Chocolate, leftover fast food… and little else.
Teachers have anonymously shared the “worst” packed lunches they have witnessed children bring to school in a thread on parenting forum mumsnet.
“I am genuinely curious about this issue. I’ve heard people say rather darkly, ‘Gosh, I see some awful things.’ But how bad?? Are we talking leftover pizza or mouldy bread or just not enough fruit?” the original poster asked.
The sugary snacks
“Two iced ring donuts and two chocolate bars.”
“Two jam filled doughnuts.”
“A bag of Mini Eggs is the one that’s stuck with me. Very sad.”
“A can of Red Bull and a pack of TicTacs. Year 4.”
"Chocolate popcorn and chocolate spread sandwiches constantly."
"A single chocolate doughnut."
"Six bounty bars, 2 mars and a twix."
"Six medium sized chocolate muffins."
"Half a packet of chocolate digestives and a roll of polo mint."
The packet lunches
"Full packets of biscuits and nothing else."
"A tub of Philly [cream cheese] and a plastic spoon."
"Big bag of sharing Doritos Chilli Heatwave and a bottle of Coke."
"A large bottle of Red Bull and a family packet of some generic brand of bright orange cheese puffs ... [it] was a boy not from a poor family. He was just given money every morning and that was what he spent it on."
Watch: The 10 things only the children of teachers know. (Post continues after video.)
The leftovers
"Cold oven chips wrapped in newspaper so the print had come off on the chips."
The bread
"Bread rolls covered in colouring icing."
"One ketchup sandwich in dry sliced bread and tiny apple."
"One piece of dry bread and nothing else."
"A half baguette. Straight from the packet. No fillings... no butter. Zilch."
It's the kind of list that sounds as if it should be funny, and even a little judgemental, but as one teacher notes, "Not being fed properly is, unfortunately, not very high on the list of awful things teachers know about some of the kids they teach."
Featured image: iStock
LISTEN: If you're an imperfect parent who doesn't always get the school lunches right, you'll love the This Glorious Mess podcast.
Top Comments
A boy I went to school with was given money each morning to buy his breakfast. He always got a chocolate covered marshmallow from the corner shop. The poor little guy was a skinny, scruffy kid, permanently snotty nose, a bit smelly. The sight of him used to break my mum's heart so she would watch out for him coming by and shout of him to come in for porridge/eggs/whatever. Then she would pack us off to walk to school together. I hated it! Sooooo mortified in case anyone saw us together. I sincerely wish I could travel back in time and slap myself. That poor kid, I often wonder where life took him.
One of the schools I once worked at a girl from a very mixed up family brought a frozen pie to school for breakfast, and asked to use a microwave to defrost it.
how else would she defrost it? my bf cooks his frozen pie (that he eats for lunch every day) in a microwave. not sure what is wrong here?
Kids aren't allowed in the staff room (which is where the microwave would be kept).
The parents shouldn't have sent in a frozen pie to begin with.
Ummm the CHILD brought a FROZEN pie to SCHOOL to eat for BREAKFAST - you see the problem now??? The issue isn't the way the pie is cooked........
not really no, i mean the child could be having no breakfast, or something much worse than a meat pie.