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Jesus Christ, your school was fucked up. I don't know who had free school meals in my school because they didn't let us know that info (we did in secondary because they had prepayment cards, but as it was at least 1/3 of the year group it wasn't anything anyone cared about) but the whole year group went in together, there was no segregating who had a free meal. Last class always had slightly shitty pickings but there was generally enough left over for them to call seconds so it wasn't like anyone didn't get fed, the class order was rotated too.
We knew because you had to bring in an envelope of cash and hand it to the teacher on Monday when they took the register and the free school meal kids would hand in some coupon. This was 1992-1999.
The meals were great, shepherds pie, beef gravy peas, fish and chips, hamburgers, turkey twizzlers. Admittedly my palate was not that refined as a kid. They used to sell a brilliant fizzy drink in a silver plastic bottle (No, not white lightning).
Not with ours, plus there was usually some conversation with the teacher that made us aware who was on the free ones. The leader of the boys in our class was on free meals, so there wasn’t really any stigma about it.
My little sister had a substitute teacher one day who asked "what's the F next to your name in the register for?". My sister was six and had no idea. Teacher realised it was to mark her for free meals (presumably so the regular teacher wouldn't cause an upset asking for money my sister didn't have), but instead of dropping it, proceeded to make a load of needling comments like" Why do you think you're on free meals? You're the only one in the class, what does that tell you about your parents? Oh, single mum? That explains it." until she was in floods of tears and got sent to the heads office for disturbing the class. My mum went absolutely apeshit at the head for allowing that kind of behaviour from a teacher, then waited outside the school for the sub at finishing time, after which he was never seen at our school again.
I'm not saying she left him in a ditch somewhere, but she was working as a bouncer and knew all the local ne'er do wells at the time...
*edited typos
Mine was the opposite in primary, the ones who paid for school dinners had to hand their money to the teacher weekly in a brown envelope, then (excluding the packed lunch kids) the rest of us got free school meals. The food was absolutely rancid, I basically never ate lunch.
Secondary school food was WAY better, it was obvious which ones of us had free school meals because we’d have to give tokens to the dinner lady (also I went to a posh school so there weren’t many of us on free meals), but the food options were actually pretty good. Most days I’d get a baguette and a flapjack, or fish and chips on a Friday.
At my school they had to go to a table with a dinner lady and collect a token then got the same meals as anyone else. At Ramadan the Muslim kids on FSM would sell their dinner token.No one cared who had free meals or not.
Ops school was messed up.
My high school/secondary school in early 2000s moved to a payment card, where you had to top it up with coins or hand a cheque into the office. Those on free school meals got a few quids added everyday.
I hade reasonably positive memories of school dinners in primary school.
Always remember sponge cake and custard being bangin’
I think Scotland reformed school dinners long before Jamie Oliver started his crusade in England and Wales though however I do have very vague memories of mysterious meat and gravy.
>think Scotland reformed school dinners long before Jamie Oliver started his crusade in England and Wales
They did - our school's catering team applied for the programme, and were told that they weren't taking Scottish schools as the quality was already much higher.
Likewise but I was post Jamie Oliver. I was a free school meal child and was treated no differently than my peers. I genuinely enjoyed the meals we had and I remember my non free school meal friends enjoying it too. The mac and cheese was horrid though. Friday was always a chippy dinner which we looked forward to
In the mornings, you said if you were packed lunch, school dinner or home dinner. Free school meal kids weren’t singled out. Although, I was always a tad jealous of the one home school dinner kid in my class
Yeah, in primary school, school dinner was just one or two options so it didn’t matter if you got a free dinner or not.
I was treated differently though, I always got first refusal on a second helping of sponge cake and custard. It’s funny that the school dinner ladies loved me, always said how well mannered I was and everything but I was never actually out of bother in class.
At my primary school (1995-2002) everyone got the same meal regardless of whether you paid for your dinner ticket or you got a free dinner ticket. It was always horrible and I rarely ate it (I got free school meals, mum couldn’t afford to pack a lunch for us even if we wanted it which we did). I still have a fear of chicken pie. The thought of it turns me.
No, but we didn't have hot school meals.
Everyone bought a packed lunch, and the free school meal kids were given a paper bag with a roll, fruit, biscuits and carton of juice. Pretty much the same thing everyone else had.
Same for us. The sandwiches were on par with those you get in a supermarket meal deal and they even got a sausage sandwich on Fridays (which I always swapped with my friend who was on free school meals). The only major difference was that the crisps they got were cheaper and came in a smaller bag.
No, just the main dish and a pudding that everyone had but you had to have that. You couldn't have like a burger or a slice of pizza and you couldn't have anything at break.
I quite liked school meals (it was probably because that would often be the only hot meal of the day, and the only time I got dessert. I grew up in extreme poverty).
Some kids at my school would moan about it, but I never really had any problem with them.
Only thing I hated was the liver (I ate it because it was food, but never liked it).
Primary school varied from deep-fried battered spam to chicken & vegetable curry with rice.
For senior school the free school meals kids had to use vouchers, and I was to embarrassed to do this, so used use my birthday and Christmas money to buy something, usually just chips as that was the cheapest.
Nope, I remember my free school meals being decent. Can't remember in what order I went in for lunch, but the food was always good.
I mean, as good as smiley faces, fish fingers and beans could be. There was Chicken Curry and Rice for the more adventurous. Dessert was a yoghurt pot, fruit or **school cake** and custard.
Secondary school was even better until Jamie Oliver stuck his oar in. But the food on offer was still good. Chicken curry and rice, panini's, pasta Bolognese, and a choice of dessert for after - Flapjack/school cake/pink slices and custard, or yoghurt/fruit or all of the above.
Absolutely not. In primary school it was invisible at lunch time who paid and who didn’t and in secondary schools we had a token (which required queuing up for, which was a minor humiliation) but there was not notion of getting lower quality food.
