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http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/J/jamies_school_dinners/index.html  :Dthought this programme was brill

Not seen it  :-\  my wife has and recons there will be some butts kicked in government as a result :-\ ;D

You'd think so Roy but the prog said that the new education secretary favoured just reducing fat and salt in the present food. maybe if it became an election issue?..

You have to take everything they say with a pinch of Salt

And a Fat....lot of use any of them are...let the People run the Country or the Kids we would be better off

Yes Simon, the party line on Question Time tonight was "reduce salt and fat". No talk of reducing all the other s***e in food. I work in education and occaisionally find myself walking through a dining hall at lunchtime. I could cry when I see the rubbish available.

We were totally shocked after watching this programme. I had no idea school dinners were like this.  My children are grown up now but when they were small they always came home for their lunch.  I can't believe the Education Committees have allowed this to happen.  There  are a few letters in the Radio Times talking about the government measures to encourage mothers to feed their babies properly and how nursery schools have to give fresh fruit and a balanced diet.  How come suddenly when a child reaches school age all that goes out of the window. 

I have got nothing but admiration for Jamie Oliver.  You have to admire his courage and determination to try to change the whole system.  Those turkey twizzlers and  the other plastic food being served were a disgrace, I felt sick just looking at them.  I think we should all write to the new Education Minister and complain.  I am cynical about it  doing much good but as Jamie says, this is a health time bomb and our future generation deserve better.   >:( busy_lizzie 

I have watched this programme since it started and have to say i used to be a huge fan of Jamies but went off him when the '13' series was on TV. I now have nothing but admiration for a man who can expose this blatant disregard for our childrens health, this governments backwards. They feed our children this vile unhealthy food for the best part of 11years then wonder why when in later life we have a nation of overweight undernourished people, they then spend millions trying to educate the same people to eat more heathily, ER HELLO WAKE UP. If they would have just put a bit more thought into what kids eat at school we would have a healthy nation of adults, its not rocket science is it?

I've not seen the series, but have heard a bit about it. In one episode a couple of weeks ago, didn't he hold up a whole lot of whole veg and none of the kids knew what they were?

Yup, nobody could identify rhubarb and the like. It's not just the long term health problems; current attention spans, lack of concentration, bad behaviour, and the like are more and more being linked to inadequate nutrition... for example,... one of the first questions a doctor should ask you, if you are suffering from depression, is about diet, since this, alone,  can cause the problem.

School dinners are remembered fondly as the main meal of the day.  Meat & 2-3 veg, followed by fruit and hot slop (custard/tapioca/rice pud...) along with jugs and jugs of cold water. Okay, so the veg were soggy -  it was back in the dark ages  :) , but it was cooked from scratch... and when you had the dinner ladies' homemade chicken pie... wow! Scuffles in the queue.  The parent-child roles would appear to have switched since then,  if the offspring in the programme were a fair basis on which to judge the present situation.

I regularly pass through an Infant School dining hall and am amazed by the contents of the lunch boxes.  It is all prepacked junk food and drinks full of sugar.  The food appears to be of little nutritional value and such an incredible amounts of packaging.  It seems little time is given to preparing packed lunches, it is all just grabbed from the cupboard or fridge and thrown into a lunch box.

The head teacher mentioned a website (can't remember the name) in a newsletter which gave ideas for healthier/greener lunches but parents don't seem to be interested.  It went along the lines of why buy little boxes of raisins when you could buy a bigger bag and put them in a pot, thereby saving on packaging etc. and gave lots more examples.

We have taken to baking at the weekend for the week ahead together and planning what goes in each day so that the children have control but everything is much healthier.  It seems to be working.

So it is not just the school dinners but the packed lunches that need looking into too.

Don't start me off on this subject!  ;D I have not been watching it either, but have also heard a tremedous amount about it! I stopped letting my girls have school meals because when questioned what did you have today, it always ended with "and chips". My youngest has a school dinner once a week as a treat, the eldest won't touch school lunches with a barge pole!
They also came home a few months ago and declared that cola has been removed from the vending machines, WHAT!!! Why on earth was it there in the first place! Oh thats OK Mum, they are replacing it with diet cola!! :o  :o  :o  (mine don't drink from the machines, they take water, cheaper and healthier!!)
They got teased for the longest time because they didn't have chocolate bars in their lunchboxes, and one refuses to take home made cake cos it is not cool and she gets laughed at.
(I often wonder what happens to the fruit I send them in with every day)
Drives me mad that I am trying to guide them in a fairly healthy eating approach, and the school isn't!
Tulippa I think a lot of parents send their kids in with junk lunches because they believe it is easier to prepare! And it is often the peer pressure thing.
When we lived overseas the kids were NOT ALLOWED to have chocolate bars or crisps in their lunchboxes, it was a rule of the school, and all the schools insisted they bought at least one piece of fruit daily, which they all sat together and ate at breaktime. 
Glad to hear your planning is working! It is interesting to see what they like in their lunchboxes. Mine love tortilla wraps full of chicken and salad, with a big chunk of cucumber to chew on!!
OK I shall get off me soap box now........

