Free fruit and veg for toddlers/

[Hulababy]

linknews.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3492939.stm\free vouchers{} for fruit and veggies for low income familes. What do you think?

The school my kids go to have banned all snacks except fruit and veg. Fruit winders etc have all been banned. They are allowed to take friut juices or water but nothing fizzy. And not only is this better for their diet, it also takes the pressure of the parents to buy whatever crap is being pushed on kids TV in the adverts!

I would also be loath to ban the good old packed lunch. In fact most of the kids who bring them to my school have a good well balanced meal. But if 'healthy' cook food was the only option I could see some kids pressuring their parents into letting them opt out and carry on eating crap.

I've lost count of the number of kids i have seen eating a breakfast of Coke and sweets. And then they can't concentrate.....what a surprise!

You would like my son's head teacher then. He would like to have healthy snacks (fruit or veg basically) and water available always to the kids. Actually, I think they always get to drink when they're thirsty, which I think is good. At the moment, I think it's two snacks a day and lunch. It's a very small school, which would seem easier to control re proper snacks, but it gets too personal, iyswim.

But you're in the upper grades, right? It'd be harder with older kids, I think?

my kids school banned chocolate bars in packed lunch and it also doesnt have any school dinners.

when they go to senior school, they will either take a packed lunch and sit with the nerd brigade or take in a couple of quid and eat shit topped with lard and fat and shit and more shit for their dinner.

read the article JJ interesting .8 bars of chocolate a day? thats amazing in itself!

no cost isnt mentioned - its not as cheap to eat healthy. and healthy definitions are different too. but as we can afford to give free fruit and veg to toddlers why cant we afford to give free healthy stuff to all children.

if school dinners were nothing but healthy stuff on offer - which doesnt have to be all high fibre bread and stewed carrotts which can be lovely dished with fresh fish and salads and all the other stuff people who cook could tell you about and i cant - if school dinners were this then most children would get one healthy meal a day

The 'olly friu and veg' school is where my kids go, small school, little kids, so as you say easier to control. I teach in a 1300 pupil comprehensive, so a lot harder to control!

We have just banned the dreaded panda pops, full of sugar and E numbers. The only obvious difference so far is that there is less litter

I would like to ban all sweets and chocs in school, but I don't think that we could ever inforce it. The only way to make sure they eat a 'proper' lunch (packed or cooked)is to make sure that they have no other option. The real way ahead would be to enlist the help of the parents and we should work together to raise the standard of the kid's diets.

Unless there is backing from home some kids will get round the system, and the whole thing will collapse as child after child jumps back on the junk food wagon shouting 'But X is eating it, so why can't I?'

Gordon Bennet, my typos are getting bad! And I'm stone cold sober!

I think if you spent more on healthy lunches and made them modular (ie here's the veg with no dairy, here's a cheesy something, here's a bit of meat, here's a healthy bread, etc) and made them pick a few it'd work. But so many people have food issues (allergies, vegetarianism, religious things) that there has to be a choice. I think that's what would cost a whole lot more. Personally, I think it'd be worth it.

Who decides the funding for that? Is it the LEA or the school?

I don't know, to be honest. I do know that the school has now signed up to a 'healthy eatting in schools' standard. I wouldn't have a problem with kids opting out, as long as the alternative was healthy. And it would also have to be for one of the real reasons that you list. Not just because little Fred 'Will only eat chiken nuggets' or that would invalidadte the whole thing.

I was facinated to see the program about the kids who ate the war time diet. At the start they were all turing up their noses at the 'Real' food, and by the end of it they were clearing their plates with great enjoyment.

Paula, I believe that frozen veg is as good for you, in most cases as fresh. And I have to say I agree about a tax on cigs/alcohol.

Lavender, I am in good health, do you think I should be forced to go out to work and leave my children? Is that the kind of society you would want to live in??? And fwiw, I consider myself an optimist, I have lots of plans and aspirations for the future, but I still haven't managed to figure a way out of this situation.

Lavender's dp, do we really need to cheapen the debate by getting into the "I'm worse off than you/I'm a better person than you" kind of conversations? It's hardly helpful.

Misdee (((hugs))) sounds like you're doing really well in a tough situation.

I just want to emphasise again for those of you who are questioning the validity of this scheme being paid for out of 'your' taxes...this is not a new scheme. It is an extension of an existing scheme. The vouchers are for the same amount of money as they are now, but they can be spent on more things than they can at present.

