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One good thing about the Tory victory at the 2010 election is that Jamie Oliver is out of favour.

The story is that people wll find a way to eat bad foods whatever you do and increasing the costs of school dinners to provide good food and pay for Jamie Oliver was a bad idea.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/10459744.stm
1.

Jamie Oliver... trying to improve the diet of children in schools ..  the net effect was the number of children eating school meals ... went down

2.

then the schools said 'It's OK to bring packed lunches but we've got to determine what's in the packed lunches

3.

the parents' response was that they gave children money and children are ... buying snacks in local shops

4.

then people had said shops near schools must be banned,


It was all so perfectly obvious to people who live a bit lower down the social scale than Mr Oliver but sadly those people never get a listen to.

My Mummy told me a story about how she and her school friend sneaked out of school to buy cakes instead of eating school dinners so as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be.

I think they should just go back to providing the cheapest possible school dinners to stop children who would otherwise starve to death (this was the original school dinner idea) and let other people eat what they like.

Who wants to live to be old in this pathetic world anyway especially if the price is eating food Jamie Oliver thinks is good food.
I saw the first JO series and laughed at his earnest belief that if you stuff chicken with garlic and rub it in spices and serve everything in sauce that children used to nuggets and chips would wolf it down and beg for more like a foodie with a seasoned palate used to dining in the best restaurants for the last 40 years.  They said Ugh and Yuk and went back to getting their mothers to shove burgers through the railings and sensible people who are used to children were not in the least surprised.

I agree about serving a hot meal every day at school and ideally I think it should be compulsory or at least unfashionable to take packed lunches,  In my day we felt very sorry for the few who took sanwiches as we queued up for seconds of sausage, chips and beans followed byy Chocolate Crunch with raspberry custard.  We all groaned on cabbage and mince day or when it was stodge yet again, but we survived.    We were all as thin as flower-stalks and no-one except for one girl in 3P had food allergies.
It would be unthinkable the other way around wouldn't it.

If you asked the Gourmet restaurants to serve nuggets and chips and sausage beans and chips and chocolate pudding and custard and ban sauces other than tomato and hp , I doubt you would get very far.
Thingummie Minor never did make it past 95 pounds dripping wet. As a tiny thingummie, she didn't like the food at the school cafeteria, and so I cheerfully packed a lunch bucket and thermos for her every day, right up to when she got old enough to make her own. Even in Grad School, she still packs lunch and brings it with her.

Over here, it's way less expensive to make your own lunch.

Some of the places where we've lived, the schools offered breakfast and lunch.
It is less expensive to make your own lunch everywhere I think.

Over here people on no or very low incomes get free school meals and most of the children eating school lunches fall into this category. This is another reason why the idea was such a nonsense, most of the target audience were the type of people used to chicken nuggets. And what is wrong with that. Their hatred of food-in-sauces is equal to the hatred of chicken nuggets by Jamie's lot.  

I took sandwiches to school because it was less expensive as well as the fact that I preferred that.  There was and still is a problem with people who can't tick enough boxes to prove they are poor enough but are actually too poor to afford things. We were never allowed thermos, even back then it was against health and safety or something. I did miss a hot drink for lunch but you can't have everything.
Our school dinners, like merry's were simple, nourishing and mostly nice enough. Even the bits you didn't especially like were edible.

Also like merry says I don't recall lots of fat people. It seems to me there was always one overweight kid per class, but probably not obese as such. Even if my memory were deceiving me you only have to think of stories about 'picking a team for football and no one wanting the fat kid'. They stood out because most children were not fat.

I don't remember seeing lots of people bringing packed lunches.  Those who didn't eat in school got something from the shop. I'm sure most parents would rather not have to mess about packing a lunch really. Not now both parents have to work in most families.

Asy how elaborate did you go with Thingummie Minor's lunches? We did pack lunches for school trips and those we kept very basic as in any case you want something you can eat without too much fuss.  

Schools here now have so many rules about the contents of lunch boxes that it's become a nightmare to accommodate them. I often hear of children going without because the teacher confiscated the 'unhealthy' items. Usually not really unhealthy but the rules are often based on 'slimming diets' for adults.
Hmm. The only things anyone ever confiscated in any of Thingummie Minor's schools were knives. Even a dull edged butter knife was against the rules.

I think parents wouldn't tolerate schools interfering in what food the kids brought from home. That level of regulation would be shot down by the voters instantum.

She always brought a half sandwich, crisps, a fresh fruit, fresh veggies [carrots and celery stalks], juice in a thermos, a little chunk of cheese and some raisins for a snack, and some home baked sweet for dessert. She had a longish school day, since we had to drop her off early on the way to work, and she took the school bus to the library, where we would pick her up eventually.

The only change now, as a 95 pound adult, is that she brings a whole sandwich.  :)



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