How to read your child's school menu

Every month a sheet comes home with twenty boxes and the names of dishes. Most families stick it on the fridge and never look at it again. It's worth reading more closely, because it says quite a lot about how the kitchen actually works.

Count, don't just read

The fastest way to judge a menu is to count weekly appearances by food group. Recommendations for school canteens in Catalonia point to a pattern like this:

• Vegetables: every day, either as a starter or a side.
• Pulses: several times a week, and also as a main course, not just in soups and purées.
• Fresh fruit: the usual dessert. Sugary dairy and shop-bought desserts should be the exception.
• Meat: not too often, and the less red and processed meat, the better.
• Fish: regularly.
• Rice, pasta and potatoes: present, but not taking the place vegetables should have.

If you count and find plant protein barely ever shows up as a main course, that's not just an impression. Barcelona's Public Health Agency found that two out of three canteens audited offered none at all during the week.

Signs worth watching for

• Overly branded names. "Nuggets", "fingers", "burgers" and "croquettes" showing up repeatedly point to pre-made, bought-in produce.
• Identical menus all year round. If January and June look much the same, the seasons aren't playing any part.
• Vegetables only ever as a purée. Fine as one option, but if that's the only way they appear, children never get to know whole vegetables.
• Fried food, often. Once a week is reasonable; three times isn't.
• No suggestions for dinner. A canteen that thinks about the whole family knows lunch is only half the day.

How to complement it at home without overthinking it

The idea isn't to calculate anything. It's to glance at the sheet before deciding on dinner and apply three simple rules:

• If lunch had pulses, go lighter at dinner with vegetables and egg or fish.
• If lunch had meat, skip it at dinner.
• If lunch had rice or pasta, change the base at dinner.

That already balances the day, which matters far more than trying to balance every single meal on its own.

Questions you can ask the school

If something doesn't sit right, these questions are specific and have real answers:

• Where and when is the food cooked?
• Which dishes arrive already made?
• What percentage of the produce is sustainable or locally sourced?
• Is the origin of the main ingredients published anywhere?
• How do you support a child who eats little or eats badly?

That last one often says more than all the others. A canteen that answers "we encourage them and give it time" works very differently from one that answers "they don't leave the table until it's finished".

And the part the sheet doesn't show

The menu doesn't explain what lunchtime actually feels like. Whether children set the table, whether they can serve themselves, whether an adult sits and eats the same food, whether there's time or everyone's rushed. All of that shapes a child's relationship with food just as much as the ingredients do.

When you visit a school, ask to watch a full lunchtime. You'll know straight away.