Are you watching Jamie Oliver's school dinners?

[MunchedTooManyMarsLady]

Jamie's being given a run for his money. Loving it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In part because it is easy I suppose, and cheap. We have, thank god got rid of the awful Panda Pops that were sold, cock full of E-numbers and sugar. Aldo the sweet vending machine. This cost the school money, and suppliers will pay to have a vending machine on site. And in getting rid of it the school loses money. Remember that schools are so short of cash for books. I am currently teaching the Upper sixth form and we have no books for them. I have spent about £100 of my own money buying resources that allow me to teach them!

So giving up the money isn't an easy thing to do.

I think that good food for children is vital, but remember that the schools have little or no say over the funding, which is often as crap as the food

Oh and the other reason is that some parents would march into school demanding that their kids are allowed to choose their food. What? Force their little darlings to eat something, perish the thought! Schools supress indivduality don't-cha-know! [Grin]

I'd rather spend more money on school dinners and less money on school trips, tbh. I think a healthier lunch is more important than lots of days out. I don't know how much this would save the school, but on average, I pay about £15.00 a term for trips for each son. If every parent gave that money was given to the school cooks, instead, better ingredients would be within their reach.

Agree that it makes sense to offer better quality pizzas rather than radically change the menu if you are trying to educate teenagers to eat more healthily.

I am glad Jamie's celebrity status has brought this debate into the public arena, but I really hope the programme mentions that some schools cooks have been trying to make meals healthy. I'd hate to think viewers assume all school cooks are like Nora and her crew.

I live locally to Kidbrooke and have heard from primary school teacher friends that many of pupils come to school hungy, have no breakfast and probably don't get much supper cooked for them at home. Nothing on a plate, anyway. Nora's concern that the kids have something - anything - junkfood - to eat at lunchtime, could well be a reflection of this. It is not a case of her abdicating responsiblity - quite the opposite in fact. She might feel this school meal is the only meal the kids will have over 24 hours, so it must be something they will eat.

There is an interesting article in this month's Good Food magazine about two Mums who took over their childrens' School canteen (think it was going to close as hardly any of the children ate there), they made sure that all the food they were serving was good home-made food (organic if they could manage, think they may have had more than 37p per child ). They said that they would have a 'junk food Friday' where they would serve the children home-made burgers etc as a treat. The canteen is now full at lunch-time and the children are really enjoying the food.

I don't know how I missed this thread. I've just watched this, taped from last Weds and found it so profoundly depressing. The hand wringing about childhood obesity and then, durr! 37p per child for crap food? I really hope Jamie Oliver's petitions change things. This is why my son has always had a packed lunch. Sorry if I'm repeating people, haven't read the thread, will add to my watch list and read it tomorrow.

Oh I've put my apostropie in the wrong place - children's. That's better.

Splutter! Apostrophe! Can't spell either.

Here's an idea. What about putting some kind of higher tax on those products which are deemed unhealthy for us. There by forcing us to make a choice to eat healthier, we could spend the extra money on sports ,school dinners etc.
I really feel that our children have had there tastes changed by the constant bombardment of junk food, and when they say that they don't like something it's not that they don't like it in the true sense of the word, but that they would prefer somthing else. There is hope but we have to begin enforcing this at home and it is SO HARD. Change is always difficult and I struggle every day. I'm lucky I stay at home god knows what I would do if I worked. keep strong everyone

1st time i've watched this tonight, (one eye on the telly) and i amazed by the amount of cr*p the kids eat. i thought i was bad, but at least i do cook a 'real meal' a fair bit. tho have been lazy recently due to other pressures and have relied too much on convience food. tho tonight we had a lovely meal of chicken in bbq sauce with rice. hmmmmm.

I hope he does go home. I don't blame him. Imagine booking a table for 16, turning up with 30 and then deciding that you don't want the food that you agreed upon. American ex president or no. Hurrah! He went home. Good on him!

