School Lunches: US vs UK

As my daughter was telling me last night that she had roast potatoes, baked beans, and fruit for lunch I found myself wondering if she would have found it easier to eat the school lunches in the States. She's in a phase of selective eating, so I'm not sure it's a fair comparison for anyone right now, but it did make me wonder. My sons say that the meals in the States were better, but they like that they get dessert sometimes here. Plus, they miss being able to eat breakfast at school (only because they got sugary breakfast bars).

Here's a rundown:

• UK Lunches: A main course, a vegetarian option, pasta/jacket potato (baked potato), side of vegetables/rice, dessert or yogurt with fruit.
  • They rotate through the same menu every three weeks for an entire term and then switch it up. So, if there is something your kid doesn't like, it's going to come back to the menu every third week no matter what. This is also probably true in the States just not in a deliberately organized fashion.
  • They do NOT serve milk with lunch. You can get a cup of water.
  • In all London boroughs, lunches are currently free. There are no student numbers to memorize. We can give a voluntary donation at the beginning of each term.
  • There is a breakfast club at the school, but it comes at a cost and is used by working parents who need to be at work earlier than the school drop off time (which is quite late here - 8:50 AM). Otherwise, kids are expected to eat breakfast at home.
  • You choose either school lunch or packed lunch for the WHOLE term at the beginning of each term. If you choose school lunch, it is extremely frowned upon to then bring a packed lunch some days.
  • The school provides a morning snack for all kids in Reception-Year 2. It is a vegetable or fruit. On my daughter's first day of school they gave the kids slices of tomato. Needless to say, she came home a little bit hungry. She likes cherry tomatoes, but this was apparently a big tomato cut into wedges from my understanding. From year 3 and beyond they bring their own snacks, but it can only be fruit, vegetable, rice cake (don't get me started on the fact that they deem a rice cake healthier than cheese or meat).
  • No nut policy.
  • The kids all go out for midday playtime at the same time and then cycle through who goes in for lunch. For example, the year 2 kids go in for lunch and then back out to play while the year 3s come in to eat, and so on. This is actually really nice because then all my kids get to see each other during the day which has been helpful for my youngest.

• US Lunches: A main course, a vegetarian option, sometimes a third option, and our school had a salad bar every day.
  • Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday seemed to follow the same cadence (i.e hot dog this Wednesday, hamburgers the next one, repeat until eternity) with Tuesdays and Thursdays being the wild cards.
  • You can decide each day whether you want school lunch or packed lunch.
  • When we left Colorado, school lunches were still free. That may have changed since then. The kids still had to memorize their student numbers to give to the lunchroom helpers when they went through the line.
  • Milk was served at lunch every day.
  • Breakfast was offered free of charge to every student. My kids loved that. Honestly, they would eat at home and then eat again at school. I wasn't terribly thrilled about it because it was generally just a baked good or carbohydrate of some sort each day, so I usually forced them to eat some protein and fruit/veg at home first.
  • The kids could bring whatever they wanted for a snack and they needed two snacks a day.
  • No nut policy.
  • Playtimes were staggered by age groups throughout the day with no overlap. Honestly, can't remember if they went before or after lunch for this.

They really aren't that different to be honest. They are way stricter about things here in London. I think it does take the younger kids a little bit to get used to the snacks and the meals. They eat a lot of pasta and potatoes which isn't my favorite, but it's nice that they have that option every day instead of kids just choosing not to eat because of a dislike of the offered food.

I guess if I had to choose a winner, I would say the US meals were better with more variety, but I'm sure that is absolutely location dependent, here and there. And I really appreciate them getting to bring more variety for a snack. For growing kids, sometimes an apple just doesn't cut it for the whole day. Most of the time my kids are ravenous and hangry when they get home from school. I've learned to come armed with food when I pick them up, and sometimes that doesn't even fend off the meltdowns. They occasionally do an informative talk for the parents about the school lunches. Next time they do, I'll try to snap some pictures of the food options.

And who am I to talk and judge - I literally just ate some refried beans with cheese on them for lunch because all my meal prep effort goes into dinner not lunch.

AND, thank goodness school lunches have improved since I was a kid. Anyone remember the mashed potatoes that were so sticky you could put your spoon in them and pick up your whole tray?