To think that Jamie Oliver is right...

[Easywriter]

Shoot me down should you care to but I don't want my children to eat rubbish.

I'm not obsessed by my childrens diet but I want them to eat fresh, wholesome, nutritious food in the correct quantities.

The Government should stand behind Jamie Oliver in his quest to ensure that school meals are of a decent standard.

For some children it may be the only decent meal they eat in a day, for others it will be continuing what is standard in their homes.

If mothers want to feed their children hamburgers through school railings then they deserve to be preached to about healthy eating to within an inch of their lives. Being stupid yourself is no reason to justify letting your stupidity affect your child (I mean the hamburger mothers).

It's not cool to simply disagree with everything the previous Government (as a means to signify a new regime or as a cost cutting exercise) did and surely to give school children good meals is a no-brainer.

Just do it simpleton co-elition!
Surely I'm right!

I think Jamie Oliver did a great job (and with that Ministry of Food thing too).

What's the exact news then? Is there a link/article around? I heard they're also scrapping Change 4 Life ads?

The problem is why the take-up of meals has fallen. Parents who are just rebelling because heaven forbid their little dahlings eat a salad instead of chicken nuggets!!!

It is really annoying that schools are getting away with paying lip service as Butterbur rightly puts it. My DSDs secondary school is like this and it does her no favours as she is a fussy eater so just eats crap all the time.

I'm not sure I agree it's useless preaching to the converted i.e. offering healthy meals to those who eat healthy already. We eat healthily but I hope that by the time my DCs are school age they will be able to have healthy food at school. And the unhealthy options should be taken away because even those kids who love vegetables will often go for the junk food anyway if it's there - peer pressure etc.

they're talking about it on the Wright Stuff at 10 BTW

School dinners, school dinners
Soggy chips, soggy chips.
lumpy semolina, lumpy semolina.
I feel sick, toilet quick
Oh, too late, done it on the plate...

SORRY.
Couldnt resist.

As you were...

I really disliked Jamie Oliver before the healthy eating in schools initiative. He redeemed himself with it, IMO and I really felt his frustration when those awful women sabotaged his efforts by pushing crap through the railings.

My DS starts school in september and if the school lunch menus revert back to whatever they were like before, he'll be having a packed lunch so I know exactly what he's shovelling into his mouth

i'm really lucky in that my borough was a pilot for universal free school meals and the council have pledged to continue funding it. the food is really good and almost all the children at ds's infant school have it every day.

i worked supply asst cooking school meals in the mid 1980s, so i was in loads of different schools, and the food was similarly good. i think most in-house school meals will be fine, it is when there is no kitchen or it is outsourced that it becomes disgusting.

i also think children shouldn't be allowed out at lunchtime unless they are going home, the seniors all seem to live on fried chicken. neighbouring borough has banned fast food shops from within a certain distance from schools, i'd like to see whether that has made a difference.

I do think children should be allowed a pudding though. At my DS scholl, they have yogurt/fruit, but sometimes cake/custard.

It is one of the things that encourages my DS to have school dinners, but I can only afford it twice a week as it is £1.90, that is £15.20 a month, just for twice a week. So quite expensive, but well worth it.

I think if a school really goes for it and makes sure it only serves healthy food then I think it will benefit the people who need it the most i.e. those who get free school meals anyway.

I cant afford schol dinners at about ten pound a week, its too much to find when we are having a lean couple of weeks at the end of the month, especially when ds2 starts too. BUT ds1 had to have the dinners when he was at the nursery as they dont let them take packed lunches, and he loved it, as far as i can tell it was all healthy stuff. If i could afford it I would love them to have the dinners, they seemed pretty healthy and stuff like we have at home such as shepheards pie and crumble for pudding. I cant see how anyone can think it's a bad thing that Jamie Oliver has done it seems insane to complain or stop it.

Saying that I once minded a child who used to come with a pack of dairylea dunkers and a tinned hot dog sausage chopped up for his lunch when he was a baby. His mum told me with pride how he had eaten a donner kebab for his dinner one day - she was really proud that he could manage "real" food. I suspect she would be a burger mum.

Dd1 wants to marry Jamie Oliver. I haven't got the heart to tell her is a) already married and b) he will probably be a wrinkly old grandfather by the time she is old enough to get married.

YANBU. I think what he did for school dinners and with the ministry of food was great.

