches every day!

There’s no doubt that it’s possible to save money by giving your children packed lunches, if you shop carefully, and there are lots of great ideas for healthy and tasty alternatives to a cheese sandwich.  But according to the Schools Food Trust, “our children now benefit from some of the healthiest dinners in the world”.  For £2.20 a day, I think that’s pretty good value.

Want to know more?

Early November is National School Meals Week with lots of activities to get kids trying and learning about school food.

The School Food Trust takes you to the various studies and projects on the benefits of good nutrition at school

Change4Life has loads of healthy lunchbox ideas. 

 Photo credit: Victoria Wallop