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Are there any schools that do hot lunches?


alchetta

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So my DH, who was not raised in Australia, cannot comprehend that schools in Australia as far as we can tell don't do a provided hot lunch at all - it's bring your own, usually sit outside, no heating facilities unless you're in senior year and the only food to purchase is generally crap from the canteen unless your school is lucky enough to have either loads of funding or a dedicated P&F for better hot food options which are still to be ordered ahead and purchased day to day.


So tell me. In your experience, are there any schools that just provide a daily hot meal, canteen style, as part of their offering? I have never come across one, which doesn't mean that don't exist.


And yes, I know government funding would be required for public schools to be able to offer this without massive donations or fundraising!


We have two years left of childcare and I am already freaking out about making a daily nutritious meal for my DD who doesn't eat a bloody thing we make her. Are there lunchboxes now that keep food hot?!

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DH had them at his school overseas, I have heard some private have them here but generally never heard of them normally

 

Yeah some private schools do them but as a rule not usually provided.


I would look at the canteen options of the school you are considering sending your child to.


Because where my two older girls went had an extensive canteen I bought lunches for them daily via my school bag. Check out the online options too.

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Some of the big private high schools do, especially the ones with borders. DDs high school has an excellent canteen that does good hot meals. She just orders and pays through an app. DS takes a thermos flask with hot food sometimes - pasta, meatballs, chicken nuggets etc.

it’s such a cultural thing in Australia that you just take sandwiches and an apple and sit outside.

There was a trial last year in Tasmania where three schools provided hot lunches to all the kids. It was an amazing success. I heard on of the principals talking about it.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-10/students-who-get-free-hot-meals-more-likely-to-attend-school/12966772

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Never seen a school that does a hot lunch. Although canteen options are a lot healthier these days, but my kids school doesn’t even have a canteen, so there goes that option.


Lots of Facebook groups of people making fancy hot and cold lunches if you’re after ideas. My son eats for all of 2 minutes at lunch time though, before running off to play, so anything he can scoff in that time gets eaten, the rest comes home anyway. I think a hot lunch would also require the proper time to sit and eat it, which not a lot of schools do.

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Some of the big private high schools do, especially the ones with borders. DDs high school has an excellent canteen that does good hot meals. She just orders and pays through an app. DS takes a thermos flask with hot food sometimes - pasta, meatballs, chicken nuggets etc.

it’s such a cultural thing in Australia that you just take sandwiches and an apple and sit outside.

There was a trial last year in Tasmania where three schools provided hot lunches to all the kids. It was an amazing success. I heard on of the principals talking about it.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-10/students-who-get-free-hot-meals-more-likely-to-attend-school/12966772

 

I think in a lot of cultures lunch is the main meal, not dinner, so thats why they do a proper school lunch. Or local poverty means you eat at school or you dont eat at all, so its a welfare thing. Here we eat a hot dinner, and I guess our welfare is cash your parents get, rather than food.

Although, a lot of schools do a free breakfast for kids who would otherwise go without, which i think is an awesome program that all schools should do.

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Fruitmincepies

DD will eat a healthy lunchbox, but the amount of time she is willing to dedicate to eating has become almost zero. She talks to her friends when she should be eating, then they run off to play as soon as they can. Lunchboxes regularly come home almost untouched.

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Our school (small low cost Catholic) has an ELC attached and on the days that the canteen is open (Mon, wed, fri) they do offer some hot food options.

This week the options are lasagna, vege fried rice, bolognese and a vege carbonara.

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Lots of canteens nowadays do great food.


And to answer the other question, a thermos exists for that reason, to keep food warm

Edited by JRA
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Quality of the school canteens can vary a lot. For us, primary school canteen was pretty standard, lots of healthy options. Fine for a lunch, most kids get a hot meal at home for dinner.


High school canteen ,,, “cafe” ... amazing food, hot meals - curries, pasta dishes, fancy salads, lasagne, nachoes, snacks stuff, yogurts, free fresh fruit. They put posts up on Facebook showing the food, and it looks so good, it’s almost enough to tempt to volunteer in the canteen (volunteers get free food 😀)

The high school also does free breakfast in the morning - just toasties and hot milo, juice, but still food for kids who want something, open to everyone.

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Sorry it just clicked I took 'hot lunches' to be like a cafeteria type where you queue and get food and sit in a dining hall and all eat together, DS has had hot food on canteen menus but it is like a shop where you buy and take away and eat wherever - the schools have it DS gets sometimes

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I only know of one in the Sydney Met area - it's hot AND vegetarian:

https://www.johncolet.nsw.edu.au/lunch-menus/


I think it's such a lovely concept for children to sit and eat hot meals together. It feels less institutionalised. The French school meals are delightful.


