School dinners - how good are they?

[Jelly]

I have just seen what the kids at high school get and it is fab! Makes the primary school meals look like dumpster-diving The high school has got a full commercial kitchen though, and much better facilities.

DS2 has school dinners 2-3 times a week. He often says he didn't eat it all becuase he didn't have time. He tells me his pudding is usually fruit as he didn't want the pudding on offer. Friday's are treat days, but I notice this term they have switched to Quorn instead of meat hot-dogs and nuggets.

[Samba]

Have you heard all the latest hoo-ha regarding Martha's blog?

Perhaps its only really been covered in Scotland ... but as it gained attention the Daily Record ran a spread on it, and titled it 'Sack the Dinner ladies!'
So Argyle & Bute Council decided to ban her from taking photos anymore, then everyone went nuts about that, and they finally did a U-turn and have allowed her to continue

The best thing is she has raised a huge amount of money for charity, enough to fund a school kitchen in a Malawi school

Well done Martha!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...-west-18484437

I think this will open the debate again about what's actually going on school children's plates. Which is no bad thing IMO.

[bluekat]

DD1's school lunch caterers have just won an award for being the best in the country, so I'm happy. DD2 starts there in August and eats like a horse so we'll be getting value for money there . I'm also good friends with one of the dinner ladies who makes sure my picky DD1 makes good choices/gets plenty!

[scatterbrain]

I think they're pretty good at E's school. We get the menues in advance & information about how nutritionally balanced it is.

She doesn't like everything & you can't force a fussy child to eat a full meal if they refuse things, but it's better (IMO) for her than sandwiches.

[scatterbrain]

ETA: It's generally understood that from yr1 onwards they take fruit for snacks at break times. In reception & nursery these are given to you.

[cheeky_biscuit]

Have you heard all the latest hoo-ha regarding Martha's blog?

Perhaps its only really been covered in Scotland ... but as it gained attention the Daily Record ran a spread on it, and titled it 'Sack the Dinner ladies!'
So Argyle & Bute Council decided to ban her from taking photos anymore, then everyone went nuts about that, and they finally did a U-turn and have allowed her to continue

The best thing is she has raised a huge amount of money for charity, enough to fund a school kitchen in a Malawi school

Well done Martha!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...-west-18484437

I think this will open the debate again about what's actually going on school children's plates. Which is no bad thing IMO.

It's made the news here too but not the detail on the headlines.
Good on her, I think it's great she's got people talking about it and raising so much money for charity.

[Faith]

Have you heard all the latest hoo-ha regarding Martha's blog?

Perhaps its only really been covered in Scotland ... but as it gained attention the Daily Record ran a spread on it, and titled it 'Sack the Dinner ladies!'
So Argyle & Bute Council decided to ban her from taking photos anymore, then everyone went nuts about that, and they finally did a U-turn and have allowed her to continue

The best thing is she has raised a huge amount of money for charity, enough to fund a school kitchen in a Malawi school

Well done Martha!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...-west-18484437

I think this will open the debate again about what's actually going on school children's plates. Which is no bad thing IMO.

Well "sack the dinner ladies" campaigns are hardly fair on the poor dinner ladies. Is is not just the council sticking up for it's employees? Asking her to stop a blog that is resulting in wrongly asking for employees dismissal?

I have to say I think that blog has been hugely misinterpreted. The dinners look OK, are reasonably healthy, and the bloggers only real complaint is she doesn't get seconds, so it can't be that bad

It's affordable canteen food people, it's never going to be gourmet. Most people seem to have leapt to the conclusion that a girl blogging about school dinners must mean they are terrible quality and have gone all Jamie Oliver, without actually reading what she's saying or looking at the schools food.

I'm pleased she's raising money, but I do think her blog is being used by some for their own agendas, rather than seeing it for what it is.

ETA: In the main school dinners are no worse than what many children are fed at home . And nutritionally far better than I would put in a packed lunch. I'm not sure going all lentilist will help, as we saw in JO's programme. Parents will just let them have crap in lunch boxes or feed them macdonalds through the school gate. It always surprises me that the issue with many parents is not the healthiness of school dinners, it's the fact that children don't like it/won't eat it, so they'd rather provide a packed lunch "so they know they've eaten something"

[Samba]

Faith, I don't think anyone for one minute thinks the dinner ladies should be sacked, not even the Daily Record, it was their usual sub-standard attempt at "humour" and sensationalism.

The council never asked her to stop writing the blog, they initially decided she should no longer take photographs. They quickly renaged on this, probably because, as you say, the Blog is not particularly negative about the food. I think the photos have shocked a lot of people though, it shows exactly what's on the plate and many adults were surprised, that's all.
I have heard her father say that the meals have actually improved since she started the blog, though not presuming that it's anything to do with the blog itself.

I still maintain I would like to see my child always receive at least one of their 5-a-day from their school lunch. I don't think that's a particularly lentilist viewpoint.