What made me angry was the parents were having a go at Jamie saying that their school meal was their main meal of the day, WHAT! Unfortunately my children do not live with me but when they stay, which is often, we all sit down to a family tea with fresh veg and a meat dish, they really look forward to it and they go mad for a Sunday roast with all the trimmings. I think its disgusting that some parents just palm their kids off to school, expect school to feed them and educate them and the parents think they do not have to play a part in the upbringing and education of their children. What became apparent to me is its not primarily the schools that have to change their habits, although they have to play a major part in it, its the parents that have to play the bigger part in educating their children. Yeah there was a part when jamie held up some veg and the kids didnt know what they were, thats not the kids or the schools fault i think its the parents. Kids have a hard time at school trying to fit in with every other kid and if they take something in their packed lunch that no-one else has they will get mocked, it took me ages to get it across to my kids that its OK to have different food to everyone else in their packed lunch box and now they don't mind so much.

Daughter number one doesn't have school dinner, both for financial reasons and becuase of her allergy, however, their lunches are provided by an outside catering company and we receive a menu, and I don't think it is too bad.  It is home cooked and lots of fresh vegetables, salads and fruit salad are provided daily.  Fresh fruit juice to drink, or milk.  Plenty of variety and once  a week, as a treat, she does have school lunch - yesterday she had roast Turkey, roast potatos, carrots, peas, groovy, choccy mousse, orange juice and water.  Also the school provides the children with a piece of fruit and a piece of veggie every day, I believe yesterday she had half an apple and some carrot chunks, which she loves.  I am sure there are some schools that can and do provide the kids with 'better' lunches, but I also appreciate it will never be as organic, healthy, low fat/salt/sugar as we would like it to be.

My step daughter who will be 10 in May is fed nothing but pre-packed, dried, foods at home, so when she comes to us for the weekend, she eats us out of house and home!  I often joke that I couldn't afford to have her living here, both financially, and because she would be the size of a small bus!  We will have roast dinner on sunday and she will scoff cabbage, kale, brocolli, cauli and carrots along with her yorkies, spuds and gallons of groovy!  Then she will wash it down with all the fruit from the fruit bowl!

You have to remember that for some kids it is the main meal of the day either because the parents are too poor/uneducated/neglectful to  provide a decent meal at home.

It horrifies me to think that all the work I put into educating my children about food and health should all go out the window when they start school.  One consolation here is that as far as I know school dinners are not provided at primary school at all! 

When I was at school (not THAT long ago!) I seem to remember the school dinners being reasonably good.  I'm sure it does depend on where you live and which school it is.  Riverford where I get my vegbox from have just started supplying their local school with Veg with the hope I think if it works out they may move to supply other schools too.

E-J -you're in Essex and you get school dinners!!! They stopped doing them altogether in my daughter's school this year, and several other schools round here. That particular catering company has pulled out of the county altogether and none of the others wanted the business.

Does get the bit of fruit though -'garnish' from New Labour.

Jeremy

It's surprising how many TV shows about families saving money or trying to lose weight where the parents can't cook.  I watched a prog last week about a young mum trying to lose weight.  She had three kids and didn't cook.  They lived on take aways and had fish and chips 3 times a week.  The plan was to get her eating veggies etc but she had no idea how to prepare them or how to cook them or anything.  It's unbelievable  :(

There was lots of talk about school dinners Jeremy, but her school was keen to keep them, and they did.  I would estimate that 75% of the sprogles have school dinner.  I try to provide the kids with plenty of fruit and veg and prepare it in all the child friendly ways I can, but sometimes they just want a plate of chips with 'dippy dip'.  The funny thing is, veg they have seen growing on the plot and have picked, they will normally eat, shop bought, not much chance!