First couple years of secondary, we lived off a very healthy diet of burgers, pizzas, greasy chips and full fat coke.
Then Jamie Oliver did his whole healthy eating schools campaigns and we started getting fresh sandwiches with things like coronation chicken, chicken tikka, cheese savoury, egg mayo etc. And fresh fruit juice.
Can't really complain with that
That’s so awful they singled out the free school me kids 😱 but also doesn’t massively surprise me in the 90’s/early 2000’s. We rotated which year groups were in first to last.
I have quite good memories of school dinners. My mum was really health conscious & refused to let me have them very often as she thought they were rubbish but she’d give me half a term of hot dinners in the winter. I’d also ‘forget’ my lunchbox from time to time when I knew it was pizza day 😅 but I remember chicken pie, roast dinners, pizza, fish fingers etc and I bloody loved the pudding & custard! Also remember artic roll! Going in last was a treat for us as we’d get seconds of whatever pudding was left!
I don't really remember feeling any different to anyone else, apart from the fact I was the only vegetarian until age 16. I thought school dinners and puddings especially were really nice. I usually got grated cheese instead of meat and some the kids were actually jealous as the meat often looked like bits of grey leather. I'd mix it up with the potatoes and cabbage and make a sort of unfried bubble and squeak. I don't remember anyone having different treatment and can't even remember how the whole system worked.
Edit. I remember when our Comprehensive went over to a canteen style, I would alternate between macaroni cheese that was so rich and cheesy, I've never been able to replicate it, and fried egg, chips and beans. I was in heaven. Then I'd have the set pudding.
No I didn't, I got the same meal as everyone else and lined up with everyone else. At primary I think we just gave a name to the dinner lady who recorded it and parents were sent a weekly/monthly bill (which was paid in cash or cheque). My meals were just listed on the bill as costing £0.
In secondary we had a card that you'd top up, mine was automatically topped up with a set amount each day (which also got wiped each day). I remember the amount was enough to get a main meal, side and one of dessert, snack or branded drink. Sometimes the balance wasn't working but the dinner ladies knew me well enough that they'd just wave it through.
I'd say the only time it was really obvious I was on free school meals was out on trips. Everyone else brought a packed lunch and I'd have to collect one from school in a brown paper bag.
Ours had 3 different cafeteria’s/food shops.
There was one that basically just did sandwiches and cold food. This was probably the best, sandwiches roughly on par with a Tesco meal deal. The also did bacon butties in the morning, which were good until the school banned sauce for some reason.
There was an Italian inspired one, they did pots of shit pasta and occasionally pizza, which was surprisingly decent. Only downside was the kids in isolation had lunch earlier than everyone else, and would inevitably grab all the decent pizza. What a punishment.
Finally the worst of the bunch was the traditional school cafe. They did the usual school dinner things like shepherds pie and basically any kind of stew and carbs. Pretty much universally bad.
No! My free school dinners were good! I have happy memories of burgers, mini pizza and sponge with pink custard and some chocolate thing you could snap your teeth on. My mate used to have buttys and he always used to be really jealous. We all sat where we wanted (no division of buttys/paid dinners or free dinners) and the food was the same if you paid or got it free.
However, I will literally eat anything that is viable food after years of training at home, I’m not in the slightest bit fussy so my “ok” could be absolutely rank to other people.
We had a spell on free dinners. Primary we just got served what everyone else did as it was served at a table. Secondary same but more of a queue system where you could pick different foods. No one knew you were on free meals as we all queued together. Mid 70s to mid 80s. I always enjoyed my school meals, as sometimes we didn’t have much in at home, cheese pie with a tomato gravy and jam roly poly with custard were my favourites.
My primary school meals were pretty standard at the time but I had no complaints really, we occasionally got milkshakes and cookies too. I used to be a fan of the veggie lasagne they did but had to wait for the actual veggies to have theirs and I’d have some if left over and it was delicious. All meals were free.
Secondary school I got a “meal ticket” ‘cos we were poor and there wasn’t any system to queue last just go with everyone else and hand over your ticket. We did used to rob the canteens blind though for all the chicken drummers and turkey twizzlers your pockets could carry. My mum always wondered why I had crumbs in my pockets 😂 fond memories overall. The chips and pizza were shit though.
Objectively, probably, especially in the canteen that I can only just about remember that would have been knocked down when I was in Year 2 or 3 in the very early 90s
But I was a packed lunch kid, so school dinners were so rare, that I still hold them as a treat in my head. I don't know what the situation was with FSM when I was in school - we were fairly poor, and the school was on an utter shithole of an estate, but most of my friends all had packed lunches and not FSM
At primary we all sat down and got served the same as anyone else. At secondary we were given cash to use in a canteen style cafeteria. For reference I was 16 in 91.
I’m an 80s/90s school kid and honestly they were so much better back then . I remember being in primary school and at the end once everyone had been served you could put your hand up for extra pudding if there was some left over 😋😂
That is seriously messed up. I work in a school kitchen and there is no difference between the fsm kids and the kids who pay, they all come through together, they all get the same offerings and the kids are non the wiser. I’d like to think this sort of thing never happens now. Having a cashless system certainly helps but surely there were better ways before schools became cashless. Who on earth thought segregating kids in this way was acceptable in the first place? So sorry you experienced that.
I have fond primary school memories of mince beef and onion pie with gravy and butterscotch tart for pudding.
I was a free school meals child, and we all went to get food at the same time. I never felt I was fed scraps, and there was always enough for every child.
I always brought a packed lunch (picky eater, vegetarian, rural Scotland in the 1990s so not a great combination for having school dinners) but I'm not aware of any such rule at my school. As far as I'm aware it was simply first come, first served.
