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!

Madascheese
I understand your frustration. It must be annoying to work away at something then sleb comes along and suddenly everyone jumps on the bandwagon.

The tv programmes reached a far bigger audience much quicker than any government sponsored programme could.

I agree that serving salads and alfafa is the wrong way to go about it. Decent food that DC like to eat is not that hard to make. Mine would survive on pasta with a variety of sauces interspersed with chicken dishes and the occasional bangers and mash.

Had he not been Jamie Oliver but just a concerned parent on a crusade, he would not have attracted so much criticism.
I am incredulous that we can criticise someone for trying to improve an obviously crap situation. It seems peculiarly British to bleat on about a 'Nanny State' in one breath, while pursuing action against the government when personally affected by perceived government inaction on another subject.

More power to anyone who tries to make things better and shame on those who mock their efforts, just because it's easier not to bother.

Some excellent points on this thread, BTW.

Yes I do.

As I said I was working on a similar type of project in walking to school. The work done there though less publicly has been significantly more successful and it was to be set up in a similar way, it's a method that has worked really well locally encouraging and empowering local volunteers across the country with some guidance and support from central Governement.

Although there is still resistance it works bcause you're not setting people up who are doing it 'wrong' as the bad guys, that's what happened with JO in my opinion - those Mums who took the burgers were vilified in that programme and more could have been achieved (I suspect) without publicy patronising them.

But that's just all my opinion and I only worked for 15 years in large scale behvioural change so I may be talking out of my bum!

He really has his heart in the right place and puts so much back in and wants to elevate food so that our relationship & understanding with food gets better.

Whats wrong with providing children more variety - there will be be stuff they don't eat but if you keep going and saying xyz is 'normal' then that's what they will start to expect.

Would really like to see all children get a free meal that has limited choice but is cooked well and balanced etc. This should include puds / cakes - as it shows these are Ok in balance. OUr DCs sometimes says X or Y is unhealthy which is packed up from school, think its better to say that nothing in itself is unhealthy but there may be other options or that you need to make sure you have a balance. After all only eating celery everyday would be very unhealthy.

It may cost more but in longer term we save - this is where the govt need stop take a longer view and do more preventative measures which are costly now but we end up paying in the end and much more if we don't take the actions.

Seems to be the govt now just want to make an excuse to cut the budget. These are some of the initiatives that should be 'ring fenced' and supported. Look at other budget areas more like all the money we spend on armed forces abroad and for what exactly???

"And the hamburger-smuggling mums need a good spanking."

Exactly. I so wanted to give them a punch myself... and I'm usually quite mild mannered!

i agree with the school lunch changes but they really need to look at some of the other discussions/lessons which go on in schools. DD1 has been told that cheese isn't healthy because its got lots of fat in it.

When they did healthy eating in class and pretty much since then we get the spanish inquisition before every meal, "is this healthy?" "is it good for me?"

My HUGE concern is that whilst we may be making some inroads into the potential obesity problem we are also creating the potential for a generation of children with huge hang ups about food in general. Questioning whether a plate of lasange is ok to eat. We have had so many conversations with DD1 about food which just leave me feeling very concerned about her and the future not because i think she'll end up obese but the exact opposite. We pretty much answer her with 'you have a balanced diet, sometimes we have food which is less healthy but in moderation is ok' but i think more education into moderation and variation rather than the whole fat bad veg good message.

I do agree with the points made and as I said agree utterly that school food needed to change.

I have perviously bleated on in a similar way about programmes like Suppernanny and WifeSwap etc as attmepting to turn social change into entertainment and even had I not known the history from working there (again not my project so have no axe to grind) I woul have doubted it was an effective wy to bring about the change.

I don't doubt he means well, but I just think it like so many other requires a slightly more sophisticated approach. IIRC he also did one on getting the nation to eat more healthy and that seems to have fallen a bit flat too?

I have great admiration for JO attempting to sort out school meals but some of the regulations are bizarre, they seem to attempt to make every meal perfectly balanced rather than say balanced over the course of a week. From what I see at my kids school this does result in some strange combinations. A friend is currently training to take over the school kitchen in September, the meals are centrally planned thus not allowing her any creativity (she has previously worked in the caterinfg industry) and one of the regulations she has come across says that you are not allowed 2 round things (for example a choice of burger or fish cake) on the same day

I agree with Riven it's a start and a very good one however I think there is a long way to go. A few things that I think need tightening up are :-

1)cost-they are too expensive if you have more than one child.I know good food costs but if you haven't got the money you haven't got the money. If they got the price down somehow more would actually eat them,nothing like the pocket to get parental support.

2)they need to do away with the horrible plastic trays that have the entire meal on. Kids leave half of the 1st as they know they've got something nice and sweet sat in front of them to fill up on.I think they should have to get up and go and collect dessert after.

3)I'd like to see healthier desserts. Yes I know in a balanced diet cakes and stodge are ok but they don't actually need it, yogurt and fruit based desserts(crumbles etc) would actually be better and kids again may eat more of the first course.I don't particularly want to pay for cookies etc when I could provide that at home as they come in from school.If they need to bulk up the calories I'd rather they had w/m bread at lunchtime.

4. I'd like them to put the veg option on their plate regardless of what the child says.I'm paying for a healthy dinner not meat, pots/pasta minus 2 veg. Kids are more likely to pick at veg if it's sat in front of them.

I just can't believe this gov are actually slagging off JO when he has put his heart,soul and cheque book into getting kids to eat healthier. Who else has actually got off their arses and done anything else. The negativity must be to justify cuts.

