Parents fume as school charges ‘ridiculous’ fees for kids’ canteen lunches

“They’re taking the p**s like everyone else,” an angry Australian parent seethed. “How are they even allowed to do this?”

An Australian parent has sounded off online about the ever-increasing fees to pay for their child’s canteen lunches. 

It’s one of the best parts of a child’s week, when they get the chance to order food from the school canteen. 

What was once an easy payment process - scribbling an order on a brown paper bag and throwing some money into it - has since changed, and they’re charging more.

Want to join the family? Sign up to our Kidspot newsletter for more stories like this. 

RELATED: I tried so hard with my kid’s lunch. Then I changed to $10/day for the canteen

A parent is fuming about the rise in canteen fees. Source: iStock

“These freaking fees! How is this typical or reasonable?”

A parent has shared their frustrations with the sharp increase in lunch costs after their child’s school introduced a new payment service for the tuck shop. 

“These freaking fees!” they exclaimed on Reddit, sharing a screenshot of the canteen ordering app, which was riddled with extra fees. 

In order to place an order using a credit card, parents have to pay a 1.9 per cent surcharge and a $0.30 fee.

This doesn’t include an extra $0.20 fee the service charges “per student, per day.” 

The parent was fuming with the hidden fees. “How are they even allowed to do this?” 

They said the fee wouldn’t be as big a deal if it were the same as a standard card fee, but they argued this was taking the mickey. 

“Card fees usually sit around 1 per cent - 1.5 per cent, this is actually way more than that at 1.9 per cent and other fees,” they complained. 

“So [a] $5 item would be $5.60 after all surcharges, that's 12 per cent on top. How is that typical or reasonable?”

RELATED: 'I did my first school canteen shift; the workers who do it daily are angels'

The rise of online canteen ordering apps

Some schools have started embracing the power of pre-ordering lunches from the canteen online, using services like Flexischools, QuickCliq and Spriggy rather than throwing some coins into a paper bag. 

While it's not confirmed which canteen service the original poster is using, services like Flexischools have become a popular choice across the country. 

Flexischools, which launched in 2018, is currently the leading online canteen ordering system and is offered in more than 1650 schools across the country, allowing parents to order items for their children online using a pre-paid allowance or paying using their card. 

Parents can download the app and pre-pay for their children’s meals - but there’s a catch.

According to the Flexischool website, they charge a $0.29 fee on every single canteen order, which allows “Flexischools to continue to support parents and canteen managers and provide a high level of customer service.” 

Speaking to Kidspot, Flexischools said: “Depending on how the school chooses to manage this, they might absorb a Service Fee for parents, or otherwise it will be charged to parents. The usual rate is 0.29c per order for canteen orders, but this can be lower depending on the school.”

There are other aspects of the service that parents are taking umbrage with, particularly the extra fees they’re charged if they have more than one child attending the same school. 

Parents with more than one child will be charged for every separate order, even if their kids attend the same school. 

According to the Flexischools website: “Different orders will need to be placed for each individual student because every single service may have a different location, menu items and timings.” 

RELATED: My kid uses the black market in high school to score Prime drinks and Red Bull

Some parents have switched back to using cash. Source: iStock

“They’re charging you for the right to give them your money?”

Other parents on Reddit were equally annoyed by the hidden fees for kids going to the canteen, arguing the endless fees were “getting ridiculous.”

“They’re taking the p**s like everyone else,” slammed a parent. “I’ve now begun to take cash out of the ATM as principal if someone throws a five per cent charge for this or 10 per cent charge for that at me.”

“Payment fee? They’re charging you for the right to give them your money?” another shocked person wrote. 

Other parents have faced the same issue, getting increasingly frustrated as bleeding money so they can feed their kids. 

“[The] worst thing is you can’t order for two kids at the same school,” an angry parent fumed. “You have to place and [pay] for each order separately, so you get charged double fees!”

“My son’s school have [a] 1.5 per cent surcharge for adding credit,” said another. 

“Then when you place an order for lunch and recess, it’s done as two separate orders which you’re charged .28 cents per order. So adds up to .56 cents a day.”

“I used [to] get given 50c for lunch which got me a pie with sauce, a juice and a buttered finger bun... with 5c change,” someone reminisced. “Why can’t we just do that again?”

But some thought the parent was being a bit precious about the hidden fees, arguing it was a “first world problem.” 

“Why should they subsidise your kid's meal?” someone asked. “They have to pay [credit card] fees so they are passing that on to you.”

“It’s what the payment processor charges them … This isn’t the school making a buck out of you,” said another.

“What a first world sook,” a defiant person wrote. 

As for the original poster, they will likely bring back the old-school way of getting food at the canteen: getting their kids to line up and order it themselves.

“Standing in line at the canteen is the only fee-free option,” they said. 

Originally published as Parents fume as school charges ‘ridiculous’ fees for kids’ canteen lunches