SG, you are quite right about the frozen veg thing. In fact frozen peas have been shown to be higher in vitamins than fresh ones, because they are frozen so soon after being picked. Fresh peas are 'older' by the time they are sold, and have less vitamins.

Frezen veg are generaly very good. Tinned less good, and dried the worst in terms of nutritional value....but dried friut does have a lot of fibre and can be taken as one of the 5 a day. A matchbox full is considered a portion....useful if kids like rasins/dried apricots, a sweet snack that adds to the 5 a day

hey i'm fine, dont need sympathy me. i have dealt with the things in my past, and just accept it as part of my life.

getting back on topic, it would be beneficial to extend the vouchers for other items as some families dont use the tokens each month. and seeing they are only valid for 4 weeks i think it would be good.

dd1 nursery does not allow any food or drinks to be taken in. they have milk at breaktime and thats it. quite pelased about that, i know some parents arent tho, one of them stated that if his dd wanted to bring in buscuits and juice she should be allowed. the headmistress pointed out that due to wide ranging dietry requirements/allergies of other pupils it was unfair, and that this was the way the nursery ran and that was that really.

Hmb, quite agree when you say we should get people out of the poverty trap rather than give them vouchers for food and I agree with stupidgirl et al that it's insulting to assume poor = stupid/unable to make food decisions. But if this is as you say stupidgirl, an extension of an existing scheme then maybe it's not such a bad idea.

I might approve of a "fat tax" if it were in the form of a corporation tax for the companies who manufacture/profit from junk food but I don't think that taxing certain foods is going to stop people eating them, not at all. I don't think the govt thinks so either. IMO all a Fat Tax will do is raise revenue which is what they really want. I don't buy this "we care about obesity" line, I really don't - tackle school meals then for a start. Ah, just read more of the thread and agree with you again on this subject Hmb and JJ.

I disagree wholeheartedly with Lavendar/her h on the subject of benefits too.

Why

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stupidgirl, am slightly confused/amazed that you think dh/ me think we are better than you, how little you have understood what trying to say, everyone on this earth is a human being with all sorts of needs.............but like dh said earlier benefits are not owed, In France they stop after a year, it's very easy to expect the government to foot the bill, but lots of people have had to work very hard to get where they are, it just shouldn't be expected....am sure you are trying desperately to get a job, am sure you will get one....he who dares wins (Derek Trotter...Only Fools and Horses), not the wrong thing to say but real, have got more experience in looking for jobs than hot dinners, so feel free to talk about any probs....btw have you had many rejections in job applications in your life....how many no's if you do 't mind me asking

hi sb34, how old are your dc?

comments are mine where I have said not lavenders dh, nothing wrong with receiving benefits, don't think you have read original arguement hereor else you wouldn't be going on about probs with benefits!

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sb34, how old are your children?

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sb34, it does make a difference, because if they were at school then you would be able to work between the hours of 9.30am and 2.30am and earn a bit of extra cash for yourselves

Lavendar, I wasn't suggesting me specifically. I believe it was your partner who made the comment. The implication seemed to be that because he's been down and pulled himself up it makes him a better person than those who haven't been so far down or haven't managed to pull themselves up yet.

As I have explained before - my situation right now is difficult wrt finding work. It's not a case of sending off loads of job applications and being rejected, it's a case that there aren't very few jobs which I can actually do.

Sorry to be blunt but what jobs can you do? sure you can lots of things (being a mother and all that)

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stupidgirl, you missed the thing totally here, he did not say just because he has pulled himself up that makes him a better person (please read this properly)....he does not think himself better than anyone because of what he has done...WHAT HE WAS SAYING is that you can be whatever you want to be (if you want to be)....human beings have so much more potential than they actually let out....do you think that the people who have goodish jobs now said "Oh, that's too difficult, I can't, I've got this....we are capable of miracles....don't waste your talents...tomorrow could be the end of the world....btw. what is your dream job, or dream?

You're so right, Lavender, to imply that stupidgirl is a cleverskins, if, as I think, she is anais in a new name. But sometimes it's hard to turn talent into renumeration. Sometimes motivation isn't enough and sometimes those without motivation or talent get by- myself being a case in point. Not fair all round. Not sure what this has to do with fruit and veg for rugrats tho.