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

They’ve named it badly but come on, they’re raising money for local charities. It’s a common fundraiser - porridge week/day and it teaches kids to give something up for others.

Yes beans and potato s are a perfectly good lunch, but not what they’re used to.

I think part of the problem (I speak as a prep school parent) is that it’s easy to put a few coins in a box for charity. Or buy a few cakes at a cake sale. Or offer a less ambitious menu for a day and give the difference to charity. Or give the proceeds of the Summer Fair to some local group. All of this is worthy but easy. It involves no conversation, no actual engagement with the issue, and involves effectively ‘chucking some money’ at those who are deemed to have less. An actual conversation about austerity could be historical, political, economic and possibly very uncomfortable for many of the students to hear.

If jacket potatoes are cheaper than soup then how come we have soup kitchens and not jacket potato kitchens?

Most, if not all state schools raise money for charity. That is hardly the preserve of the private sector. Maybe they don’t realise that that’s something normal too.

noble I suspect soup kitchens aren’t feeding as many people in a limited amount of time. Soup kitchens don’t know how many clients they are going to have at each meal, with soup you can defrost/freeze as demand changes. With a school you know exactly how many people & when they are coming, like in an office canteen. It’s a long time since I worked as a kitchen porter in a large canteen but it’s a similar set up. The catering is run in house, no one is making a profit for the shareholders on it, hence the food can be better.

Kosha that's such a good point but it's true with a lot of charity stuff - just raise money don't engage - that's really food for thought for me.

I remind my children a lot that they are lucky to have what they have which is a very ordinary middle class lifestyle. It just be very hard to do any meaningful work with very rich children about poverty

I agree 100% with noblegiraffe.

@noblegiraffe I take your point about the fact that the pupils do still have choice in terms of eating later or whatever; however, perhaps many of them aren't used to such a limited choice at lunch - that might raise its own questions about privilege, but it doesn't take away from the fact that children who are used to having almost unlimited options are suddenly being faced with much fewer. If that at least gives them pause for thought, I think it's a valuable experience.

*many fewer

Sunday nights were gas or electricity nights. IS payday Monday. Usually chose gas for warmth and shared dinner for 3 of a 20p sliced white toasted over the gas fire, marmite or jam for topping. Spent a good few months doing this.

That's not an austerity meal. We are (relatively) comfortably off, and I would consider baked potatoes and fresh fruit a normal weekday meal. A true austerity meal would be e.g. smart price noodles, or smartprice baked beans and bread. People who are really struggling won't be eating much fresh fruit.

However, they are raising some money, which will hopefully be put to good use.

I had a look at the schools sample menu,

Turkey Escalope
with parmesan crust, lemon and
black pepper
served with
courgette mornay
columbine potatoes

for school dinners, really?!!?

Seared Cod
with aubergine ratatouille
served with
Chantenay carrots
lyonnaise potatoes

FFS wow, I went to a nice school but we still had food that was simple school dinner type food

The principal was good, but I'd have suggested 2 slices of brown bread, spread with jam, plus a glass of water for the meal,
with the kids staying in, not having lunch out afterwards.

They won't starve between breakfast & lunch, but the meagre plain meal & temporary hunger might have given pause for thought

It depends what the school is trying to achieve. If it is to raise funds for charity, ok for a day (although there may have been more appropriate ways to do it). If it is to raise awareness in pupils regarding families who live in poverty it is an utterly pointless and condescending exercise. What fun, being poor for the day and eating a baked potato. The more aware amongst the pupils may have stopped and thought for a minute or two but it will hardly leave a lasting impression. A month of 'poor' meals, and really poor meals, with their Mum or Dad sitting there watching them eat with nothing for themselves may have done some good. As would giving them a very limited amount of money and saying this is all you have for the month to provide meals. Or giving them the money and the choices - rent/food/gas/ electric?? Obviously that will never happen so far better would be to ensure that such privileged children are raised with an awareness that they are privileged, and that privilege is mainly down to good fortune.

It was calling it "austerity" that was shocking. They had a perfectly normal and healthy lunch. To teach the students that this is what austerity looks like is bizarre.

Raising money is a good thing, but some of those children could have ended their austerity week with no idea what it's like to live in poverty if they really did think that meal is what "poor people" eat.

I guess you'd hope that most of them would have had the sense and knowledge to realise how far from reality it was. Surely no one could be that clueless.