Re. kids not knowing what veg is. The 18/19yr old working in our local shop said "what's that?" to the parsnip I was trying to buy!

 I had a checkout girl who didn't know what a courgette was, and the other day in Tesco a young lad on the till looked at the loose garlic clove in front of him and asked "is that a mushroom?"  I replied, "yes it is.  I always buy just the one"  ;D ;D ;D ;D

Many years ago (like about 30) I was a School Meals Advisor in Essex for a while. In those days there were Government nutritional standards which had to be followed, mainly to do with getting sufficient protein into the meals. The Conservative government scrapped all that, so it became a free-for-all.

At the end of my time in Essex they were just bringing in frozen ready meals because it cut down on staff costs. Even at the pittance the dinner ladies were paid, wages were by far the most expensive element of the finance.

It all comes down to money in the end. Good food is going to cost more, and freshly prepared food needs more staff to cook it, who need to be paid. I haven't watched the Jamie programme but I believe he said that much more needed to be spent in order to produce decent meals.

I quite agree that ultimately it's parents who are responsible for their children's nutrition - but there are a lot of clueless parents out there.

Sue

This whole subject upsets me.

I have nothing but admiration for Jamie O for what he is trying to achieve.

My two children ( 8 and 6 yrs ) both have school meals and the menu does 'sound' good - but is it nuritionally balanced? or is it made up of turkeys 'gonads'

School meals cost £1.70 per day but are we getting our moneys worth in a healthy, nutritionally-balanced daily meal????

I am seriously considering reverting to packed lunches - at least I have ownership over what my children will be eating....

Debs ( a disgruntled parent , full of 'school meal questions' )

Going Back a little  to our School Dinners that would be around

1952/3   Potatoes   Mashed
              They had More Eyes than the
Opthelmic Department 
               Semalema  Like Wall paper paste
               The Peas were like Bullets we used to flick  um with a spoon around the Dining Hall
              The Custard..........Brrrrrrrrrrrr
              The  gravy came out that big Metal Jug like something out a Concrete Mixer

Loved being Milk Monitor you could drink the Extra Milk!!!!!

That stopped when the Goverment Brought in Milk Tablets

Oh  the Good Old Days   when School Dinners Cost Mama
2 Bob a Week.............Now that was a very Special Time
SCHOOL MEALS???
Could have done with Jamie even More then than now!!!!!

Just watched SIR JAMES OLIVER on Parkinson, seen all the programs. Its really disgusting that on average a child's school dinner equates to about 37 pence, but a rapist or murderer is allowed I think an average of 97 pence ?
Whats gone wrong ? no wonder vandalism has gone on the up, at least you get a decent meal( bring back bread and water). I suppose really it comes down to us parents, taking control and making sure our children eat healthier before its too late.
So any parents out there quickly log on to the site and support the appeal
We owe it to our grandchildren!!!!

Im at work and my wife has just rang me to tell me about the Parkie interview, there's more regulation on pet food than there is on kids school meals, absolutely diabolical. She also told me about the rapist comment and that they get better fed than our kids. what has happened to this country? doesn't anyone care about our future generation anymore, it makes me so angry. The whole country's got itself into such a mess they cannot control it anymore, rapist's getting more for food than children, school leavers getting more money to stay on at school than old people are paid in pension's, immigrants being bought cars and mobile phones to get to job interviews, when is it going to end?

Just got off the Jamie Oliver website, thought I would sign the petition he is taking to Tone at No. 10.
Do a google for his web address, sorry I can't remember the things for more than a millisecond.
Our kids are grown up now thank god, but it seems obvious to me that the little extra it will cost to feed children good food will be offset by the savings to the NHS in dealing with the effects of a bad diet, not to mention the behavior improvements that will result in a calmer classroom and less stressed out teachers. I bet saving on recruiting teachers would go a long way to paying for the food.
Sign the petition, I wonder how many MP's kids have Turkey Twizzlers.
As Bernard Matthews says:
'Turkey Twizzlers' Norfolk 'n' Good.
Brian

.

My brother in laws partner was the school cook for 2 terms in our small village but gave it all up 2 weeks ago.  She was disgusted at the quality of the food she had to cook.  The basic meat was supplied by Brakes and she said she would not feed the dog on the quality of the meat supplied by this company.  Again, this was all down to the cost of Brakes food and the amount of money allocated to each pupil.  Also last year, Primary one and two were offered free fruit during break times. This was stopped after two terms, again because the pupils were not interested in eating fruit despite encouragement from teachers and the school cook.