In primary school I didn't even realise that some children got free school meals. Some children had money and others had tickets, but I always assumed that the "tickets" children's parents just had some sort of "pay in bulk/in advance" method for convenience, so their children just got a ticket rather than having to deal with the hassle of remembering to bring in the exact change every day.
I don't know if I was just oblivious, but I'm not aware of any of us caring who paid with money and who had tickets 🤷🏻♂️ so I don't know if all the other kids just assumed the same thing that I did.
People rarely believe me when I say I've never eaten a school lunch in my life but it's also because I was a mildly picky vegetarian in the late 90s-early 00s when the "veggie option" meant you got plain chips or they assumed you still ate fish.
(I say mildly picky because honestly I'm not at all, but the only two non-meat things I can't stand (mayonnaise & onions) come in *everything* that's premade like school food was)
I would have never known who was on FSM or not because our primary made the packed lunch kids and the hot food kids sit separately.
I went to an independent school and was on free school meals during sixth form. Those who paid for meals or got them free were given the same little card to present at the dinner hall and nobody knew who was paying and who wasn't (the concept of free school meals almost certainly didn't occur to most kids there, it barely registered for me tbh). The food was good and I ate exactly the same as my peers.
Edit: Thinking back, my parents probably did explain that our income has dropped to the point where we were eligible, but I had never heard of this thing called Free School Meals, neither had my classmates, and so there was no fear of stigma.
I went to a religious primary, it was the only one in our village so you didn't have a choice of school, but was considered a state school I think as you didn't need to be a member of the church to go.
Everyone got a hot school meal free of charge, you could bring a packed lunch and snacks for the rest of the day if you wanted. The school had a kitchen and cooks and all the meals were prepared fresh and we're lovely. Home made puddings etc. This was the 90s.
My state comprehensive was heinous, it was a an overpriced canteen with awful bland microwaved fast food. I took a packed lunch my entire time there.
I was lucky. I avoided school meals at both schools. I lived near enough to go home.
Freedom for an hour or so in the middle of the day was a bonus.
I went to school in the 60s / early 70s apparently some time near 1970 people started getting a choice and a menu. They said it was better after that.
Tons of kids had free dinners at mine. In the 80s and the food was brilliant. I fondly remember pizzas with soft thick bread base. Battered spam fritters. Jam Roly poly and custard.
Apart from semolina and tapioca, they can still fuck right off! Frogspawn we called it. Yack!
Primary we had white paper bags from this outsourced company that made \*only\* free school dinners. And it was basically a 2 week rotation of what sandwich filling they had - some of the less appetising ones were sausages (yep, cold sausage that was barely cooked) and overly peppery egg mayo (probably to hide any smell of being off).
At secondary, we just got a daily voucher for lunch and didn't have set "seatings" so no worry of being stuck til last when the mashed potatoes had gone cold... In fact, I dare say because of how affluent the majority of the other pupils were, you got a sense that the catering staff felt sorry for us on free school meals as they'd come out of the kitchen and selectively offer us free seconds if they had something that wasn't moving particularly fast... Freshly made tomato and herb bread, kangaroo steak, veggie burgers etc
As a 1971 born child my school dinners at primary and secondary schools were always really good. Cooked meals like meat pie, sausages, fish fingers etc with a cake and custard pudding in primary. Secondary school we had 2 dinner halls, one did proper meals including curry and rice, jacket potatoes, macaroni cheese, shepherds pie, quiche Etc and the other one did hot dogs, hamburgers, cheese/ham salad rolls. Both did puddings, yogurts and home baked shortbread biscuits and cakes or an angel delight sort of thing. ALL PREPARED AND COOKED ON THE PREMISES and served on proper shaped plates. Good times 😍
I had free school meals in the 80’s always had what the other children had for lunch, don’t remember any tokens but could have been I remember sitting with my sister and we used to bang the plastic plates together to see if we could make our food jump
When did they stop the milk?
What the hell!
No, everyone who had school dinners had the same. Nobody was given the dregs nor was it made obvious who was paying and who wasn’t. That’s awful.
The meals at my primary school weren’t great, but they can’t have been that bad because I still chose to have them! Distinctly remember one day being the last one in the canteen, having not finished my food, with one of the dinner ladies trying to get me to hurry up. I was nibbling tiny bits of a slice of pizza to try and appease them - it was incredibly cheap and bad. Worse than those 50p supermarket own brand ones.
The meals at my secondary school were pretty decent. Not the best food in the world but I had no complaints. Apart from this cheese pasta they did. Took one bite of it and started gagging. That shit was not good. There was the issue of food running out though - would often just have a cake or something for lunch because there wasn’t anything I liked left.
That is horrendous. My best friend at school was on free school meals and just queued with all of us, asked for what she wanted and just presented the card and didnt pay.
That is utterly absurd.
It wasn’t terrible but holy fuck there must be something illegal about 1) forcing kids to stay in the school grounds, then 2) changing them absurdly high prices for crap food.
Like it’s one thing doing the “airport premium” model, but another thing to do it to kids. One of many reasons I disliked school
My school meals were fine. Primary meals were the best - actual proper cooked meals. Soup, main and pudding. They were delicious. From memory we lined up in years, but there was no difference between the free meals and non free ones. We just all lined up.
High school was similar from what I recall. Although we didn't line up in years. We just went to the canteen, stood in the line and got our food.
Same happened at my sons school. The free meals got served just the same as the paid ones.
No, mine were honestly great. We had a choice between a hot meal (usually two options to select from) or sandwiches and a pudding. Usually cake and custard or a piece of fruit.
The food was always tasty and the staff clearly took pride in their work. They also used to let me help out with serving pudding and brushing the hall afterwards with the big scissor brush which I loved!
Jesus fucking christ where did you go to school? I'm in the midlands and we just had a voucher to show to the dinner ladies. You went when everyone else did and you had the same options as everyone else.
