Fuming! My Child Found A Piece Of Metal In Her School Canteen Meal

Imagine you buy takeaway once a week from the same place each Friday. And one day you discover a piece of metal in your meal. So you take it back and show them only to be told ‘we don’t have any pieces of metal like that here’ – as though they catalog all their random pieces of metal.

How would you feel? Would you tolerate this explanation? Does it sit well with you?

To add insult to injury you’re sent away with that same meal and told to finish it. Would you follow their instructions?

Perhaps as an adult, maybe not. As adults, we understand that we have the beauty of choice. The freedom to choose what we want based on our knowledge. We know that we are capable of making these kinds of decisions for ourselves – especially when it comes to something like continuing to consume food which we just found a piece of metal in!

Now I want you to imagine the same scenario, but happening to a young CHILD!

Piece of metal in her canteen meal

You try your hardest to provide a lunch order for your little ones once a week. It’s the only ‘takeaway’ they get. And they find a piece of metal in it.

They show their teacher who is alarmed and sends the child to the canteen to let them know what has happened.

Upon close inspection by the canteen ladies, they both concur that the foreign metal object is not from their premises.

It’s Not OUR Metal

“We have nothing like this piece of metal at the canteen” they tell your child as they keep the foreign object and instruct your little one to just eat the rest of the food.

There is no offer to replace the meal. Or even to take it from the child and throw it away. The lack of empathy and compassion is infuriatingly astounding. And it makes one question what these ladies would have done if they ever found a foreign object in their own food.

What if There Was More Metal?

What if there were more metal pieces in the meal and my child ended up breaking a tooth. They didn’t even check the food prior to telling her to finish it! What guarantee did they have that it was safe to consume?

It saddens and disgusts me that some adults treat children this way. As though little ones are somewhat inferior and don’t deserve the same care, consideration and respect that we as adults appreciate.

Of course, I understand that it’s important not to raise children who are too ‘precious’. Unexpected accidents happen all the time and ensuring that children remain resilient through unfortunate situations is a wonderful characteristic to have.

It’s equally as important to remember when we owe them a duty of care. Compassion doesn’t cost a thing and extending kindness towards a child isn’t going to take a single thing away from anyone.

Why Should A Child Accept This?

Most adults would not stand for the excuse which was given to my daughter as an acceptable resolution for themselves. So why should a child have to endure this simply because they are young and naive?

I emailed the school in hopes that they are able to implement a more comprehensive action plan should this happen to other children in the future.

A Child Can Say NO To A Grown-Up

I’ve also made sure that my daughter understands that she doesn’t need to obey an adult if their instructions sound dangerous or put her at risk in anyway. This is important on so many levels! And I do feel a tremendous amount of guilt for not making her understand this sooner.

As her mother, I can’t help but wonder where exactly, if not the canteen, the piece of metal came from, especially considering the food was delivered straight to her classroom from the canteen. And of course, my heart can’t help but question if the canteen workers would have accepted the same treatment if it were their own child.

They may be young and naive, but all children deserve our kindness, love and respect. As adults, shouldn’t we have the maturity and compassion to be able to grant them this?

What would you do if your child found a piece of metal in their school canteen meal? Tell us in the comments below.

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39 Comments

- - meedee said
  - 02 Nov 2023
    12:26 pm
No person should accept this.
My family often would get meals from a certain location and once i found what i thought was a piece of glass in the meal. I phoned them and they told the owners who came out to my place to get the said piece of glass. When they arrived they looked at the piece of glass and said it was actually a chunk of plastic. They were not concerned at all. We stopped going there.

- - Frankiielot said
  - 06 Mar 2022
    2:41 am
I would have gone in and told off the canteen ladies lol.
I think a lot of the time adults don’t take kids seriously.
I remember as a child my mum would make me buy meat from the butcher while she was paying for groceries at woolies and I’d always be standing there for ages before anyone asked me if I wanted to buy something. They would always serve all the adults first and I would only get asked once it was dead by which time my mum had already come out and paid…

- - ElAtko said
  - 29 Dec 2020
    1:14 pm
Wow. Not on, I would be fuming.