Thers is an article in the Sunday paper today saying that one in five Primary seven children in Scotland is clinically obese.  This is a big worry.

I dont know where the answer lies.  I think some parents today have absolutely no idea on the kind of food we should be eating.  The vast majority of young folk do not know how to cook from scratch and it is too easy to heat up a pizza, boil some pasta and buy Chinese/Indian or whatever to bother about the basics of cooking. 

There is certainly trouble ahead for some of the youngsters of today and their parents unless something is done and Jamie Oliver has opened the eyes of the populus on how ignorant the younger generations are on the importance of proper eating.

This is going to be a subject very close to my heart.As you may have guessed from my log in, cooking has been a major employment for me. It all started years ago, my poor mum was a rotten cook, she just was'nt interested, so i learnt to cook. Boy did i cook!!!  In those days ( only the seventies) we had proper cookery lessons, how to cook all sorts from basics upwards. My boys of 19 and 21, had food tech lessons, how to design a sandwich, how to make a pizza( first buy a base, sauce etc, no mention of nutritional values at all.  Because Barrie and i have always had veggie gardens, and have always enjoyed good food, I think that it has rubbed of on the boys, they can both cook well, and are keen to experiment. In fact, Alex, son no !,hascooked as a job to help him through uni Also we have always tried to eat together as a family, not always easy, but the t.v has always been switched off at meal times.... When the boys were at middle school, I got a job as cook at sam,e school, what an eye opener , most of the children only wanted chips chips and more chips. They had the option of meal of the day, usually a meat and veg type, a snack type option or a salad.There was always fruit juice and water available , but they always wanted coke!!! The cooks and dinner ladies tried to educate the children about food, but I think that lots of parents need the education!!!! I am not in an inner city, but in a rural town in in Somerset, so good luck jamie.

I did cookery at school (food and nutrition I think it was called or d.s. or something).  We used to make things like stews and cakes etc.
My neice's latest assignment was to make a salad.  A salad !!!  Girls in her class turned up with a bag of mixed leaves and a jar of dressing.  When she made coleslaw and mixed bean salad they took the p*** cos they said they weren't salads. 
When she took humous and veg sticks to school for lunch they said she was eating poo.  She replied 'At least I'm not eating mashed pigs bum in slices'.   Ahh bless, -  I took that to mean spam.

I love Spam  ;D

Oh my goodness that reminds me, we used to have fat slices of spam at school, battered then deep fried! YUCK! The grease used to ooze when you cut it with your knife :P

Hi. the petitions now closed (with more than 271,000 signatures !). The site all about the programme, campaign, kids meals, etc., is www.feedmebetter.com

P.S. loved my school dinners! (sad, but true).

Pork cobbler, fish on fridays, cabbage, beef pie, toffee apple pudding, semolina with pink sugar, cheese and biscuits instead of pud some days, and (the best) vanilla ice cream with hot caramel sauce.... Mmmmm....

...........liver with elastic bands, frog's spawn, lumpy mash, sandwich sick, custard you could use to repair your paddling pool -those were the days.

Jeremy

We used to get beetroot with gravy on which always made me heave  ;D

my school dinners were fab :)

freshly cooked food, a 14 day rotating menu i think, always two or three choices, and hardly ever able to get seconds as the uptake was very high in the schools

this was a canteen that served two or three schools i think, so lots of covers cooked.
and no chips or fries for us, nor pizza

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
svea

Our grub was great too.  The best pud was choc sponge with choc custard or steamed apricot pudding.  And fantastic home made chcken or steak pie served with amsh and greens.  Yyyyyyyuuuuummmmyyy !

So did we get a result today? An extra 10p for ingredients. No ban on junk food, no return to minimum nutritional standards, just the setting up of an "advisory body". Better than nothing I suppose?  :-\

I missed that news - don't tell me who's on the "advisory body".  Industry representatives?  Food manufacturers?  And a few number-crunchers?

Don't even want to look.

How about a few parents, kids and old-fashioned dinner ladies?

All best - Gavin

We should be so lucky.

It's all just hot air. Call me cynical, but while the meals are out out to tender with private firms, the same situation is stil going to occur. It's not just that 37p went for food and the rest went for costs such as wages - some of 'the rest' went for nice fat profits to the owners/shareholders of the private companies. I know someone that worked for one of the private school dinner contracors a couple of years ago, and he left because he was so disgusted with the way it was run.