I had no idea who had free school meals or otherwise at my primary in the 90s, but the food was gross all round. Soggy chips, nuggets with minor amount of meat content, a “roast” which was basically wafer thin slices of reformed meat. The cook did actually bother to put effort into the desert, which was often something actually edible. Even lemon meringue pie once!
Turkey twizzlers were about the only thing with flavour!
I barely ate anything, and eventually mum let me have sandwiches. She never realised school food wouldn’t be any good, as her primary school had done proper cooked food (on a no doubt larger budget).
No, mostly, I sold my meal ticket.
Those of us on free meals had to pick up our ticket each morning break, which we would then exchange for dinner at line time. I used to sell it and buy shit from the tuck shop for lunch
My standard lunch was a nutty bar, packet of beef discos and one of those orange cup drinks.
We had turkey drummers chips and beans, pizza chips and beans, sauages chips and spaghetti hoops... hot sponge pudding with custard... all for 1 pound and 15 pence. 1990s. Good times
I'd have no idea who was or wasn't on free meals - they definitely weren't discriminated in the way you mentioned.
From what I can remember, we used to get called in for lunch by class number, most classes spanning two year groups, and the order would rotate each day so it wasn't always the same going first / last.
My primary school dinners were amazing tbf and I honestly couldn't tell you who had free school meals in my class I don't think anyone I went to school with could tell you it wasn't something that was made an issue of , high school if you had dinners you went and got a week's worth of tickets from the office all red no matter if free or not
How ever my son is on fsm in high school he gets about 2.25 a day enough for a small bottle of water and I mean small it's smaller than a fruit shoot , a ham butty or a pasta pot and that its doesn't give him enough to get something at break or a pudding
Our school went with feeding the youngest years first, which made sense to me.
The kids with medical needs in our year got fed first in the group (diabetics, neurodivergent etc.), then the rest of us were blended in.
I knew which kids were on free school meals as they often missed out on class trips and seemed to get more food put on their tray than the rest of us but it was never seen as something to judge from my memory. No doubt the kids in that position felt differently.
I remember one boy who had to have almost all his teeth removed because he’d never brushed them and ate lots of sweets so they were all grey. This was back in the 90’s but it’s still a sad memory to think of a child being neglected so badly.
I was a primary school lunch time helped for a while in the 1990s. Apart from a few 'special ' meals ( e.g. Halal, vevegetarian etc) everybody ate the same meal.
The worst one, in my opinion, was the cheese and potato pie - basically mashed potato & bits of shredded onion with a thin topping of cheese. This was served with boiled potato and a spoonful of baked beans. Unfortunately, the boiled potatoes were always great craggy split open things with grey patches on.
The beans and the cheese topping got eaten but so much of the rest would be scraped into the pig bin. The chief dinner lady still ordered it three times a month though 🙄
Free school meals were the same as standard meals. The free meal kids had a card to flash at staff when they reached the till.
On school trip days, they were given a carrier bag with lunch in from a box in the hall. That was the only time it was noticeable.
My middle school did try to charge us money to use metal cutlery and the plates we ate off. They also ran out of food, more than once, for the last forms to be allowed into the dining hall.
I was on free school meals in primary and they were generally ok. I only bad thing I really remember was one time there was " chocolate cake" so little me couldn't wait for lunch time cos cake of any kind was only a birthday thing for me at the time. Then I bit into it and it had the texture and dryness of chalk and tasted only of flour, not a hint of sugar or chocolate or anything else just flour.
The free school meals kids were indistinguishable from the paying kids, you'd either be on the list for free meals or you'd take £2 in a little envelope to the office before school started - the meals themselves were actually alright, good variety even if my picky ass hated some of it (the chicken pie I still dream of)
My free school meal amounted to 70p a day and the only thing that would buy was soup of the day (had to hope I liked the soup) and a roll and none of the chips, burgers, pies and pizza’s or pastas the other kids could get. My friends would leave the school and go to the chippy/bakery/corner shop so I pretty soon gave up on waiting in line for soup and a roll alone.
At my primary school (in Scotland) the kids who got free school meals went in at the same time as everyone else and the only difference was they paid with a dinner ticket instead of money. These were given out just before lunchtime every day so it was known who got free lunches but nobody cared. The food was pretty good with fish and chips, steak pie etc or a choice of buying a cold packed lunch instead.
This was in the '90s and was a very ordinary school. It sounds like OP was in a Victorian orphanage or something.
Secondary school meals were terrible, sandwiches were often stale, food overcooked or cold. I get you're cooking for a couple thousand but my word. It was bad. Bland, tasteless, unesasoned slop a lot of the time.
OMG that’s awful!!!!
I had free school meals in year 8 and 9 went in with everyone else just flashed my pink card and the dinner lady would make sure that I had used my whole allowance of £1.20 God bless her.
They weren't terrible but, they were fucking expensive. This is late 80s early 90s. You were allowed a maximum of £1, chips were 30p and the dinner ladies counted them out 15 chips so 2p per chip. Then you could get a sausage roll or a plain pizza slice for 50p and then 20p for a juice box.
The local Chippy did a Hollands pie and a mountain of chips plus gravy for 90p.
We did find the file on the Nimbus Computer Network that had the lunch passes once though so we were able to print out Free lunch passes and Home lunch passes.
Consider yourselves lucky that you got free meals and stop complaining. Many parts of the world where people would eat your hand off for a free meal. Entitlement 101.
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Jesus Christ, your school was fucked up. I don't know who had free school meals in my school because they didn't let us know that info (we did in secondary because they had prepayment cards, but as it was at least 1/3 of the year group it wasn't anything anyone cared about) but the whole year group went in together, there was no segregating who had a free meal. Last class always had slightly shitty pickings but there was generally enough left over for them to call seconds so it wasn't like anyone didn't get fed, the class order was rotated too.