It can be horrid too. Ask anyone who went to school in England. My partner lived on chip butties. :ninja:

Edited by verucasalt
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Sorry it just clicked I took 'hot lunches' to be like a cafeteria type where you queue and get food and sit in a dining hall and all eat together, DS has had hot food on canteen menus but it is like a shop where you buy and take away and eat wherever - the schools have it DS gets sometimes

 

Yep, this is exactly what I'm wondering about. I am happy to hear many canteens do better food options now, but it's just such an entirely foreign concept here for schools to have a cafeteria where you line up with a tray and all eat the same hot meal provided, you don't have to order it in advance, it's just the done thing. DH went to school in three different countries in Europe and this was how it was absolutely everywhere. He definitely still had a hot dinner at home as well as do most of our European families and friends. He still can't believe me when I say it doesn't exist here.


I need to brush up on my Thermos knowledge. Sounds like we'll be buying one of those that can take food other than just soup or liquid, I love the idea of sending warm pasta or meatballs in a Thermos.


If anyone wants to pitch their local Melbourne primary school to me based on the quality of its canteen I am all ears 😉, I just looked up a local school and it was party pies and sausage rolls or cheese and Vegemite sandwiches just like thirty years ago!!!


I love eb and all these fast replies, it's so helpful seeing all your experiences!! Thank you ❤️

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Yeah my husband in English so had the dining area at his school, I had it with my cousins in the US for a bit but my son just wanted to eat a quick sandwich and run off to play, there is no way he would have touched a thermos etc. it was a 2 minute eat quick and run to his friends job

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Guest Alias Grace

I only know of one in the Sydney Met area - it's hot AND vegetarian:

https://www.johncolet.nsw.edu.au/lunch-menus/


I think it's such a lovely concept for children to sit and eat hot meals together. It feels less institutionalised. The French school meals are delightful.


It can be horrid too. Ask anyone who went to school in England. My partner lived on chip butties. :ninja:

 


And this is the Melbourne equivalent (inner Eastern suburbs and private):


http://erasmus.vic.edu.au/school-life/meals-at-school/?_sm_au_=ij5TqLMbs0MMPSjHML8tvK34L00HF


We considered it for DD primarily for the lunches! I agree with you that it's a lovely concept for children to sit around a table with their classmates and teachers and share a hot meal,

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Our Melbourne Primary uses an outside catering company for lunches twice a week. It's Classroom Cusine.com.au. It's only cold food, but includes salads, wraps, sushi and sandwiches and more. You order and pay online.

Hot food seems to be provided at childcare but not elsewhere. We didn't have hot food in NZ schools either ( except maybe some private schools).

My thing with American school cateen thing would be food waste. The amount of food that would be wasted would be a lot.

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My son’s school does hot lunches.


You can also order dinners eg lasagne, pasta dishes etc.


This is a private Christian college with a trade school component that has a commercial kitchen.

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The schools which would seemingly benefit the most from a hot substantial meal at lunch time seem to be those less likely to have them.


One of our grand kids schools get hot meals at OOSC before and after school and they have a breakfast club. They only have canteen twice a week and it is brought in from a local milk bar.

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Hills Mum Bec

Our primary school used to have a once a week two course lunch that was cooked by the year 7 class (last year of PS in SA), it was about $40/term and wasn't compulsory. During term 2 & 3 they would also have hot lunch Wednesday when you could bring your lunch to school wrapped in foil or in a foil container and it would be kept in the pie warmer and distributed at lunch. Both options have been cancelled in the last few years due to a spike in numbers at the school it was just not feasible. School does not have a canteen but we now have the option to order a hot lunch once a week from a third party provider that delivers to the school.


High school has a canteen with a rotation of daily specials with lots of hot options and prices are pretty good. When DS was there (he turns 20 this year) they did have a microwave and kettle in each year level advisory area for students to use but about 3 years ago when the new principal started the whole structure of the school & classrooms was changed and the microwave & kettles went with it.

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Princess Peach

Our primary school offers a hot option (toasted sandwiches, mini pizzas or hot dogs), but not a full meal. DH’s high school had a decent meal offering for lunch, but they were a GPS school with a lot of borders

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I think that having a free lunch for kids each day available would be fantastic. Most Australian high schools don't even have seated cafeterias or access to microwaves etc.

If all students were able to have a nutritious meal, it would help with behaviour issues in the afternoon. It would also help minimise inequality between students.

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