This patronising bollox is actually harmful, not helpful. The pampered princesses will be left thinking that austerity isn't so bad after all. And that's because they won't have experienced anything like it with their jacket potatoes and fresh fruit lunch.

Next they'll be wondering what the hell the pathetic 'poor' are whinging on about as when they had 'austerity lunch', it really wasn't so bad....

Jesus Johnnie. Pampered kids indeed. Austerity lunch my fuckin arse! For the record, I was privately educated and our school did this sort of crap to get us in touch with "poor people".
I left school and had NO idea, that people couldn't afford heating, food and stuff. I was cocooned, and yet my Dad was brought up in Ireland, brought over here in the 30's, was also privately educated at a school for poor Irish Catholic boys( assisted place). He was clever and did well for himself.
He was determined I would never know poverty, and I mostly didn't.
But being the lefty liberal I became, I work with people who live on or below the breadline. People who live on foodbank donations such as hotdogs,tins,soup, UHT milk etc. No fresh stuff at all as it doesn't keep. We did it as a challenge for a fortnight, it was bloody horrendous.
And don't forget, there are families that are in homeless acc, that only have a microwave and a kettle.
Thats true austerity, not baked tatties and salad ffs

I need some people's eyes, privates schools would get it wrong no matter what they do, simply because they are private schools.

It doesn't seem to matter to most on her that their intention is good. If they are trying to raise awareness amongst their pupils that they are privelidged, to show them that many people often have to eat bland repetitive meals, to raise a little money in th process and to make their pupils stop and think about the situation, I really don't see how they can be fairly criticised.

They can hardly tell a load of private school parents that they are going to take their money and then feed their children on meals that aren't as nutritional as they should be for a month. And even if thy did people would still complain that these privelidged children didn't really know what poverty was like. Of course they won't know, but other than having an awareness, why should they know? They are children, and will no doubt have their own issues in life to deal with. I think this like this are a good thing, and even if you don't agree, it's got to be better than doing nothing surely?

I actually don’t have a problem with the concept. I mean, one day where they are directed to think about others less fortunate than themselves and donate an amount to charity? Great. There’s nothing wrong with that and I don’t see it as “playing at poverty” so much as being reminded to think of others. What is ridiculous is it being in the news? And why is it called austerity day?? A baked potato is hardly austere. Seems well intentioned and badly executed.

To really go for the Austerity food bank experience they should be eating spaghetti hoops for lunch, followed by dry cornflakes. Fresh potatoes and fruit isn't the real food bank experience - not round here anyway! I had to use one a few times while waiting for UC payments and once I was given a single fresh onion. Everything else was either tinned or dry packet food, leading to some very 'interesting' meals chez Roomba. Not complaining though, it kept us all alive and I'm very grateful that people donated and gave their time to help us.

Poorface is never a good look.

A school with the resources of St Paul’s could have come up with MANY creative ways to teach the same message. This is just patronising bollocks.

Yup. How about having the girls research what someone on benefits or even min wage in London with a family has to live on, deducting tax, rent, gas, electricity etc, calculate what they can spend on food per day and have them go and find out what they can afford in various supermarkets? Or same exercise but different "characters" on different income levels?

We are not (thanks God) struggling for money but if my kid's school did this I'd be withdrawing them and loudly explaining why. Yes, even from a leading private school.

I understand the concept and I think it’s a great attempt to try and get children to open their eyes but it’s been clumsily done.

It seems to be a bit of a new fad to glorify poverty. I’ve seen a lot of Youtubers doing the £1 challenge and thinking it’s really quirky.

It may have been more worthwhile to get them to volunteer at a soup kitchen or to have a fundraiser for a local charity rather than eat a jacket potato and an apple.

Both of which would have been a treat to 20 year old me who would live off a tin of smart price beans and four slices of dry bread during the week.

There has been very little education on this and to billions of people around the world this is daily life not just a lunch time. I don’t know why but it just doesn’t sit right with me it feels very much like ‘look what the commoners have to do’

Did you see the poster they used? A butler lifting the lid of a silver platter with three fucking peas on it. The whole thing is so badly judged, they have no idea.

Fresh fruit costs a fortune.
Ive been on the bones of my arse before today (I've no issues with admitting it)
and I lived on 25p koka noodles.