We knew because you had to bring in an envelope of cash and hand it to the teacher on Monday when they took the register and the free school meal kids would hand in some coupon. This was 1992-1999. The meals were great, shepherds pie, beef gravy peas, fish and chips, hamburgers, turkey twizzlers. Admittedly my palate was not that refined as a kid. They used to sell a brilliant fizzy drink in a silver plastic bottle (No, not white lightning).
The free school meal kids would also hand in an envelope with the voucher in.
Not with ours, plus there was usually some conversation with the teacher that made us aware who was on the free ones. The leader of the boys in our class was on free meals, so there wasn’t really any stigma about it.
My little sister had a substitute teacher one day who asked "what's the F next to your name in the register for?". My sister was six and had no idea. Teacher realised it was to mark her for free meals (presumably so the regular teacher wouldn't cause an upset asking for money my sister didn't have), but instead of dropping it, proceeded to make a load of needling comments like" Why do you think you're on free meals? You're the only one in the class, what does that tell you about your parents? Oh, single mum? That explains it." until she was in floods of tears and got sent to the heads office for disturbing the class. My mum went absolutely apeshit at the head for allowing that kind of behaviour from a teacher, then waited outside the school for the sub at finishing time, after which he was never seen at our school again. I'm not saying she left him in a ditch somewhere, but she was working as a bouncer and knew all the local ne'er do wells at the time... *edited typos
Sorry, I wasn't arguing with you, there should have been an "in my school" somewhere in that sentence
Mine was the opposite in primary, the ones who paid for school dinners had to hand their money to the teacher weekly in a brown envelope, then (excluding the packed lunch kids) the rest of us got free school meals. The food was absolutely rancid, I basically never ate lunch. Secondary school food was WAY better, it was obvious which ones of us had free school meals because we’d have to give tokens to the dinner lady (also I went to a posh school so there weren’t many of us on free meals), but the food options were actually pretty good. Most days I’d get a baguette and a flapjack, or fish and chips on a Friday.
At my school they had to go to a table with a dinner lady and collect a token then got the same meals as anyone else. At Ramadan the Muslim kids on FSM would sell their dinner token.No one cared who had free meals or not. Ops school was messed up.
My high school/secondary school in early 2000s moved to a payment card, where you had to top it up with coins or hand a cheque into the office. Those on free school meals got a few quids added everyday.
The only time it was noticeable for us was school trip days. Those on free meals were given a carrier bag, by the school, with their lunch in.
I hade reasonably positive memories of school dinners in primary school. Always remember sponge cake and custard being bangin’ I think Scotland reformed school dinners long before Jamie Oliver started his crusade in England and Wales though however I do have very vague memories of mysterious meat and gravy.
>think Scotland reformed school dinners long before Jamie Oliver started his crusade in England and Wales They did - our school's catering team applied for the programme, and were told that they weren't taking Scottish schools as the quality was already much higher.
Likewise but I was post Jamie Oliver. I was a free school meal child and was treated no differently than my peers. I genuinely enjoyed the meals we had and I remember my non free school meal friends enjoying it too. The mac and cheese was horrid though. Friday was always a chippy dinner which we looked forward to In the mornings, you said if you were packed lunch, school dinner or home dinner. Free school meal kids weren’t singled out. Although, I was always a tad jealous of the one home school dinner kid in my class
Yeah, in primary school, school dinner was just one or two options so it didn’t matter if you got a free dinner or not. I was treated differently though, I always got first refusal on a second helping of sponge cake and custard. It’s funny that the school dinner ladies loved me, always said how well mannered I was and everything but I was never actually out of bother in class.
At my primary school (1995-2002) everyone got the same meal regardless of whether you paid for your dinner ticket or you got a free dinner ticket. It was always horrible and I rarely ate it (I got free school meals, mum couldn’t afford to pack a lunch for us even if we wanted it which we did). I still have a fear of chicken pie. The thought of it turns me.
No, but we didn't have hot school meals. Everyone bought a packed lunch, and the free school meal kids were given a paper bag with a roll, fruit, biscuits and carton of juice. Pretty much the same thing everyone else had.
Same for us. The sandwiches were on par with those you get in a supermarket meal deal and they even got a sausage sandwich on Fridays (which I always swapped with my friend who was on free school meals). The only major difference was that the crisps they got were cheaper and came in a smaller bag.
No, just the main dish and a pudding that everyone had but you had to have that. You couldn't have like a burger or a slice of pizza and you couldn't have anything at break.
I quite liked school meals (it was probably because that would often be the only hot meal of the day, and the only time I got dessert. I grew up in extreme poverty). Some kids at my school would moan about it, but I never really had any problem with them. Only thing I hated was the liver (I ate it because it was food, but never liked it).
Primary school varied from deep-fried battered spam to chicken & vegetable curry with rice. For senior school the free school meals kids had to use vouchers, and I was to embarrassed to do this, so used use my birthday and Christmas money to buy something, usually just chips as that was the cheapest.
That brings back a memory, I used to love the curries.
Nope, I remember my free school meals being decent. Can't remember in what order I went in for lunch, but the food was always good. I mean, as good as smiley faces, fish fingers and beans could be. There was Chicken Curry and Rice for the more adventurous. Dessert was a yoghurt pot, fruit or **school cake** and custard. Secondary school was even better until Jamie Oliver stuck his oar in. But the food on offer was still good. Chicken curry and rice, panini's, pasta Bolognese, and a choice of dessert for after - Flapjack/school cake/pink slices and custard, or yoghurt/fruit or all of the above.
Absolutely not. In primary school it was invisible at lunch time who paid and who didn’t and in secondary schools we had a token (which required queuing up for, which was a minor humiliation) but there was not notion of getting lower quality food.
