Food & Nutrition

School provides lunch this year. My 6 year old says he eats 'only the rice'

lagoon_tiffin_4767

His school has moved grade 1 onto its own lunch from this term, so no more tiffin. He comes home starving and, when asked, says he ate 'only the rice'. The menu they send is varied and looks reasonable. I have no way of checking what is true: he also told me once that they had pizza on a Tuesday, which the menu did not support. For those whose children eat school-provided lunch, how did you find out what they really eat? Do teachers tell you if you ask, or is that considered fussy? I would rather not start sending a second snack box if the real problem is a six-year-old's reporting.

3 comments

  • indigo_puzzle_6578

    ask him what the rice came with. if he can name the dal or the curry, he saw it and probably ate some. 'only the rice' is the lunch version of 'nothing happened at school'

  • lilac_kettle_9569

    We're far from this stage with our little one, but my amma used to ask the school aaya instead of the teacher, back when my younger brother was going through his rice-only years. The aayas knew exactly who ate what.

  • mint_veranda_7164

    My daughter's school did lunches from about this age. We asked the class teacher once, politely, at the first meeting, and she was glad to tell us: ate well most days, skipped the vegetables. What helped more was asking our daughter to rate each day's lunch out of five at dinner. Children are vague about what they ate but they love giving ratings, and the low scores matched the days she came home hungry.

    • lagoon_tiffin_4767

      The rating idea is clever. We tried it last night: dal two, rice five, and the vegetable 'was not there'. The menu says beans. At least I now know which days to pack something bigger for the van.

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