My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

Vegan School dinners - update - No Problem!

32 replies

MrsTaraPlumbing · 23/07/2014 10:17

I wanted to let you all know of my positive experience about the school catering for my vegan twins. I met with someone from the catering company and the lady who is actually in charge in the kitchen.

My children can eat interesting and varied vegan meals every day from within the existing food provided - but we agreed a menu with a few variations that will be better.
The staff were fantastic and thought providing vegan food would be no problem.
I found out that already:

  • Butter is not used in the kitchen it is all vegan margarine
  • All biscuits / cookies / flapjacks / crumbles are made on site and are already vegan.
  • The gravy is Vegan.

    Mentioned in another thread. Yes some of the meals will not have a high protein substitute, but I do not think that matters as I feed them before and after school and I have the menu so I know what they had at school dinner.

    The catering company provide meals to 100 schools across Kent - so I am sure other families might benefit from my experience.
OP posts:
Report
Minx82 · 23/07/2014 20:38

Wow that is impressive. I'm really surprised. My daughter is vegetarian and I've had enough issues over the years with that. A teacher once told her if she wouldn't eat tuna she would get no dinner!! I glad you have had a much better experience than me x

Report
Mondaybaby · 01/08/2014 14:52

That is very encouraging.
My dd is starting at primary school in September.
We are strictly vegetarian. I am vegan but my dd eats eggs and dairy.
I called the school to discuss lunches. I didn't feel that I was entirely 'heard' and at the end of the conversation was left feeling like they thought I was a bit neurotic and kooky.....
Will have more words when she starts in September.
Luckily my dd is very aware of what she can and can not eat.

Report
MrsTaraPlumbing · 05/08/2014 11:10

Mondaybaby
Remember school catering may be done managed an outside organisation and you really need to speak to them especially the actual staff in the kitchen.
Not necessarily the the school staff.
I expect the size of the facilities and the type of staff must also make a difference. My children's school seems to have a massive kitchen.

OP posts:
Report
Gileswithachainsaw · 05/08/2014 11:14

That's good news.

Are they sure about the cookies though?

Have they given you a list of ingredients.

I only ask because my experience of catering at college was that those cooking it have no idea.

What do they use instead of egg in the cookies?

Report
VanillaHoney · 05/08/2014 20:15

We are in Kent, DDs eat fish but no meat. Unfortunately they could not have the fish options at school. It had to be vegetarian or the meat and fish option so DD was down for vegetarian only to be offered "chicken" on the first day. The dinner ladies did not think chicken was a problem in a vegetarian diet?? DD refuses to eat the meal, went hungry and has been packed lunches since.

Report
Mondaybaby · 05/08/2014 22:02

Vanilla - this is one of my fears. I have visions of this happening. Well done to your dd for refusing to eat it.

Report
tobysmum77 · 07/08/2014 09:13

there's no way they would put egg in cookies if they could avoid it because so many children are allergic to them.

Report
Catmint · 07/08/2014 09:19

My DD is vegetarian and we've had very positive experience of school dinners in Derbyshire.

Report
Gileswithachainsaw · 07/08/2014 10:01

there's no way they would put egg in cookies if they could avoid it because so many children are allergic to them

Which is actually more worrying because:

If there's no/reduced sugar, low fat, no egg, no dairy, then what the hell is in them and how "processed" or nutritious are they?

Usually a cookie is -flour, butter, egg, sugar, and maybe choc chip or oat meal and raisins etc. I'd be curious as to what was actually in them.

Report
Cheebame · 07/08/2014 12:42

It seems that margarine is used instead of the butter, which isn't a choice I'd make for my child, but it's been made for me it seems. I suspect I'd get short-shrift if I asked for a marge-free option.

Who knows what they use instead of egg. I've googled a bit and found that options might include bananas (fine, but cookies may taste odd), flax seed or 'egg substitute'

Report
Gileswithachainsaw · 07/08/2014 12:53

Flax seed and egg replacer aren't cheap. I can't see them being used when an average of 50p out of the price per meal is what goes on the actual food,

So that leaves banana.

Margarine, flour, banana = a cookie? Confused

Report
Shedding · 07/08/2014 13:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Gileswithachainsaw · 07/08/2014 13:27

Oh I like vegan food very much :)

I'm just trying to think,on a low budget and possibly little knowledge about it all, and possibly brought in from an outside company, just what it would be made out of.

Something baked from scratch intentionally vegan can be hugely different, from something that's accidently vegan where things can be replaced with stuff that's really not so good for you or highly processed.

If that makes any sense.

I assumed no sugar because many of the desserts are. Or at least very low sugar, as part of the requirements. Eg sugar missing from custard etc.