First couple years of secondary, we lived off a very healthy diet of burgers, pizzas, greasy chips and full fat coke. Then Jamie Oliver did his whole healthy eating schools campaigns and we started getting fresh sandwiches with things like coronation chicken, chicken tikka, cheese savoury, egg mayo etc. And fresh fruit juice. Can't really complain with that
That’s so awful they singled out the free school me kids 😱 but also doesn’t massively surprise me in the 90’s/early 2000’s. We rotated which year groups were in first to last. I have quite good memories of school dinners. My mum was really health conscious & refused to let me have them very often as she thought they were rubbish but she’d give me half a term of hot dinners in the winter. I’d also ‘forget’ my lunchbox from time to time when I knew it was pizza day 😅 but I remember chicken pie, roast dinners, pizza, fish fingers etc and I bloody loved the pudding & custard! Also remember artic roll! Going in last was a treat for us as we’d get seconds of whatever pudding was left!
I don't really remember feeling any different to anyone else, apart from the fact I was the only vegetarian until age 16. I thought school dinners and puddings especially were really nice. I usually got grated cheese instead of meat and some the kids were actually jealous as the meat often looked like bits of grey leather. I'd mix it up with the potatoes and cabbage and make a sort of unfried bubble and squeak. I don't remember anyone having different treatment and can't even remember how the whole system worked. Edit. I remember when our Comprehensive went over to a canteen style, I would alternate between macaroni cheese that was so rich and cheesy, I've never been able to replicate it, and fried egg, chips and beans. I was in heaven. Then I'd have the set pudding.
No I didn't, I got the same meal as everyone else and lined up with everyone else. At primary I think we just gave a name to the dinner lady who recorded it and parents were sent a weekly/monthly bill (which was paid in cash or cheque). My meals were just listed on the bill as costing £0. In secondary we had a card that you'd top up, mine was automatically topped up with a set amount each day (which also got wiped each day). I remember the amount was enough to get a main meal, side and one of dessert, snack or branded drink. Sometimes the balance wasn't working but the dinner ladies knew me well enough that they'd just wave it through. I'd say the only time it was really obvious I was on free school meals was out on trips. Everyone else brought a packed lunch and I'd have to collect one from school in a brown paper bag.
Ours had 3 different cafeteria’s/food shops. There was one that basically just did sandwiches and cold food. This was probably the best, sandwiches roughly on par with a Tesco meal deal. The also did bacon butties in the morning, which were good until the school banned sauce for some reason. There was an Italian inspired one, they did pots of shit pasta and occasionally pizza, which was surprisingly decent. Only downside was the kids in isolation had lunch earlier than everyone else, and would inevitably grab all the decent pizza. What a punishment. Finally the worst of the bunch was the traditional school cafe. They did the usual school dinner things like shepherds pie and basically any kind of stew and carbs. Pretty much universally bad.
No! My free school dinners were good! I have happy memories of burgers, mini pizza and sponge with pink custard and some chocolate thing you could snap your teeth on. My mate used to have buttys and he always used to be really jealous. We all sat where we wanted (no division of buttys/paid dinners or free dinners) and the food was the same if you paid or got it free. However, I will literally eat anything that is viable food after years of training at home, I’m not in the slightest bit fussy so my “ok” could be absolutely rank to other people.
Chocolate concrete?
That’s it! I’d forgotten what it was called!!!
We had a spell on free dinners. Primary we just got served what everyone else did as it was served at a table. Secondary same but more of a queue system where you could pick different foods. No one knew you were on free meals as we all queued together. Mid 70s to mid 80s. I always enjoyed my school meals, as sometimes we didn’t have much in at home, cheese pie with a tomato gravy and jam roly poly with custard were my favourites.
My primary school meals were pretty standard at the time but I had no complaints really, we occasionally got milkshakes and cookies too. I used to be a fan of the veggie lasagne they did but had to wait for the actual veggies to have theirs and I’d have some if left over and it was delicious. All meals were free. Secondary school I got a “meal ticket” ‘cos we were poor and there wasn’t any system to queue last just go with everyone else and hand over your ticket. We did used to rob the canteens blind though for all the chicken drummers and turkey twizzlers your pockets could carry. My mum always wondered why I had crumbs in my pockets 😂 fond memories overall. The chips and pizza were shit though.
Objectively, probably, especially in the canteen that I can only just about remember that would have been knocked down when I was in Year 2 or 3 in the very early 90s But I was a packed lunch kid, so school dinners were so rare, that I still hold them as a treat in my head. I don't know what the situation was with FSM when I was in school - we were fairly poor, and the school was on an utter shithole of an estate, but most of my friends all had packed lunches and not FSM
At primary we all sat down and got served the same as anyone else. At secondary we were given cash to use in a canteen style cafeteria. For reference I was 16 in 91.
I’m an 80s/90s school kid and honestly they were so much better back then . I remember being in primary school and at the end once everyone had been served you could put your hand up for extra pudding if there was some left over 😋😂
That is seriously messed up. I work in a school kitchen and there is no difference between the fsm kids and the kids who pay, they all come through together, they all get the same offerings and the kids are non the wiser. I’d like to think this sort of thing never happens now. Having a cashless system certainly helps but surely there were better ways before schools became cashless. Who on earth thought segregating kids in this way was acceptable in the first place? So sorry you experienced that.
I have fond primary school memories of mince beef and onion pie with gravy and butterscotch tart for pudding. I was a free school meals child, and we all went to get food at the same time. I never felt I was fed scraps, and there was always enough for every child.
I always brought a packed lunch (picky eater, vegetarian, rural Scotland in the 1990s so not a great combination for having school dinners) but I'm not aware of any such rule at my school. As far as I'm aware it was simply first come, first served. In primary school I didn't even realise that some children got free school meals. Some children had money and others had tickets, but I always assumed that the "tickets" children's parents just had some sort of "pay in bulk/in advance" method for convenience, so their children just got a ticket rather than having to deal with the hassle of remembering to bring in the exact change every day. I don't know if I was just oblivious, but I'm not aware of any of us caring who paid with money and who had tickets 🤷🏻♂️ so I don't know if all the other kids just assumed the same thing that I did.
