After the books, uniforms, shoes and other accessories, there is still the school bus and allowances to reckon with.We all want to make sure that our child gets the proper nutrition to give him the energy to get by each day so we give them enough money to buy his food at the school canteen. But what really is enough? That has been the debate among parents for the longest time. As a parent, it really concerns me to know what goes on in the school canteen of my kids. Maybe not all of us have the time to investigate. So let me share with you my research of how school canteens are run and let you in on a survey conducted among our grade school and high school children about school allowances.

Who Runs the Canteen?

My sleuthing took me to a couple of private schools for both boys and girls located in the metro. There are basically two kinds of set-up for the canteen. There is the traditional canteen, which serves lunch and snacks and run by the school administration. In other cases, the canteen concession is given to another party, who may or may not have relations with a student. This means that they could give it to an operator who is known in the food industry, or to an enterprising mother of one of the students. The rule stands that there is always a qualifying criteria for accepting the concessionaire. For others it may be stricter, but generally, these are: 1) food quality, 2) price, 3) hygiene and food safety. Once you violate any of these factors, you will have to clear out of the space. But mind you, most of the schools have admitted as not to have a ready replacement for their present concessionaires, if and when the need arises.

With canteens run by the school's administration, more often than not, stringent policies are implemented. There is the policy of not selling "junk" food and carbonated drinks like Coke and other sodas. Fruit juices are the "in" thing with these canteens. Most private schools also have a campaign against the use of non-biodegradable packaging, therefore not allowing tetra packs and the use of styropore plates. Some parents support this effort but others do not agree in the curtailment of choice and stringent measures.

By far, private concessionaires are doing a better job of providing our kids with the proper nutrition. The more professional ones go through the pains of conducting surveys from the school population of what their preferences are. And as they operate, they are more flexible in changing the menu according to the likes of the kids. They charge a little more, though, but I guess we all pay the price of professionalism.

What Is Available?

Whether school-run or by a professional concessionaire, the standard lunch is always available. A cup of rice and one viand can run from P40-P50 with free hot soup. There's the popular beefsteak tagalog, tapa, tocino, terriyaki, tempura, sinigang na baboy, and even sisig. A regular drink would cost you another P10-15. There are schools that permit the operation of franchise booths within the school premises. Some of the more popular food booths are those of Shakey's, Domino's Pizza, Orbits or Zagu, Tia Maria's Nachos, Dunkin Donuts, to name a few. They are not necessarily run by a parent of the child in school and have an annual contract to renew with the school. So your kid really can have a wide variety to choose from. And with the survey I conducted among a sampling of fifty kids in various high school and grade levels, both girls and boys, the favorites were beef and rice, and pasta.

What Our Kids Have to Say…

1. On packing a lunchbox

Most of the kids said they would prefer packing a lunchbox because this way they were sure of what they were eating. A secondary reason was to save money. Some also said that no matter how varied their choices were in school, they got bored of them already. Some said their school's canteen food tasted so awful.

Both boys and girls had the same reasons for not wanting to pack a lunchbox. They just had too much to bring to school as it is and a lunchbox was an added hassle to their daily burden. Others argued that no matter how good the home-cooked food was, once the oil settles in, it wasn't good to eat anymore. Besides, they really preferred hot food for lunch. Still another reason was more social than anything else. Most everybody did not pack a lunchbox and doing so made him feel like a loser, a sissy. (That to me, is an alarming situation.)

Snacks were an all together different issue. A sandwich, for example, was acceptable to carry on, together with cookies and smaller items. Otherwise, their favorite snack food is a slice of pizza and french fries.

2. How much allowance they get and how they spend it

In both grade school and high school levels, the norm was an allowance of P20-50 for those packing a lunchbox and P50-100 for those who bought everything in school. In both cases, the average amount they spend for snacks is P20. Others intimated that they would save up whatever they could from their allowances so that they can buy these little things like stickers and cards outside the school campus. If your child is in a campus where these sidewalk vendors are not present, your child is not necessarily spared from this activity. There are a lot of enterprising kids who sell stuff that their classmates cannot resist. And yes, it happens in the most exclusive of schools.

3. What they wanted to improve in their school canteens

Most said the food was okay, not good, mind you. And almost all complained of the prices that the canteen charged. They felt that they were not getting their money's worth. They want more choices and better quality of food. Other kids could not see the value of the "chits system" that the school imposes in dealing with the canteen. (This is where you have to purchase a certain number of little laminated cards with corresponding peso value to transact your business with the canteen. No chits, no purchase, even if you are so pressed for time.)

4. Do they need more allowance money?

That was a definite yes with almost everybody. Some said they needed the money to eat more and the others just wanted contingencies for an emergency.

What Really Is Enough?

After having gone through my investigation of the school canteens and survey with the kids, I have reason to believe that "enough" is really relative; relative to the family's income, lifestyle, and priorities.

Most of the kids who were given a much higher allowance were those of parents both working and set up in very corporate environments. The moms do not cook and they live a lifestyle of eating out often. They themselves excused their moms for not being able to pack them a lunchbox. But when asked if they wanted to bring food to school, they said yes. In fact, they envied the kids that had packed lunches. They said that kids who had packed lunches usually group together and share their food. They not only have a wider variety for lunch but have a great time as well.

Kids who are always made to pack a lunchbox have grown accustomed to their routine although they have a couple of requests to make as well. They'd like to be freed of the routine on other days. (What I do for my own kids is that I allow them to buy lunch in school on P.E. days when they have to bring more bags. That's only twice a week so no argument.) The other request is to improve the variety of their viand. It seems that the most popular ready-to-cook viands are all that's in our list - tapa, tocino, longganiza, chicken nuggets. One kid said she envied her classmate who always had vegetables in her packed lunch. But all agreed that the school should provide a microwave or other facilities to allow them to reheat their food.

After having gone through this exercise, I personally think that enough spells out how comfortable you assess your child could be with his allowance. The guidance we give our children on how their money should be spent should never wane, no matter how big or small their allowances may be. It is an activity of discretion, decision and self-control that needs guidance from the parent who wishes to teach his child the true value of things.

For your comments and suggestions you can email me at syb_chef@yahoo.com.