It is awful

isn't it

funny with clinton and him driving home to see jools

Well done JAMIE

It's horrifying isn't it? That those kids recognise all the 'brand names' but not even fairly standard veg. Very, very sad.

It's got to be true, isn't it, that the sh*te that kids are eating in school - and home, by the look of it - is making them ever more agressive. I recognise that name 3663 - they've been dishing up Sudan 1 along with all the major processed food pushers in the land.

How shocking is it? Can't believe that those children couldn't recognise basic veggies, calling a leek an onion, etc!!! Astounding isn't it?

I read a newspaper article on the big family. They were spending £200 a week on processed food. Jamie kept her to the same budget but only healthy stuff allowed. And the parents were amazed at the way her children's behaviour improved within days.

Really hope he achieves something witht his final meal here.

I truly hope that Jamie's interest in this gets it noticed and things changed in schools.

What gets me is the parents saying 'It's the only nutrition these kids get in a day' - NUTRITION?! FFS! It's fat, salt, cheap crappy meat, binders, hydrogenated vegetable oil (don't get me started on that one...) - it's not nutrition!

They all seem concerned the children are full, but not what they're full of - and fgs, children not pooing for six weeks.

Interesting that the two boys who stopped eating the crap were better behaved, but back to bouncing off the walls within 30 minutes of eating crap again.

There are so many more things I could say on this subject... It makes me and that children aren't given better education about food...and the little girl who had several chocolate bars in her lunchbox made me want to cry.

Another thing (blimey, I really could go on for hours about this...probably repeating what others have said - no time to read the thread) - the school last week where they had 37p to spend on each child "or we'd have to take money away from books and staff" - does it strike anyone else as strange that the school didn't want to spend anything at all on food for the children but expected to be able to stick within the money the council gave them?

I hate the way that the cooperations say that the poor kids would have nothing to eat if they were to ban the junk. Well surely the kids will eat what's there? They may not eat it tomorrow but they'll eat it the next day or the next. Ridiculous! I bet those people don't eat the crap that they send in for our kids and I bet their kids don't eat it either

Is it really that widespread? I know they must be picking the worst schools as examples, but only a couple of those kids had any clue about the veg, can it really be that bad???

school dinners were not that crap when i was at primary (1985-92)

probably! Our school went to packed lunch only because the food that was coming in was awful. Hardly any of the children were eating it. The parents preferred to provide nutritious food for them themselves (me included).

Hmm...kids protesting about having decent food??? I just want to bang their heads together and tell them how sad they are.

I still think, like last week, the way forward is to simply get rid of all the junk and processed stuff in the schools, and replcace it with a 2 or 3 opions of proper food. And make staying for school dinners compulsary - like in many private schools - so no chip shop diners, or pasties from the local shop. After a few days of it they will realise that they have to eat - and after a few more days it will be just second nature to them to eat it.

Stupidgirl - its hard to tell! Like you I hope its not representative but I fear that it is

It was the big family's mum that brought it home to me - when she went shopping with Jamie's list and said she didn't know what half the things on it were. That she'd never bought avocado before

Where did it all go so wrong? When did this complete disassociation between the raw materials and the final products that so many people eat happen? And how in God's name are we ever going to relearn how to cook in sufficient numbers to provide a better and healthier future for our children?

DS had his absolutely favourite favourite puidding today at school

APPLE CRUMBLE {without custard which he doesn't like}

I am also positive that when I was at primary and middle school (1978 to 1986) it was not like this. We had very little choice and it was proper dinners - not fast food stuff. Whilst at secondary school it did move to cafeteria style and that is where it started to go wrong IMO. As a teacher, I would rarely eat school food now - as it is rubbish stuff.

did you hear that piece on the Today programme about French school dinners? They spend about £1.50 per head on a meal, and they have meat and veg, salad, cheese and fruit. really civilised. We're such a piss poor nation when it comes to food - £1 in every £6 spent in this country is in Tescos and that's probably on stuff contaminated with shoe polish dye.