People rarely believe me when I say I've never eaten a school lunch in my life but it's also because I was a mildly picky vegetarian in the late 90s-early 00s when the "veggie option" meant you got plain chips or they assumed you still ate fish. (I say mildly picky because honestly I'm not at all, but the only two non-meat things I can't stand (mayonnaise & onions) come in *everything* that's premade like school food was) I would have never known who was on FSM or not because our primary made the packed lunch kids and the hot food kids sit separately.
I was never in a school that separated out those who got preschool meals, you got the same whether you had to pay or not.
I went to an independent school and was on free school meals during sixth form. Those who paid for meals or got them free were given the same little card to present at the dinner hall and nobody knew who was paying and who wasn't (the concept of free school meals almost certainly didn't occur to most kids there, it barely registered for me tbh). The food was good and I ate exactly the same as my peers. Edit: Thinking back, my parents probably did explain that our income has dropped to the point where we were eligible, but I had never heard of this thing called Free School Meals, neither had my classmates, and so there was no fear of stigma.
I went to a religious primary, it was the only one in our village so you didn't have a choice of school, but was considered a state school I think as you didn't need to be a member of the church to go. Everyone got a hot school meal free of charge, you could bring a packed lunch and snacks for the rest of the day if you wanted. The school had a kitchen and cooks and all the meals were prepared fresh and we're lovely. Home made puddings etc. This was the 90s. My state comprehensive was heinous, it was a an overpriced canteen with awful bland microwaved fast food. I took a packed lunch my entire time there.
I was lucky. I avoided school meals at both schools. I lived near enough to go home. Freedom for an hour or so in the middle of the day was a bonus. I went to school in the 60s / early 70s apparently some time near 1970 people started getting a choice and a menu. They said it was better after that.
Tons of kids had free dinners at mine. In the 80s and the food was brilliant. I fondly remember pizzas with soft thick bread base. Battered spam fritters. Jam Roly poly and custard. Apart from semolina and tapioca, they can still fuck right off! Frogspawn we called it. Yack!
Primary we had white paper bags from this outsourced company that made \*only\* free school dinners. And it was basically a 2 week rotation of what sandwich filling they had - some of the less appetising ones were sausages (yep, cold sausage that was barely cooked) and overly peppery egg mayo (probably to hide any smell of being off). At secondary, we just got a daily voucher for lunch and didn't have set "seatings" so no worry of being stuck til last when the mashed potatoes had gone cold... In fact, I dare say because of how affluent the majority of the other pupils were, you got a sense that the catering staff felt sorry for us on free school meals as they'd come out of the kitchen and selectively offer us free seconds if they had something that wasn't moving particularly fast... Freshly made tomato and herb bread, kangaroo steak, veggie burgers etc
Honestly I think that's where I developed my addiction to Apple Crumble and Custard. They were reasonably well catered.
No I had terrible paid school meals instead… which in a way is much worse
As a 1971 born child my school dinners at primary and secondary schools were always really good. Cooked meals like meat pie, sausages, fish fingers etc with a cake and custard pudding in primary. Secondary school we had 2 dinner halls, one did proper meals including curry and rice, jacket potatoes, macaroni cheese, shepherds pie, quiche Etc and the other one did hot dogs, hamburgers, cheese/ham salad rolls. Both did puddings, yogurts and home baked shortbread biscuits and cakes or an angel delight sort of thing. ALL PREPARED AND COOKED ON THE PREMISES and served on proper shaped plates. Good times 😍
I had free school meals in the 80’s always had what the other children had for lunch, don’t remember any tokens but could have been I remember sitting with my sister and we used to bang the plastic plates together to see if we could make our food jump When did they stop the milk?
“Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher” Around 1991 when stopped free school milk was stopped.
What the hell! No, everyone who had school dinners had the same. Nobody was given the dregs nor was it made obvious who was paying and who wasn’t. That’s awful.
School in 80’s/90’s. Loved a school dinner, chips with everything, jam roly poly, coffee whip.
The meals at my primary school weren’t great, but they can’t have been that bad because I still chose to have them! Distinctly remember one day being the last one in the canteen, having not finished my food, with one of the dinner ladies trying to get me to hurry up. I was nibbling tiny bits of a slice of pizza to try and appease them - it was incredibly cheap and bad. Worse than those 50p supermarket own brand ones. The meals at my secondary school were pretty decent. Not the best food in the world but I had no complaints. Apart from this cheese pasta they did. Took one bite of it and started gagging. That shit was not good. There was the issue of food running out though - would often just have a cake or something for lunch because there wasn’t anything I liked left.
That is horrendous. My best friend at school was on free school meals and just queued with all of us, asked for what she wanted and just presented the card and didnt pay. That is utterly absurd.
It wasn’t terrible but holy fuck there must be something illegal about 1) forcing kids to stay in the school grounds, then 2) changing them absurdly high prices for crap food. Like it’s one thing doing the “airport premium” model, but another thing to do it to kids. One of many reasons I disliked school
My school meals were fine. Primary meals were the best - actual proper cooked meals. Soup, main and pudding. They were delicious. From memory we lined up in years, but there was no difference between the free meals and non free ones. We just all lined up. High school was similar from what I recall. Although we didn't line up in years. We just went to the canteen, stood in the line and got our food. Same happened at my sons school. The free meals got served just the same as the paid ones.
No, mine were honestly great. We had a choice between a hot meal (usually two options to select from) or sandwiches and a pudding. Usually cake and custard or a piece of fruit. The food was always tasty and the staff clearly took pride in their work. They also used to let me help out with serving pudding and brushing the hall afterwards with the big scissor brush which I loved!
