Credit to the government is due. There was significant pushback even from the schools.
I fully support it but they may want to focus on quality next… I was surprised to see “pepperoni pizza sub, chicken goujons and wedges” etc, just fast food oven stuff? The other schools seem to have better meals, so that’s good, although half of them don’t seem to have any vegetables?
Fair dues. Nice to think some kids are getting a proper meal that wouldn’t otherwise. Great use of taxes.
Ours is great – school fitted out a room to serve as a kitchen, kids seems to love it.
Suppliers vary from school to school and I’ve seen some of the food online and it does indeed look like aeroplane food (i.e. overly processed/packaged, shite).
Our school doesn’t have it yet so I’m kinda jealous. Hopefully they’ll get them in the next round of funding
It’s a waste of resources. Certainly it’s a good idea for children living in poverty or for whatever reason aren’t being fed properly at home. However, for most children there shouldn’t be a need for this, packed lunches should suffice.
Think of all the resources required to transport these lunches around every single day to schools all over the country. Think of the traffic, the fuel consumption, the expense and so on as a result of this, I would prefer to see scarce resources put to better use, such as better facilities for disabled children and those living in poverty.
I’m guessing this will be heavily down voted, but the opportunity cost of such initiatives should always be considered and whether the marginal benefit justifies the cost.
Halal option? Interesting.
Very unpopular opinion but I like Harris the stuff he did as higher education minister was amazing made it way easier to get stuff done then refund on college contribution the thresholds of susi increasing they were all massive helps. He also advocated for Susi being better run and easier to get on the phone I know this doesn’t affect alot of people but god dammit does it help.
My kids school has grown so big from the original building one of the largest in Ireland, there is no area for them all to eat. They all go into the town for food. They would have to build a massive cafeteria for 1500 kids. Hopefully they can sort something out as hot food in school be great.
You guys get lunches?
There’s a fair amount of waste with it. There were plenty of contractors offering to do it in-house with a kitchen setup, plate it up with reusuable cutlery but most schools went with the mass oven airplane-type meals instead.
Recently became a parent. We did a ‘pre-birth cooking class’ as we were so nervous and wanted to learn as much as we could about how to be a parent! About 2 minutes into the Zoom, we realised that it wasn’t so much about how to cook for babies, it was about how to cook in general. They were explaining how to peel potatoes and boil them. It really hit home that a lot of kids don’t get a great start in life – A lot of children do not get the same opportunities as others.
Well done to the Green Party for getting this over the line. I wasn’t their biggest fan when they went into government but, and not just because of this one thing, will be voting for them in any/all upcoming elections. Also, fuck the shit-rag tabloid newspapers such as the Irish Independent, the Sun, The Daily Mail, etc who make every negative issue in the country the fault of the Green Party.
Moved over from England 4 years ago, school dinners were free and high quality. The best thing was that my daughter would eat things at school that she would refuse to eat at home.
Living on the west coast now with three kids in school and I have to spend upwards of half an hour a day making pack lunches that are nowhere near as good as a cooked meal(and my kids have come home with certificates because their lunches are so healthy). Honestly as a parent I would be willing to pay so my kids could have a cooked school dinner and I think most parents would too, and if I had to pay a little more so a kid whose family can’t afford it can eat for free so be it.
Our school started them a few weeks ago and I’ve nothing but praise for the programme.
We’ve been blessed to have this service in our kids school. I still send a lunch every day, but just knowing they’re having proper food is amazing. Love that we can pick from a menu – we change it up every month!
Our supplier recently sent out feedback cards to us, they’re coming in to talk to the kids too and the overall consensus is to add more veg into all dishes (without compromising the ones who may have sensory issues etc). So just such a positive experience and I always get a thumbs up from the kids.
really needs to be across the board, and not deis focused. treat every child as equal, and not based on the average income. I know our local schools have some of the most privileged kids, but there are also families that are struggling to send their kids there, let alone have “competitive” lunches. make this available to all schools – no discrimination, no segregation.
