“Leave parents to parent”: Sheffield residents give their views on calls for lunchbox bans in schools
Sheffield residents have been pretty unanimous in their views...
Former Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith has called for lunchboxes to be banned as part of wider reforms to improve school food in England.
However, Sheffield Star readers have overwhelmingly rejected the idea, with many arguing that parents should be left to decide what their children eat.
Dame Prue argued that what parents put in the packed lunches cannot be properly monitored by schools. She was also worried about the fact that many parents can find it difficult to reject their children’s requests for sweets and other unhealthy foods, describing it as “buying love”.
From September, all children in England whose families receive Universal Credit will become eligible for free school meals. At the same time, the Government is preparing to overhaul school food standards to tackle obesity and tooth decay.
We asked Star readers whether they agreed with Dame Prue, many shared their concerns on allergy, ARFID and other dietary needs.
Annike Gibson said her child has ARFID due to autism. She explained “He only eats 11 kinds of food and at times it’s hard for him to eat around other students.” She said having a lunchbox allows him to eat the food he needs to stay healthy.
Rob Woodburn said his family had no choice but to provide their child with their own food because of concerns following previous incidents involving food and allergies. He commented:“ Hopefully, the new legislation will encourage schools to take allergy management even more seriously and put appropriate safeguards in place.”
Apart from concerns about dietary needs, some parents were also unhappy with what the school menus had to offer. Paul Clarke said his son had just one sausage, some chopped potatoes and a spoonful of sweetcorn as a school meal.
“Every time both kids have school dinners they come home starving. They eat far healthier with a pack up than what they get fed at school,” said Clarke.
Leigh Gasson commented “it is human rights what you eat,” which has been echoed by many other parents.
Despite the overwhelming opposition, some readers agreed with Dame Prue, but with conditions.
“Yes but school meals need to be better, meat and two veg and a pudding,” said Kathleen Swift.
Gemma Roberts suggested: “Make school dinners free across the board and include more child-appetite friendly meals and then this wouldn't be an issue.”