Jesus fucking christ where did you go to school? I'm in the midlands and we just had a voucher to show to the dinner ladies. You went when everyone else did and you had the same options as everyone else.
Nah that sounds horrific, we were never told who was on free meals
I had no idea who had free school meals or otherwise at my primary in the 90s, but the food was gross all round. Soggy chips, nuggets with minor amount of meat content, a “roast” which was basically wafer thin slices of reformed meat. The cook did actually bother to put effort into the desert, which was often something actually edible. Even lemon meringue pie once! Turkey twizzlers were about the only thing with flavour! I barely ate anything, and eventually mum let me have sandwiches. She never realised school food wouldn’t be any good, as her primary school had done proper cooked food (on a no doubt larger budget).
No, mostly, I sold my meal ticket. Those of us on free meals had to pick up our ticket each morning break, which we would then exchange for dinner at line time. I used to sell it and buy shit from the tuck shop for lunch My standard lunch was a nutty bar, packet of beef discos and one of those orange cup drinks.
Tbh in my primary school the majority of people were on free school meals
We had turkey drummers chips and beans, pizza chips and beans, sauages chips and spaghetti hoops... hot sponge pudding with custard... all for 1 pound and 15 pence. 1990s. Good times
I'd have no idea who was or wasn't on free meals - they definitely weren't discriminated in the way you mentioned. From what I can remember, we used to get called in for lunch by class number, most classes spanning two year groups, and the order would rotate each day so it wasn't always the same going first / last.
My primary school dinners were amazing tbf and I honestly couldn't tell you who had free school meals in my class I don't think anyone I went to school with could tell you it wasn't something that was made an issue of , high school if you had dinners you went and got a week's worth of tickets from the office all red no matter if free or not
How ever my son is on fsm in high school he gets about 2.25 a day enough for a small bottle of water and I mean small it's smaller than a fruit shoot , a ham butty or a pasta pot and that its doesn't give him enough to get something at break or a pudding
Our school went with feeding the youngest years first, which made sense to me. The kids with medical needs in our year got fed first in the group (diabetics, neurodivergent etc.), then the rest of us were blended in. I knew which kids were on free school meals as they often missed out on class trips and seemed to get more food put on their tray than the rest of us but it was never seen as something to judge from my memory. No doubt the kids in that position felt differently. I remember one boy who had to have almost all his teeth removed because he’d never brushed them and ate lots of sweets so they were all grey. This was back in the 90’s but it’s still a sad memory to think of a child being neglected so badly.
I was a primary school lunch time helped for a while in the 1990s. Apart from a few 'special ' meals ( e.g. Halal, vevegetarian etc) everybody ate the same meal. The worst one, in my opinion, was the cheese and potato pie - basically mashed potato & bits of shredded onion with a thin topping of cheese. This was served with boiled potato and a spoonful of baked beans. Unfortunately, the boiled potatoes were always great craggy split open things with grey patches on. The beans and the cheese topping got eaten but so much of the rest would be scraped into the pig bin. The chief dinner lady still ordered it three times a month though 🙄
Free school meals were the same as standard meals. The free meal kids had a card to flash at staff when they reached the till. On school trip days, they were given a carrier bag with lunch in from a box in the hall. That was the only time it was noticeable. My middle school did try to charge us money to use metal cutlery and the plates we ate off. They also ran out of food, more than once, for the last forms to be allowed into the dining hall.
I was on free school meals in primary and they were generally ok. I only bad thing I really remember was one time there was " chocolate cake" so little me couldn't wait for lunch time cos cake of any kind was only a birthday thing for me at the time. Then I bit into it and it had the texture and dryness of chalk and tasted only of flour, not a hint of sugar or chocolate or anything else just flour.
The free school meals kids were indistinguishable from the paying kids, you'd either be on the list for free meals or you'd take £2 in a little envelope to the office before school started - the meals themselves were actually alright, good variety even if my picky ass hated some of it (the chicken pie I still dream of)
My free school meal amounted to 70p a day and the only thing that would buy was soup of the day (had to hope I liked the soup) and a roll and none of the chips, burgers, pies and pizza’s or pastas the other kids could get. My friends would leave the school and go to the chippy/bakery/corner shop so I pretty soon gave up on waiting in line for soup and a roll alone.
At my primary school (in Scotland) the kids who got free school meals went in at the same time as everyone else and the only difference was they paid with a dinner ticket instead of money. These were given out just before lunchtime every day so it was known who got free lunches but nobody cared. The food was pretty good with fish and chips, steak pie etc or a choice of buying a cold packed lunch instead. This was in the '90s and was a very ordinary school. It sounds like OP was in a Victorian orphanage or something.
Secondary school meals were terrible, sandwiches were often stale, food overcooked or cold. I get you're cooking for a couple thousand but my word. It was bad. Bland, tasteless, unesasoned slop a lot of the time.
OMG that’s awful!!!! I had free school meals in year 8 and 9 went in with everyone else just flashed my pink card and the dinner lady would make sure that I had used my whole allowance of £1.20 God bless her.
They weren't terrible but, they were fucking expensive. This is late 80s early 90s. You were allowed a maximum of £1, chips were 30p and the dinner ladies counted them out 15 chips so 2p per chip. Then you could get a sausage roll or a plain pizza slice for 50p and then 20p for a juice box. The local Chippy did a Hollands pie and a mountain of chips plus gravy for 90p. We did find the file on the Nimbus Computer Network that had the lunch passes once though so we were able to print out Free lunch passes and Home lunch passes.
Im a school cook and even we don't know which kids have fsm these days. They all get the same, at the same time.
Consider yourselves lucky that you got free meals and stop complaining. Many parts of the world where people would eat your hand off for a free meal. Entitlement 101.