Report
Shedding · 07/08/2014 13:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Gileswithachainsaw · 07/08/2014 13:38

Yes they are all zero salt and no/low sugar.

Report
Gileswithachainsaw · 07/08/2014 13:44

Blush

Abyway major detail. Apologies. I only raised the questions because experience all be it a long time ago was not good and very few people seemed to know what it was all about.

And common mistakes that still happen are things like assuming vegetarians eat fish, not realising casin/whey/lactose/albumin are milk/egg products, lumping eggs in with dairy so dairy free stuff assumed as vegan even though contains egg etc.

Labelling is much better these days, but staff in kitchen may not be knowledgable. As this thread shows with the chicken issue.

Report
Gileswithachainsaw · 07/08/2014 13:45

Derail not detail

Report
MrsChocolateBrownie · 07/08/2014 14:32

That's really good news.

We're not meeting with the catering manager from herts council and the kitchen staff to discuss my ds intolerances until the day before term. However from initial conversations with the catering manager I feel assured that they can provide a meal for him each day or offer an alternative on the odd day where the main meals are not suitable.

Report
MrsTaraPlumbing · 08/08/2014 23:00

Back to "cookies" aren't they biscuits. I don't think biscuits normally have egg in them but basic: flour, fat and sugar.
The fat on site is dairy free marg. That is the default used in everything.

The cookies had other things such as cherries added.

When I met the staff at school everything was cooked on site and they had a book with detailed ingredients lists. They were very organised and knew exactly what they were doing. We are lucky
The company is this one:
principals-catering.com/

They make instant gravy that is vegan - everyone at school is having vegan gravy already.

I'm not saying that it will be nice!
There are no expensive fancy contents! It is simple basic stuff. I think that is OK. My children eat before they go to school and after they come home, they are not relying on it as their only meal so if just needs to be edible and filling.

OP posts:
Report
ohtobeanonymous · 10/08/2014 07:31

Gosh I would be concerned over the use of margarine in all the cooking! Are they using a palm-oil free margarine? And are they also using the best quality vegan substitutes - so many cheaper/ 'alternative' product ones are just packed full of chemicals, stabilisers and colouring to make them look like the 'real thing'.

Difficult if there are nut allergies and so many schools are nut-free these days - rules out tahini for a start.

Organic raw and whole food really is the only way to go (preferably grown and harvested without the use of any animal by-products, such as manure but even organic fertilisers contain fish emulsion and ground animal bone meal, so you are better off growing your own using homemade compost - it isn't difficult, many LEAs offer reduced price composting bins)

Can they not have a packed lunch?
Agree with giles about the difficulty of finding quality ingredients that are not full of artificial sweeteners (because apparently 'no sugar' is healthier!!) and hydrogenated/palm oils. Would be willing to bet the catering companies use cheapest possible ingredients to manage tight budgets.

Report
combust22 · 10/08/2014 07:39

Packed lunch.

Were your children born vegan? I guess not. Did they consume animal milk? Probably. You are asking too much of the school to support your unusual ways.

Report
ohtobeanonymous · 10/08/2014 07:53

Combust - perhaps OP has no choice in having to avoid certain foods!! You have no idea why the family has a vegan diet.

This article might be interesting OP, if you have chosen veganisim for 'ethical' reasons:
www.eatit2beatit.com/vegetarian-foods-that-arent/. Bit American so possibly not always relevant to UK but given there is global food production, probably it is.

Kind of related to the fact that most fruits and vegetables use animal products to be grown. It is very hard to escape the link between animals/plants in the food production process!!

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

combust22 · 10/08/2014 07:58

ohtobe- what medical limitations are there to avoid all animal produce? I can't think of any.

I don't agree with imposing such narrow dietary restrictions on children. Homo Sapien is not a herbivore.

Report
MrsTaraPlumbing · 10/08/2014 08:46

ohtobeanonymous
I'm not sure of the ingredients of the marg.
They would have told me but I was not worried because it is not in every meal every day. It is possibly involved in the creation of 1 meal or dessert per week (that my twins will eat) over the 3 week cycle.
And put in context that school lunch is only one meal a day for approx half the days of the year - so quite a small proportion of the food they eat.
On the whole the ingredients for the meals are quite basic.

combust22
Your point has been debated on other threads.
I didn't ask the school to support my unusual ways.
The school (head) insisted the caterers should be able to meet our requirements because there are many parts of the law that require vegan diets are respected.
I have been vegan for 30 years and my children vegan from birth.

A vegan diet may be unusual for you as an individual - you might have difficulty catering for us but a professional catering company proving over 100,000 per day should be able to.

MARG
As far as I can tell, however, the marg is used because schools cater for many children who are dairy intolerant.

OP posts:
Report
combust22 · 10/08/2014 09:47

"my children vegan from birth." so no animal milk?

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.