Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Other subjects
Original poster

Mothers buy chips to get around schools healthy eating

402 replies

Blandmum · 15/09/2006 15:49

I have just heard in the radio that some mothesr have been boycoting a schools healthy food initiative.

They have been taking orders from the kids, going to the local chippy, and taking food trollys of junk food round to the children at lunch time.

Oh FFS!

Taking out of the equation those small numbers of children who have special needs issues with food, what the fuck do these women think that they are doing?

How do they think this will help the children or the school?

OP posts:
Bugsy2 · 18/09/2006 13:21

What I don't get is what the motivation is for force feeding your children chips through the school railings. Why would you want to do it? Is it because you feel the poor little mites may not like school lunches? Is it because you think that the school lunches are inadequate? Is it because you dislike being told what your children should eat?
I just can't ever imagine scuttling down to the school gates at lunchtime to feed my kids through the railings!!!!

FioFio · 18/09/2006 13:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Greensleeves · 18/09/2006 13:37

I don't see this as a class issue. I went to a private boarding school from the age of 13 (scholarship, my choice due to difficult home life) and I can confirm that the upper echelons and their offspring are just as likely to eat like pigs. The dinner of choice among the girls in my house (the ones who weren't bulimic, that is) was supernoodles on toast with mayonnaise. Washed down with Coke.

IMO there's a degree of snobbery in assuming that this is a classs issue.

vickiyumyum · 18/09/2006 13:54

i'm sorry i'm probably repeating a lot of waht has already been said, but sn aside (as that seems to be aheated debate and as i have no experience of that side of diet then i am not qualified to argue any points there), i truly think the parents selling food to children through the school fence is appalling, if it was at the school my children attend i would be outraged and would feel a need to confront the women who are doing it.
my children are no angels when it comes to food, they have had their fare share of macdonalds, kfc, pizza hut etc, but we manily eat a good healthy diet plenty of fruit and veg and when we were on abudget it was actually cheaper to feed everyone a stew or soup or a big spag bol than it was to feed them freezer junk.
my point is (i think) that children are given the choice about what to eat and if the parents are unhappy about the food offered to their child in school then they are free to bring in a packed lunch containing whatever they wish to put in it, but if i was providing my child with lunch money each day and discovered that some 'women' decided that they knew better than me and was offering to buy them chips when i thought my child was getting a nutritionally balance meal i would be outraged.
what gives those women the right to influence their choices on other peoples children, if they want to smuggle chipos and burgers throgh the fence to their own children then so be it, but not to everyones elses!

UnquietDad · 18/09/2006 13:59

2shoes, I don't think you've got the point I was making. My last post was saying exactly that - that the reaction to this story has, to an extent, been one of "us and them" relief, rather than the more appropriate outrage that ANY kids could be subjected to this diet.

I don't know how I could have put it any more clearly, to be honest.

2shoes · 18/09/2006 14:12

just shows what happens when you read something and miss out a simple "if" oops
Never mind I am sure you will except your "class" back sorry

UnquietDad · 18/09/2006 14:15

Sorry, 2shoes, you're sure I will do what? Confused

I did say "I feel more uncomfortable with my initial reaction to it now" as well. As others have said, education is the key here.

2shoes · 18/09/2006 14:27

it would take me ages to read all the way through this and can't be bothered to be honest I re read your recent post and realised i had misread it ok
so I said sorry

Original poster
Blandmum · 18/09/2006 17:56

Todays menu where I work

Roast Pork with veg and boiled new potatoes, gravey and apple sauce.

Chicken chasseur, with the same veg options

salad or veg with a cheese and tomato omlette

Pasta with tomato and vegetable sauce

Fresh salad bar

Ham and salad sandwiches

Chicken and salad sandwiches

Veggie pizza slices

A bog standard comp.

OP posts:
Saturn74 · 18/09/2006 18:00

Lots of choice there, MB. Do most of the staff eat at school too?

GeorginaA · 18/09/2006 18:03

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I want to come eat at your school mb!!

GeorginaA · 18/09/2006 18:03

Oh and I want you as my son's science teacher too.

Where do you work?!

Original poster
Blandmum · 18/09/2006 18:06

Lots of us do, more since the intoduction of the salad bar, which is effectivly a 'take away'.

You get a big bowl of salad, green salad, coleslaw, potatoes, bean salad,cous cous etc...you pick what you want, and a small bowl of fresh friut salad in fruit juice for £1.60. The fruit salad today was kiwi fruit, grapes, apples, pears and water melon. Excellent stuff. I had it myself.

I'd eat the 'sit down' food as well, but TBH I am often doing other things at lunch and have to eat while I do them!

OP posts:
Original poster
Blandmum · 18/09/2006 18:07

Lincolnshire, which is going to get a kicking from Jamie tonight I understand.

Our kitchen staff have always been very good. I was thlking to one of them today and she says that they don't get any hassle from the kids as they have been slowly phasing this stuff in over two terms.

OP posts:
GeorginaA · 18/09/2006 18:23

At ds1's primary school there isn't any hot dinners at all - all kids have to bring a packed lunch. There are packed lunches provided for those who are entitled to free school dinners

It's a shame really, because I think it would encourage ds1 to try more things if he was given them at school.

Original poster
Blandmum · 18/09/2006 18:24

I don't think tha primaries have any hot food provision though.

My two do, but they are in a private school that has its own kitchens

OP posts:
Greensleeves · 18/09/2006 18:25

In what sense will Lincolnshire be getting a kicking from JO tonight? Is he on telly?

Piffle · 18/09/2006 18:27

I'm in Lincs!
Our school meals well at ds's school are fabulous
There are a number of primary schools here who get home cooked food delivered by a lady who runs a farm kitchen for them.
Fantastic food
But mostly we have packed lunches at primary level, most of the kids at ds's primary had decent enough contents
Unlike in Hants where is was frubes, wotsits and kitkats and chocolate milk

Blu · 18/09/2006 18:29

DS's state primary does hot dinners cooked on the premises. 3 main course choices each day plus salad, bread, fruit, yogurt or hot pudding.

Original poster
Blandmum · 18/09/2006 18:29

He is on tonight, a new series , and is in Lincolnshire. He is very critical, however the local LEA (in the local rag) say that he has been unfair. But I was too mean to buy the paper to see all the details

OP posts:
GeorginaA · 18/09/2006 18:33

Oooo ... what time, mb?

GeorginaA · 18/09/2006 18:33

(and what channel?)

Greensleeves · 18/09/2006 18:34
Blondilocks · 18/09/2006 21:16

It definitely appears that school food has improved since I was at school (I left in 2002). The school meals were pretty awful all throughout my school days so I mainly had packed lunches.

At LOs school the menu looks really good & is all made there. They even use some of the veg grown in the school garden, so it's stuff the children have helped to produce.

CJinSussex · 18/09/2006 22:12

GeorginaA posted that cooking should be back on curriculum. It certainly should. As usual, education is key. We learned to make shepherds pie, jam tarts, macaroni etc - all easy to make, easy to find ingredients and as cheap as er, chips - cheaper in fact when you have to feed feed a family. And it was a balanced diet (balanced not being the same as 'no fat or sugar. EVER'). It was called Home Econ. then. Apparently the same course now involves designing adverts for airline food? Wtf? Unless you're applying for jobs with New (yawn) Labour, doing is far more beneficial than designing.

Swipe left for the next trending thread