"two round things on the same day" - how stupid. Just shows that we don't allow people to use their own creativity - the guidelines should cover the nutritional aspects and balance. The solution anyway is to make the fish cakes square .

My DW is a trained Home Economics teacher and got out of HE when the subject became more and more about technology, packaging stuff etc etc.

She now works in an EBD school and the kids really want to learn about and enjoy doing good old basic HE stuff i.e. how to cook.

The whole food stuff and education needs to be done much more holistically not just about the diners but about what we educate and give them the skills to live day by day.

Hear Hear SDD

I agree that the separating food into "healthy" and "unhealthy" is potentially more damaging to children's health than letting them have cake occasionally.

I just checked the school dinner menu for my DC's school. On Monday they had Beef Bourguignonne, with potato gratin and bell peppers. As dessert: Cheese and cherries.

They often have fish with rice, or chicken with either veg or salad. Sometimes as a dessert they have fruit salad, or crumble. Other days they have cake or mousse au chocolat.

This is what I call a balanced diet. Everything in moderation.

The DC are starting to eat salad and vegetables as they have to try them in school and so get used to them.

Well said, SDD.

Madame very at your menu.

When DD1 ws at primary school (pre-JO's campaign) every Friday she used to eat Mac and cheese with chips and then cake for pudding. That was the day I labelled 'Carb Fest'. The other 4 days weren't much better, so she switched to sandwiches.
DD2 started school post-JO. She will come home and tell me it was 'Fish Pie with carrots and broccoli and apple crumble for pudding'. She loves her school dinners and there is so much more variety than before. It's not evangelically 'healthy' (ie. just salads, wm bread and yogurt every day) but it is balanced. And that is how it ought to be. In fact, she has got so much better at eating veg at home since she has had to eat it at school and now eats just about anything served up to her. I would hate to see it go back to cheap processed crap that I would never consider feeding her at home.

Mme, I cross-posted with you (slow typing!) but I agree totally.

And wowser at your dinners! DD2 would be in heaven!

I assume your DCs are going to a French school?

Like in the JO programme he went to France & Italy and the whole ethos is different - take time for lunch and see the social / educational side of giving good food.

Thats what we should strive for in this country too.

agree there needs to be more food ed in schools - and actually food, not packaging, theory etc! its all very well learning about nutrition and food hygiene but what's the bloody point if you can't even boil an egg?!

in my entire secondary school career (and it was a very very good school) we cooked exactly TWICE.

once was a pasta meal, we had to choose a ready meal and create a home-made version, compare nutrition/cost. great project - and actually that's what started my love of cooking as my dad taught me to make arrabiata sauce!

the other project?

'design and make a sandwich'.

Yes, I am in Switzerland, near the French border and am totally at my DC's lunches too.

They also have a two hour lunch break, which gives them time to eat a decent lunch and still have plenty of time for playing.

I used to really dislike the lad, but I have to say I've warmed to him.

I wanted to cry when he presented those Italian dinner ladies with our UK kids school dinners - they were appalled and said they wouldn't feed their dog the meal.

I saw some packed lunches on a school trip and was appalled. Two kids had utter crap - fizzy drink, billy bear sausage, wotsits, Milky Way, Choc Biscuits, processed cheese slices, Chocolate pudding and those choc dipper things. No fruit or sandwiches. On the bus home these kids were gangsta trippin' on sugar and ripping lumps out of each other for the entire journey. I got totally fed up of asking them to stop and had to separate them.

I spoke to the TA afterwards and she said if they were to remove the stuff from the lunchboxes that was bad some kids wouldn't eat.

I don't think it's fair that teachers have to put up with that kind of behaviour in a stretched class of 31 5 year olds.

If I spent my shopping budget on processed food it would cost so much more than my usual £60 Lidl shop.

My relief was that my DS whilst looking at everyone's packed lunch didn't even question why he didn't have any of the choccy things in his lunch bag too. Phew!

in our lea the food appears healthy but it is all pre cooked and brought in. 5 yrs ago it was all cooked fresh and beautifully so in our own kitchen. I am sorry but I won't pay for cook'n'kill food that has lost its nutritional value from being cooked twice and I also can't afford it at £2.25 a meal. The portion sizes are ridiculously small for a boy with a vast amount of energy....plus they refuse to cater for allergies......

but I do repspect JO for trying to do get the Government to listen....

YANBU!

We have the free school meals for all primary school kids, here and there's restrictions on junk in lunch boxes to back up the "healthy school" idea. The whinging about the ban on chocolate and biscuits for lunch when it was introduced was unbelievable

And coolma, my husband's cousin was in the Jamie's School dinners series, so I only have 3 degrees of separation from him, too!

That is our problem, I think. We don't attach enough importance to food and nourishment (I use that word deliberately because it's not just for the body). So much is about how much can we do in how little time. I am a working parent, running a business and writing for a newspaper but food is of huge importance to me and I will always create time to make and eat food. Maybe not every day of the week, but enough to pass on the message that we shouldn't neglect our wellbeing in the relentless pursuit of whatever. Being 'too busy to eat properly' is a crap excuse for not being bothered when you can grab a ready meal and eat in front of the TV later.

Healthy school should not mean they have to ban choc & biscuits - as long as there is a balance there.

Mostly the biscuits and cakes are homemade anyway for our DCs - would not agree to a ban. Who checks the teachers lunches then????