- - mom460223 said
  - 21 Sep 2020
    11:11 am
I would be fuming too.

- - mom462805 said
  - 24 Aug 2020
    9:15 pm
I would contact the school P&C as they are responsible for school canteens. (In WA anyway) I would also contact the school principal. This is not acceptable and needs to be followed up.

- - mom101628 said
  - 22 Aug 2020
    11:55 pm
Very wrong of those in the canteen to be so offhand. If it were their child I doubt they would have been like that. It should have been investigated in case more food had been contaminated by whatever means.

- - Harp_and_banks said
  - 20 Aug 2020
    8:53 am
I wonder if those same ladies would accept a meal in a cafe with metal in it? Would they continue to eat it when instructed?
I doubt it!
Very sad.

- - littlehandsofmine said
  - 11 Aug 2020
    1:46 pm
Oh my goodness!

- - rovermum said
  - 05 Aug 2020
    10:16 am
Wow! This is not okay. There are food safety guidelines and I don’t believe this has been handled very well at all. And that poor child. This should be taken further.

- - tessie said
  - 04 Aug 2020
    3:41 pm
I once found a wasp in a salad I’d ordered. I was disgusted when I showed them and they just removed it and told me the rest was okay. I declined and demanded my money back. They refused so I told them I’d never be back again and would let everyone to know what happened. That got their attention and I got my money back. Worst thing was that the wasp was still alive. If it happened to my daughter I’d let all parents I know what had happened and start taking my daughter out for take-away once a week instead of ordering from the canteen.

- - mom321720 said
  - 04 Aug 2020
    12:36 pm
if you find metal in supermarket bought products, the whole line us recalled from the shelf and send back to the supplier.
So disappointing this happened miss rarely argue with adults I would be so mad

- - SPerry37 said
  - 04 Aug 2020
    6:58 am
That terrible as those canteen helpers should of given your child a new lunch , or maybe the teacher could of followed it up
That could of been quiet dangerous and extremely dangerous maybe take it up with the P and C if it’s run by the p and c if not the company and ask for aleast an apology or something

- - LeeLee said
  - 03 Aug 2020
    10:41 pm
Wow, this is awful. I bet they wouldn’t have said the same thing if it was their child!

- - ~Loui~ said
  - 03 Aug 2020
    10:03 pm
It’s not just the canteen who failed in their duty of care, but also the teacher -was any follow up done by them? If the teacher hasn’t gone in to figuratively battle for the child, then we as parents need to. As a parent isn’t it our duty to be the champion for our children? Aren’t we the ones that need to stand up for them? Children are still developing these skills and adults are usually in positions of authority and power. It is a huge ask of them, to expect them to stand up to the adults who do not treat them fairly.

- - mom321515 said
  - 03 Aug 2020
    9:18 pm
I’d be fuming

- - Dianne said
  - 03 Aug 2020
    8:40 pm
Sadly, this does not seem surprising to me. We seem to live in a culture where irresponsibility runs rife. From an ethical and safety standpoint the persons response is disgusting, but it probably matches the school’s culture and when reported to the principal or the school district you will discover if that is the case.
Though if the staff member kept the metal they will probably deny it’s existance and blame the child, so sad, and a dreadful way to teach the child that bullying is acceptable.

- - mom460689 said
  - 03 Aug 2020
    8:39 pm
I cant believe this. I would be so upset if this happened to my child. I also try to teach my kids to not listen to adults if it doesn’t feel right or safe.

- - mom65487 said
  - 03 Aug 2020
    8:18 pm
Very concerning, I would write a formal complaint to the school and a complaint to any relevant delivery service the school uses. Definately follow up. Not good enough.
- Ellen replied
  
  05 Aug 2020 , 4:01 am
  I agree !
- - mom458688 said
  - 02 Aug 2020
    1:49 am
wow, thats alarming …

- - nadine_hill said
  - 01 Aug 2020
    6:44 pm
An absolutely disgraceful and disrespectful response! I’d definitely take it further!