16 comments
Credit to the government is due. There was significant pushback even from the schools.
I fully support it but they may want to focus on quality next… I was surprised to see “pepperoni pizza sub, chicken goujons and wedges” etc, just fast food oven stuff? The other schools seem to have better meals, so that’s good, although half of them don’t seem to have any vegetables?
Fair dues. Nice to think some kids are getting a proper meal that wouldn’t otherwise. Great use of taxes.
Ours is great – school fitted out a room to serve as a kitchen, kids seems to love it.
Suppliers vary from school to school and I’ve seen some of the food online and it does indeed look like aeroplane food (i.e. overly processed/packaged, shite).
Our school doesn’t have it yet so I’m kinda jealous. Hopefully they’ll get them in the next round of funding
It’s a waste of resources. Certainly it’s a good idea for children living in poverty or for whatever reason aren’t being fed properly at home. However, for most children there shouldn’t be a need for this, packed lunches should suffice.
Think of all the resources required to transport these lunches around every single day to schools all over the country. Think of the traffic, the fuel consumption, the expense and so on as a result of this, I would prefer to see scarce resources put to better use, such as better facilities for disabled children and those living in poverty.
I’m guessing this will be heavily down voted, but the opportunity cost of such initiatives should always be considered and whether the marginal benefit justifies the cost.
Halal option? Interesting.
Very unpopular opinion but I like Harris the stuff he did as higher education minister was amazing made it way easier to get stuff done then refund on college contribution the thresholds of susi increasing they were all massive helps. He also advocated for Susi being better run and easier to get on the phone I know this doesn’t affect alot of people but god dammit does it help.
My kids school has grown so big from the original building one of the largest in Ireland, there is no area for them all to eat. They all go into the town for food. They would have to build a massive cafeteria for 1500 kids. Hopefully they can sort something out as hot food in school be great.
You guys get lunches?
There’s a fair amount of waste with it. There were plenty of contractors offering to do it in-house with a kitchen setup, plate it up with reusuable cutlery but most schools went with the mass oven airplane-type meals instead.
Recently became a parent. We did a ‘pre-birth cooking class’ as we were so nervous and wanted to learn as much as we could about how to be a parent! About 2 minutes into the Zoom, we realised that it wasn’t so much about how to cook for babies, it was about how to cook in general. They were explaining how to peel potatoes and boil them. It really hit home that a lot of kids don’t get a great start in life – A lot of children do not get the same opportunities as others.
Well done to the Green Party for getting this over the line. I wasn’t their biggest fan when they went into government but, and not just because of this one thing, will be voting for them in any/all upcoming elections. Also, fuck the shit-rag tabloid newspapers such as the Irish Independent, the Sun, The Daily Mail, etc who make every negative issue in the country the fault of the Green Party.
Moved over from England 4 years ago, school dinners were free and high quality. The best thing was that my daughter would eat things at school that she would refuse to eat at home.
Living on the west coast now with three kids in school and I have to spend upwards of half an hour a day making pack lunches that are nowhere near as good as a cooked meal(and my kids have come home with certificates because their lunches are so healthy). Honestly as a parent I would be willing to pay so my kids could have a cooked school dinner and I think most parents would too, and if I had to pay a little more so a kid whose family can’t afford it can eat for free so be it.
Our school started them a few weeks ago and I’ve nothing but praise for the programme.
We’ve been blessed to have this service in our kids school. I still send a lunch every day, but just knowing they’re having proper food is amazing. Love that we can pick from a menu – we change it up every month!
Our supplier recently sent out feedback cards to us, they’re coming in to talk to the kids too and the overall consensus is to add more veg into all dishes (without compromising the ones who may have sensory issues etc). So just such a positive experience and I always get a thumbs up from the kids.
really needs to be across the board, and not deis focused. treat every child as equal, and not based on the average income. I know our local schools have some of the most privileged kids, but there are also families that are struggling to send their kids there, let alone have “competitive” lunches. make this available to all schools – no discrimination, no segregation.