To think this 'Austerity Day' is one of the most patronising things I've ever seen?

[NoHunsHereHun]

St Paul's Girls school having to eat baked potatoes and fresh fruit for lunch. For a day. I mean FFS, there are SO many better ways to help. Volunteering at a food bank for one.
www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-44578499

[ForalltheSaints]

A simple meal with proceeds going to charity could be called something other than an Austerity Day. Agree the term is wrong.

[Pengggwn]

What it makes me question is what they usually eat! Roast peacock with a side of truffle gratin? Cured leopard flank with a diamond crumb? 😂

[Xenia]

I can't understand why anyone objects. It helps the girls see how some people can just eat potato etc each day and then money goes to charity. Would you rather they bought the sixth form champagne?

[witchofzog]

Is that really a good example of an austerity meal? I have worked with people I grinding poverty and not many of them are able to purchase fresh fruit. A better way would be to give them a pretend budget to feed a family for a week and then either take them to the supermarket at a quiet time or give them a virtual list of grocery items so they can buy some within budget.

[witchofzog]

Sorry - posted too soon.

At least then they are doing and learning something

[Xenia]

Our local Tesco gives out free fruit when you walk in! and I pick fruit free in season in the bushes but that's a separate issue. My ancestors ate 45 potatoes a day and not much else in Ireland! Mind you that reliance on one food caused a huge number of deaths when one breed of potato got the blight etc, so I am not suggesting a return to that kind of way of eating.

[velourvoyageur]

Doing anything for one day a) gives you no idea what it's actually like and b) gives you the false idea that you have some idea what it's like, and that's it's 'not so bad afterall'. The staff who OKed this clearly live in a bubble.

[Neolara]

I think the idea is a good one and I'm not that bothered by the name but understand that others may not agree.

The vast majority of kids at St Paul's will come from very wealthy families. I think it's a bloody good idea to remind them that not everyone is so lucky.

When I was at school in the 80s, (private, Catholic, boarding) every month we had family fast day where we got a bread roll and horrible soup for lunch and the savings were sent off to support various charities. The school talked a lot about the need for us to be kind, contribute to society and to build a fairer world. Family fast day was just one aspect of this.

For me, the result has been that I recognise that I have been given many opportunities and as a result I have a responsibility to to give a lot back. I've volunteered pretty much my whole adult life.

[ImNotAsGreenasImCabbageLooking]

Allowing people to think they're getting any kind of insight into poverty by having them play at it for a short period is likely to be counter productive imo. Those kids are going to come away thinking "Meh, it was fine, no big deal" because of course IT'S NOT LONG TERM!

[ICantCopeAnymore]

Google the menu, @Pengwwwyn. You're not far off.

[ICantCopeAnymore]

Oops, @Pengggwn. Knew it was three of something?

[BananaHarvest]

Meals at public schools do tend to have wider and more interesting choices. Our youngest’s favourite was Duck a l’Orange but she also liked the meze platter as they could go back to their house or outside to eat it.
Austerity meal is a somewhat naive way of trying to do a good thing and missing the mark. I’m sure no offence was intended but it is a tad patronising. Personally, I love beans on a baked potato for a week night supper.

[TakemedowntoPotatoCity]

That isn't an austerity meal, what claptrap. Have you seen the price of fruit? £2 for a punnet of strawberries in Sains/Tesco's but look, right by the ntrance 4 chocolate chip muffins or 6 doughnuts for a quid. A true austerity meal would be value beans, value white bread and a doughnut or something. Piling on meaningless calories and with no beneficial dietary value being a bonus.

[BitchQueen90]

It's the complete out of touch with reality that irritates me. An austerity meal isn't a baked potato with beans, coleslaw and fruit. That's something me and a lot of other people I know would happily choose to eat for lunch.

Austerity is having to choose between heating or eating. Austerity is living off porridge oats with water for breakfast, toast for lunch and pasta with half a tin of value tomatoes which is what I did for a while.

[haverhill]

It reminds me of Marie Antoinette ‘playing’ at peasants on her farm in the grounds of Versailles.
The private school I worked at did the same thing, but we had plain white rice and water.

[Vitalogy]

May be the pope/church could sell off some of it's treasures and trinkets.

[Undercoverbanana]

Clueless people.

Many children in this country don’t get lunch because their carers/parents are too off their faces or unable mentally or financially to provide a meal. Bung them something cheap and processed instead like a burger or muffin.

[Pengggwn]

ICantCopeAnymore

[IfNot]

Shit I feel like a right povvo now, that's what I had for lunch! I would have preferred lobster thermidore [sadface]

[noblegiraffe]

I took her to a supermarket
I don't know why but I had to start it
Somewhere,
So it started there.

I said, "Pretend you've got no money,"
She just laughed and said, "Oh, you're so funny."
I said, "Yeah?
Well, I can't see anyone else smiling in here."

Fucking patronising bollocks. Playing at being poor (but not too poor) in order to feel smug and virtuous at sending the money saved off to those less fortunate then the next day going back to the roast swan? Pardon me for not clapping.

[ClashCityRocker]

Isn't baked potato, beans, coslaw with fruit a perfectly acceptable lunch regardless?

It's when you skip lunch because that's your tea and you know tomorrow's tea is going to be shit, and the day after, and the day after....its not necessarily the food, its the lack of choice.

If they want to teach them about austerity, give them a tenner each and have them feed and entertain themselves for a week. For four weeks in a row, say. Even then it will be only scratching the surface.

It's like those charity nights where you spend the night sleeping out 'like a homeless person'. They all seem to get a bit cold but have a whale of a time, talk about the comeraderie etc. And of course it is utterly meaningless in the context of what it feels like to be homeless.

[itssquidstella]

I appreciate what the school is trying to do, to be fair. No it's not austerity in the sense of bread and dripping or a bowl of gruel, but what is is, is a huge limitation on choice.

I teach in a private school; baked potatoes with beans/cheese/tuna are always one of the options - but it's exactly that: an option.

Being poor means being limited in the choices you are able to make. For pupils who are used to being able to pick and mix from a wide variety of lunch options (not peacock!), having to take what they're given may well be unusual.

It's not just about what they're being given to eat: it's about taking choice away. I think that's a good lesson to teach, that many people don't have the choice. It's option A (whether that's a potato, a doughnut or a can of value baked beans) or nothing.

[HelenaDove]

"Well this isnt so bad is it potatos and fresh fruit I cant understand why so many poorer people are overweight"


This is what those running that school very likely think and they want the kids to think the same.

[Vitalogy]

They're part of the eco system. If food is covered, just shoo them outside if the buzzing is annoying. I can't see a need to kill them.

[Panicmode1]

We used to have 'Fast Fridays' at boarding school - every Friday we'd have a (small) piece of bread and a small bowl of soup and the money that was saved from having a much wider choice of hot or cold food, salad bars, puddings etc, was sent to CAFOD or Oxfam.

It did make us think about those less fortunate than ourselves, and although my children are not having anything like as privileged an upbringing as I did, we still give money or food to the local food bank regularly and we have taught them to put others before themselves.....so maybe it's having more of a lasting impact than you think. It's easy to sneer just because it's a school for wealthy people - but it's not the children's fault where they have been sent to school. I do think that calling it 'austerity day' is somewhat insensitive though.....