Jamie Oliver's Healthy Food For Schools....

Merlin the Magician

Merlin the Magician

At the Start
Joined
May 2, 2003
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Location
SOUTH WALES
I have said on many occasions about the fact I am living near 3 schools and 2 nurseries and the largest being a comprehensive who's pupils (800) and a large proportion of these, that use the fish/pie/pasties and chip shop, near me, as well as the tuck shop which causes all kinds of problems! I can assure you! The litter is atrocious and the behaviour very bad indeed with stone throwing being the in thing.........

The point I am trying to make is that I fear that less and less kids are staying in for dinners to eat the so called healthier eating foods.

There are now more kids passing my house to go to these shops and buy their dinners via the tuck shop and fish pie/pasties and chip shops.

I drove past a burger van the other day at lunchtime, on the other side of the estate near the school entrance, and saw a large amount of children lining up to buy their food from this source too..

I would just love to see the relevant figures as regards the cash that is now used and wasted and the amount of food binned! Because of this so called healthy eating move...................... :rolleyes:
 
This is all balls imo. Typical modern day hand ringing. When i were a lad my mum gave me a couple of quid for my dinner and i got chips and gravy every day, with enough left over for sweets on the way home. And i`m never ill and have perfectly healthy teeth.

All the modern day children need is exercise, if they get enough of that at school it doesn`t matter what they eat.
 
School? Eee, that's pure looxury, all right! When I were a young thing, I were taught by fireside light when me Dad could find few sticks from local wood shop. Me poor Mum would read from books which Church had thrown out, while feeding latest babe at breast, stirring gruel pot wi' one hand and tilling cradle of second latest babe wi' t'other. Oooh, but it were right gradely wi' no crime - most rogues were kind and stopped by to gi' us clothes and food. Why, I didn't wear owt bar nappies 'til I were 25...
 
Originally posted by Merlin the Magician@Oct 3 2006, 09:41 PM


to eat the so called healthier eating foods.
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Er, so what would you call the type of food they were being sold previously, Merlin?

Apart from lining the pockets of Bernard Matthews and his ilk there can be no question anyone else was actually benefiting from eating that shite.

Your comments are a perfect example of the instant gratification society we now live in - what do you expect to happen after so many years of entrenched poor eating habits by them majority of these kids? They weren't instantly going to love the food offered to them but if their teachers continue to try to educate them and schools are empowered to enforce attendance during the day (therefore not allowing kids to leave at lunchtimes), that would go some way to at least getting through to some of the kids that not everything that's 'different' is necessarily inedible!

Euro's right with regard to what used to be called PE too.

Fine - why not just give up on this generation, sit back and watch them slide into obesity. You'll soon be complaining like **** when you realise that this is the generation that are meant to be providing for our pensions but won't be, because they are draining the NHS with all thier health problems and because they are unable to put in a decent day's work !
 
Originally posted by Songsheet+Oct 4 2006, 03:35 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Songsheet @ Oct 4 2006, 03:35 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Merlin the Magician@Oct 3 2006, 09:41 PM


to eat the so called healthier eating foods.
Click to expand...
Er, so what would you call the type of food they were being sold previously, Merlin?

Apart from lining the pockets of Bernard Matthews and his ilk there can be no question anyone else was actually benefiting from eating that shite.

Your comments are a perfect example of the instant gratification society we now live in - what do you expect to happen after so many years of entrenched poor eating habits by them majority of these kids? They weren't instantly going to love the food offered to them but if their teachers continue to try to educate them and schools are empowered to enforce attendance during the day (therefore not allowing kids to leave at lunchtimes), that would go some way to at least getting through to some of the kids that not everything that's 'different' is necessarily inedible!

Euro's right with regard to what used to be called PE too.

Fine - why not just give up on this generation, sit back and watch them slide into obesity. You'll soon be complaining like **** when you realise that this is the generation that are meant to be providing for our pensions but won't be, because they are draining the NHS with all thier health problems and because they are unable to put in a decent day's work ! [/b][/quote]
Hear hear
 
I travelled on foot 2 miles there and 2 miles back 4 times a day......=8 miles a day as well as representing the school in most sports soccer, rugby, boxing, cricket, and baseball.

But I really think this healthier eating problem has been taken out of context!! What these kids want is more physical action and exercise,(not sat in front of a P-C playing games) games on parks and school grounds but unfortunately Maggie sold a lot of them off for housing.

