packed lunches. How times have changed!

Greengran.... hear hear. well said! ( old school dinners)

This isnt actually a post for discussion. Just to say I think a "like" facility would be good...as on Facebook.?

Reading about all the veg sticks etc, I wonder if some of these children are getting enough carbohydrate to fill them up. They may go home hungry and eat lots of unhealthy snacks. The old cheese or ham sandwich and a piece of fruit, even if boring, might actually be healthier. (and a lot less trouble!).

Goodness true! who would have thought crisps were so bad! thanks for pointing out Esspee.

Esspee I find that hard to believe about crisps. I must Google it.

I'm sorry. I couldn't be doing with all that. My children got a sandwich and/or apple crisps biscuit. I think children are pampered nowadays. Parents giving themselves a hard time. just my opinion ?.

Greengran - same years for me. Leek roly poly, spotted dick etc.
There was no obesity problem in those days, we were too active. And we had no other choice ( rationing)..

Many more children these days seem to have allergies. One of my grandchildren suffers from severe anaphylaxis and because of this her whole family became vegan.

At her primary school the children with allergies ate their packed lunches at a special table in the dining room under the supervision of a teaching assistant. She told my daughter that the packed lunches my grand-daughter had were the most amazing packed lunches she had ever seen. It does take a bit of time and planning but it can be done.

Mind you I wouldn't have wanted the teaching assistant's job as my GC who is allergic to all dairy products, eggs and sesame could be eating a peanut butter sandwich while sitting next to a child with a peanut allergy who was eating a cheese sandwich.

My children took packed lunches to school for years and they were the usual boring stuff - sandwich, crisps, Penguin, apple.
None would ever take eggs, although they liked them, because other children would complain loudly about the smell.

When my grandsons were here at Christmas they weren't allowed any chocolate or anything unhealthy. They had fruit platters every mid morning and fresh veg with whatever for tea - particularly broccoli which they love. The elder one (4) starts big school in Aug as soon as he's 5 (NZ) and at the moment going through what they call enrichment at nursery - a program to get them ready for school. One day a week they have to take an empty lunch box and they prepare their own lunch then sit together to eat it. He's loving it. More so than his dad did - neither of mine had packed lunches - their school was only round the corner so they came home for lunch. However I've been packing my husband up for the last 5 years - if I gave him carrot sticks there would be some strong language and a lot of mickey taking by his colleagues

I can see what Greengran means. I remember the cake and custard, and other ‘ unhealthy’ food, but when I was at school there was only one ‘ fat girl’ in the whole school, yet now when I go to our local primary there are at least four in each class, despite the ‘ healthy eating’ policy, so I think it must be the reduction in activity having an effect. Or is it that we only had our three ( albeit unhealthy) meals a day, and weren’t constantly eating crisps, sweets, etc?

Apparently crisps are worse than sweets for dental decay as the little pieces which stick on to the teeth do not dissolve like sugar does so crisps are a very bad choice for lunch kits.
You learn something new every day!

How strange that a packed lunch post should arrive today. Sixth form GD is here for a couple of nights and has just started a weekend job. She was working today (and will work tomorrow). I made her egg and soldiers for breakfast and made her pack up - a cheese sandwich (wholemeal bap), mini-tomatoes, a Co-op chocolate twist, home-made lemon square, satsuma, yoghourt and a bottle of water. All eaten!

Same again tomorrow.

When her mother was in the Infants, DH made her pack-up one day. Unfortunately he didn't notice the bread was mouldy.

Well you know where you can stick your raw carrots, can't stand them. With our memories of what seem like unimaginative sandwiches, crisps, etc not many of us were obese, were we?

my daughters school bans any drink bar water no chocolate no junk food etc dont know what they would make of my friends lunch when we were at school; everyday she would bring a doorstep sandwich with tomato ketchup on and a kitkat!

When I was at school (1944 - 1955) we had a large cooked school meal and a pudding which was usually some kind of cake or pastry with custard. It was all polished off with gusto, and we were always ready for 'seconds', if there were leftovers.
Then we went out to play for the rest of lunch break. At home I had another cooked meal, usually followed by another sweet treat. Then out to play again, until bedtime. We were active all weekend. Riding bikes, running, skipping, playing ball games. We were all fit and healthy, in spite of the large amount of calories we consumed.
In spite of the emphasis on healthy eating, many schools have cut back drastically on childrens' physical activity. As a result of this, and parents being over-protective about letting their children play outside, I think that we were much fitter than today's children are.

I don't understand why primary schools are so fussy, yet in the secondary school the children are lining up for fast food outside the schools and into the town centres. No carrot sticks then by the looks.

Once I accidentally popped a can of beer into my daughters lunch box. I was possibly not quite awake and thought it was a can of pop (another lunch box sin those days).

Happily the lunch box police were not called and the teacher had a good laugh about it.

Mine less than fondly recall the homemade whole meal bread they had their sandwiches made with. “We wanted Mighty White like everyone else”. That was accompanied by the traditional bag of crisps, a piece of home made traybake cake or maybe a Penguin or two finger Kit Kat. I often added a piece of fruit which came back uneaten as it was not cool to be seen eating it. DD recalls the joy of finding a FOUR finger Kit Kat in her lunch box. Luxury!
School lunches these days are so different and mainly good with lots of choice. For that reason and to avoid all those various fiddly items, my GS has a school meal. So much easier and some social skills too!

That all sounds great apart from the Sushi. It’s crucial that is kept chilled until eaten!

This is what my friends daughter found out to her 'horror' that her own child had been doing a swop of her ''healthy?'' packed lunch for a jam sandwich, slice of cake and box of chocolate raisins.

I work in a primary school and indeed it's frowned upon to bring unhealthy lunches.Yes we just used to get the same as you mrsp but you should see the things I see in lunch boxes, so many small boxes of seperate items that sometimes the kids don't have the time to get through them all, so yes, it is the norm these days !!

I think it is brilliant that children are learning what is healthy to eat. Overweight children leads to overweight adults...

When I was at Grammar School, in the winter we would take soup or (treat!) baked beans in a Thermos. Yum!

My daughter thought it would be nice to sneak a little sweet in her 6 year olds lunch box. Her daughter went straight to the teacher and said she had an unhealthy item in her lunch box! The teacher said it was ok to eat it. Just shows how the children are programmed not to eat unhealthy foods.