Plus he encourages uber fussy dd1 to try new things. If it's been on one of his shows or is in one of his books, she will try it. Anyone who get dd1 to eat, is a god in my eyes.

linky

it was when kids used to eating crap food suddenly had to switch to healthy stuff, that they rejected it - I think the reason uptake has increased again is because of the kids who started school with healthy food, so they aren't aware of what they're missing, so to speak.

the kids who want to eat junk food, it's not what they really want, it's that it's what they've been brought up with.

YANBU. I agree with Riven.

YANBU

The people who deserve criticism are the parents who allowed their DC to stop going to school dinners, or fed them hamburgers through the fence.

My DC have school dinners here in Switzerland and you would not believe the delicious and nutritious meals that are served.

As an added plus, it means that we can go to normal restaurants and they recognise many of the dishes and can have a small portion of the adult meals rather than an plate of chicken nuggets and chips.

This whole thing really gets me on my soap box.

I was working with the Dept for Education team who had been developing the whole improvement to school meals issue before Mr Oliver (or rather his producers) popped up and wanted to make publicity for himself a programme about improving school meals.

I don't dispute for one second the whole healthy eating argument BUT I don't think the project worked as well as it could have because it was structured in a way which was never going to be sustainable in schools. Sure it's raised awareness as high profile programmes often will (particularly those showing someone like Jamie working so hard and giving his all for the kids) but there will always be a backlash because once the cameras have moved on suddenly alfalfa sprouts aren't so attractive.

If the producers had worked with the ground work and research that had already been done instead of deciding it didn't fit with the format they wanted to use there would have been a properly sustainable system in place. So much of this is typical of the quick fix 'SuperNanny' type programming I get so cross about.

gets off soap box

YADNBU Jamie Oliver is brilliant.

Beore Jamie Oliver I worked in a school which fed kids hotdogs and chips everyday as well as other nasties like slush. This sort of stuff is ok now and again but not everyday. I work hard to make sure my kids eat a balance.
Jamie Oliver has worked hard to make sure kids get decent food down them and should be applauded for his efforts.

Very good post, madascheese.

FWIW, I'll be glad if they stop wasting money on the Change 4 Life thing too.

(I speak as someone who has just lost a freelance contract as a result of government cuts. But cuts have to be made somewhere, and my service was not exactly vital to the general public, even if the income for peddling governmental lies propaganda made a big difference to me personally).

I quite like Jamie and the spotlight he shone on school meals

as I understand it a current minister has publicly disagreed with him recently I think Andrew Landsley

I think two things :

Don't let children off the premises at lunchtime to go and buy their lunch. I hate seeing hordes of them milling about the secondary schools at seemingly all hours.

If they slightly backed off in terms of the menus they might get a higher hit rate. I believe most of the stuff like coleslaw and medleys of peppers and crudites etc get left on the plate at school. Many children are conservative eaters - what would be wrong with a meat and two veg type approach rather than all the clever salads and so forth?

madascheese what kind of things were you doing before the JO crew showed up? just interested

as an aside, I think this is one of those issues because of the whole 'nanny state' thing - I don't see the problem with restricting personal choice TBH (so shoot me!) when it's aimed at people getting healthier

I think kids shouldn't be allowed out at lunch either. we weren't (Im 23 so not long ago)

good point about keeping it simple and not trying to be fancy - nowt wrong with the bog-standard spag bol, meat and veg etc if it's cooked healthily.

How anybody can slag him off for trying is beyond me.
He passionately tried to fix something that was really shit.
Agree with Katisha, children should have to stay in schools for lunchtime, that would make the differente
Jamie Oliver is great

I agree with the OP. Jamie is annoying but his heart really is in the right place, his passion on this subject is an inspiration and his food really does taste fantastic.

And the hamburger-smuggling mums need a good spanking.

MathsmadMummy

If you meant what did I do, I wasn't working on School meals, the team I was seconded to from Local Government dealt wth a variety of issues and I was involved with transport and walking to school in particular.

If you mean the department, much of the work about effective tendering was being researched and reported and the Food Schools trust was well on the way to being set up.

d'you think they would've done stuff much differently to JO?

I would like the government to look at what the children are eating instead of school meals...might be a healthy packed lunch? Could be that those opting out of school lunches would have eaten school chips before and now are eating shop chips(so not less healthy). If the 75% that are still eating school lunches are eating better then it's worth it.

Really shitty of the government to say anything negative IMO.