These kids would not get these sort of meals at home because the parents cant afford them, its stodgy food like pizza pies or beans and chips, that these kids are now given and brought up on pizza being relatively new but nothing as changed with peoples diets in this neck of the woods over the years, hence heart disease is an epidemic here and has been for many years because of the price of healthier foods and the low incomes, in proportion don't equate.

These healthier foods are dearer to buy, its not me just hyping this point up but you go on a controlled diet and see the extortionate prices the likes of TESCO, SAINSBURY, MORRISON’S, ASDA, charge for this type of food, families just cant afford it.

So if they now come to try to eat healthier foods they will reject it as it’s not what they are used to!

You may get more success in/with primary school children but not in the older generation school kids, they will eat what they have been used to eat over the years with families on low income, i.e. you cut the cloth to fit accordingly!..... You cannot just pluck monies from out of the sky to buy healthier food for those kids to eat, as a family on low income just cat afford to provide meals as such.

Any how talking of Jamie Oliver I reckon the guy needs to smarten himself up! As he needs a lot to be desired in his choice of attire he wears and a good wash and brush up may improve him also? Just a thought......
 
Originally posted by krizon@Oct 4 2006, 10:19 AM
School? Eee, that's pure looxury, all right! When I were a young thing, I were taught by fireside light when me Dad could find few sticks from local wood shop. Me poor Mum would read from books which Church had thrown out, while feeding latest babe at breast, stirring gruel pot wi' one hand and tilling cradle of second latest babe wi' t'other. Oooh, but it were right gradely wi' no crime - most rogues were kind and stopped by to gi' us clothes and food. Why, I didn't wear owt bar nappies 'til I were 25...
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You had a mum and dad?? Do you realise how lucky you were?

Re the topic, I hope I'm right in thinking this will sort itself out in time.

When I was at school I was entitled to free dinners until my two oldest brothers had left. I was then given the price of the cheapest dinner (10d) to buy my ticket. For the first wee while, I opted out of school meals and put some of my pocket money (1/- per week) towards buying something 'doon ra toon' (in town). When I woke up to the fact that my 10d got me substantially more for my money and the benefit of a roof over my head in the school dining hall as well as the prospect of 'seconds', there was no contest.

Kids are used to junk food. I wasn't, unless you call a fried piece (or two or three - fried in proper beef dripping) with brown sauce junk food but I was used to sweets and still have the fillings to prove it. I reckon schools need to keep plugging away at the healthy options. Along with healthy messages being permeated throughout the curriculum, kids will realise sooner or later they'll be better off in the canteen.

Those parents who organised junk food lunches for the weans should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Schools and authorities are going out of their way to try to improve health and diet and these parents should be supporting them instead of encouraging rebelliousness. I suspect a fair number of them simply can't be @rsed to provide the kids with a proper meal at home and could do with parenting skills courses but that's for another thread.

The argument about exercise is entirely pertinent. I ate lots of stodgy food - it was more affordable then - but I was always extremely active. Unless the weather was truly foul, I was out after school until dark running, playing, cycling, and most other kids were the same. For about 10/- you could get a year's season ticket to the local swimming baths. Now its £3/£4 to get in for 40 mins.

Kids can't play in the street for the cars. Go to the park and the signs say 'keep off the grass' or 'no ball games' and parents are more aware of the possibility of a pervert lurking around than was the case in our day.

Rant over for now...
 
Freshly cooked healthy meals can be just as cheap as the shite, they just require preperation time, which is usually where the problem lies.
 
Sorry I had not read the other threads in the last 2 hours I started to write this @ 2-30 and had friends call in so I picked up from where I left off if some items I have posted clash with yours, mine was written without the knowledge of knowing what was posted before but I am sure it answers a few of your questions Jules.......
 
I lived near my school. Every day for about 2 or 3 years I used to cycle home at lunch time, gobble down a bowl (or two) of homemade soup, sometimes vegetable, sometimes mushroom, sometimes tomato sometimes celery, but always soup, and homemade brown bread, and cycle back. I still like soup. I have yet to find a child that has come to my house in the last few years that doesn't like soup. Feed them soup I say!!! Soup, soup, soup, SOUP, soup, SOUP, Soup, soUp, soup, SOUP, soup, SOUP, SOOOOOOOUP,









soup.
 
