Parents could spend almost eight days a year making packed lunches for their children if they want them to meet the same healthy standards as school meals.
Figures from the School Food Trust – the organisation responsible for the transformation of school food and food skills – estimate parents who want to make packed lunches which meet the same nutritional standards as healthy school meals could put in between 50 and 190 hours of total preparation time across the school year.
The estimates – based on the Trust’s sample menus for packed lunches that meet the same standards as school food – come as parents consider their lunch options for the new school year.
Chef and Trust Chairman, Rob Rees, urged time-poor parents to consider the hours they could save by signing up for school lunches.
“All parents want their children to eat well at school, but by the time you’ve got them off to bed in the evenings the last thing you feel like doing is heading back into the kitchen to create a really decent packed lunch,” he said.
“Our menus suggest that filling a lunchbox with foods that meet the same standards as school meals can take a lot of effort – and that’s before you add in the time it takes to shop for ingredients.
“School meals take away that hassle – you can rest assured that your children are choosing from a tasty, balanced menu and save yourself hours of precious family time.”
Since the introduction of standards in schools the average meal is designed to provide children with the energy and nutrients they need – about a third of their daily intake.
The national, mandatory standards for school food include making sure that a portion of fruit and a portion of vegetables or salad are available for every pupil eating school meals every day.
Foods such as meat products and starchy foods cooked in fat or oil are restricted, and foods such as crisps, confectionary and sweetened drinks are no longer provided.
The average meal is now designed to give pupils the right mix of energy and nutrients – with minimum levels of carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals such as calcium and iron, and maximum levels for fat, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar.
For those parents who prefer packed lunches, the Trust provides low cost, low effort and vegetarian sample menus which can be used to give children a healthy balanced meal.
There is also advice to help parents find out if their child is eligible for free school meals and how to apply.
