October 04, 2006

Kids say 'Yuck!' to healthy school lunch - "In schools up and down Britain, a new term has meant a new menu. The nation was shocked last year when a television campaign by Jamie Oliver, perhaps the country's best-known celebrity chef (and there are lots of them), exposed the poverty of school lunches here..."

"...Starting this term, pupils must be offered at least two servings of fruit and vegetables a day, oily fish at least once every three weeks, and no more than two portions of deep-fried foods a week. Processed meat products like burgers and chicken nuggets are to be served only occasionally. Salt shakers and ketchup bottles are banned from dinner tables. Chocolate and fizzy drinks are similarly taboo. But bread and water must be freely available. Unfortunately, the campaign appears to have turned many children - and their parents - off the idea of school lunches. Some pulled out when they learned from Oliver's television series just how shabby school lunches had become. But ironically many more have recently deserted school lunches because their children don't like the new fare..."

posted by Melinika 17 years ago
  • Whatever happened to lunchboxes or brown bags? I recall using them up until 8th grade (U.S.) in the early 1980s. Granted they were often used for paltry home fare, but you could eat like a king from one. Is there a stigma about them these days?
  • Julie Critchlow and Sam Walker say their children were left hungry because they didn't like the new fare, and criticized Oliver for making children picky about food. Yep. She raised her kids to refuse all but their favorote foods, but it's Jamie Oliver who's made them picky.
  • Eat the healthy food you are offered or go hungry... that's how we were brought up. It's amazing how quickly you adapt when your tummy is rumbling.
  • But ironically many more have recently deserted school lunches because their children don't like the new fare..." Parents are stupid. Except fer me Ma, 'bless 'er! *drinks, cries* *cough* err, on preview, what gomi said.
  • *Slaps together greasy burger, wad of lard plus fries* There you go.
  • I know noting about where this is happening, but is this maybe an issue where famous chef decided to sweep in and make some changes at a school in a lower class area? Reading that article, you sorta wonder if there's something adding to the resistance of parents (ie we don't want your fancy food, who are you to tell me that I'm not feeding my child properly). I was one of those kids who wanted nothing more than to have a normal looking sandwich in the cafeteria, which just wasn't possible with my whole grains loving mother packing my lunches.
  • How can you have any pudding if you don't beat your meat?
  • God, I would have loved this kind of food when I was eating out of the high school cafeteria. mandyman, these parents weren't determining the school lunches. I think, however, that you have a point in that perhaps the parents suddenly see their own food choices at home are crap because they closely mirrored the crap at school. I do agree with gomichild. Given time and no other options, these kids will eat what they are served at school.
  • Oflinkey: Ooooooooh no they won't! You obviously don't know kids that well. They'll save up their pence pounds and spend them on lollies after school. (Who, me? NEVER) Since I was wise to that, I pre-purchased lunch tickets--and my little blighters SOLD them for 1/4 what I paid for 'em.
  • So, does this mean no more Wacky Cake?
  • My memories of school lunch are an endless parade of shredded lettuce, carrot-and-raisin salad, mashed potatoes, carrot-and-raisin salad, fish sticks, carrot-and-raisin salad, and baked Tater Tots.
  • did you dunk the rolls in the mashed potatoes? Hey, trade you the corn for your roll.
  • Virtually everything I was given in the school lunches was fried or covered with gravy. They offered salads and baked potatoes, but (at least in elementary school) you had to be a teacher to buy them. In junior high and high school, we only had 22 minutes for lunch so rather than going through the long lines we bought potato chips and sodas from vending machines. Now, I love me some junk food, but I hope the situation's a little better before I send my kid off to school.
  • Also, did you have the "indestructable" rolls at your school? They tasted fabulous, but were virtually impossible to smash flat. We went so far as to place the roll on the floor then jump off a chair and onto a roll, and it *still* inflated back up to a semblance of its former self. good times, good times