Merlin, it doesn't cost alot to dish up healthier meals at home either. Vegetables are not overly expensive. If you compare how much it costs to serve up a basic meal with vegetables once a day, compared with the cost of chips, pizza's and chicken nuggets and all the fast foods these kids seem to gorge at lunchtime, I have a feeling the healthy options will win. Many Mum's have time to "cook" oven chips and doing a spaghetti bolognaise would take as much time, if not less.

By trying to educate these kids to have at least one healthy meal a day... ie at school, at least it is showing a responsible attitude. OK, the kids will probably eat crisps and chocolate for the rest of the day, but all parents should be grateful that if they can't be arsed to cook one meal a day for their kids in the evening, at least their is an option at many schools. I am not so sure about our kids lacking a decent education, I sometimes wonder about many of these overweight kids parents too. :blink:

I can remember one child at school that was a little overweight. The sad fact that it is the other way round now, with possibly 40%-50% being over their ideal weight. If only kids and their parents realise the damage they are storing up for later on in life. I don't particularly like Jamie Oliver's style BUT I think what he has done about school dinners has been brilliant.

We all know the type of parents that will try and buck the system, as they evidently know what is best for their kids, but if they could see into the future, they may, just may think twice before thinking that fat, fat and more saturated fat rammed into their kids mouths is a sensible thing to do.
 
Perhaps, MacDonalds could do a healthy option soup for the winter months, Melendez. I also think that these fast food places could also offer a baked potato option too. I know it would never catch on BUT if kids want fast food, give them a bigger choice. I am sure a baked spud with cheese and beans/coleslaw (low far mayo) must be much better for them than the crap that it is loosely disguised as a burger and those awful fat dipped french fries. :blink:

I love baked spuds! :)
 
Originally posted by Merlin the Magician@Oct 4 2006, 04:04 PM


These kids would not get these sort of meals at home because the parents cant afford them, its stodgy food like pizza pies or beans and chips, that these kids are now given and brought up on pizza being relatively new but nothing as changed with peoples diets in this neck of the woods over the years, hence heart disease is an epidemic here and has been for many years because of the price of healthier foods and the low incomes, in proportion don't equate.
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That is exactly the reason why it is important for children to eat heathily at school, so even if at home they are being fed shite for at least 1 meal a day they are being fed a nutritious diet.
 
Oops I clicked "reply" too soon.

It isn't any more expensive to buy fruit and veg compared to frozen food. I have to admit that i am not the best cook in the world so my daughter does get fishfingers , pizzas, smilie potatoes etc but i do make sure that we have salads, veggie dinners, and pasta a few days of the week. And she did say the other day that she much prefers spagetti bolognaise to chips any day!!
 
Merlin, next time you pop into your local supermarket check out the prices of spuds, fresh fruit and fresh chicken, tomatos, some mince, eggs (for omelettes - NOT value eggs either) and some cheese etc. and compare that with those awful pizza's, oven chips, chicken nuggets, crisps and chocolates.

OK, there may be an increase depending in the quality of the ingredients, BUT with some clever purchases, and perhaps buying in bulk where you can, I am sure it may be possible to match the costs with the crap food against some much healthier options - especially if the parents use the money for the healthier foods they normally give their kids to buy the rubbish fast foods, crisps and chocolate the kids tend to pig out on during the day.
 
MEL not MUSHROOM !! for all that .....

Kathy I am talking about one of the poorest areas in Great Britain supposedly?

People who borrow monies at huge interest charges to pay back, they give their benefit books to these crooks that charge huge % rates, so these families are defeated straight away..

And I'll reiterate (Jules ;) ) my phrases if you have a group of people who are brought up on a certain meal they will rather opt for this meal than something they are told!! Is new and healthier!! After all they are humans, but maybe of the lowest denominator when it comes to having healthy food on their tables, so this in latter life creates all the health problems because they cannot afford healthier food on their tables, full stop....

One family 8 kids 6 doors down, from where I live, how do you think they eat? My guess!! Not as well as you or I do that’s for sure Kathy……….but I was brought up that way also as we were poor as well, years ago with four children in the family……….

So along with this type of food and their now lifestyle its going to creat obese people, you dont need to be a doctor to forcast this..........
 
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