British School Dinners

[Labarum]

A British Celebrity Chef has just shamed Her Majesty's Government into spending £280 million on improving school dinners.

A very sucessfull TV series called "Jamie's School Dinners" attempted to raise the standards in a number of London Schools. After a great struggle the children came to accept Jamie's healthier but more expensive menu. Teachers and parents noticed an immediate improvement in chidren's behaviour and concentration

In former years the nutritional content of school meals was state controlled. Once that control was off cost pressures and the liking of the kids for junk food produced the worst school meals anywhere.

We were (are) poisoning our kids - Jamie doesn't mince words "Feeding them sh*t."

This is only a beginning - I hope Jamie gets a Knighthood or even a seat in the House of Lords.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4391695.stm

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050330/325/ffag8.html

[Kent]

I was just listening to this story last night on BBC radio. The commercialized , packaged institutional stuff that passes as food in school lunch programs is amazing. Their piece of the developing nations' school lunches being better nutritionally and socially for the children was interesting.

[Esther]

When I was in school (about 20 or so years ago) in Britain, we changed to a cafeteria system where you could choose what you wanted to eat. Of course, everyone chose chips :no There were healthy choices, like fruit instead of jelly/jello, but when I tried to get fruit, I was told that as I was entitled to free meal, I wasn't entitled to 'sweets', only a 'pudding', and fruit counted as 'sweets,' but I could have jelly instead.

I was so incensed that I marched straight up to the headmaster's office clutching a serving of jelly and an orange (which I'd had to pay for!) and demanded why I could eat 'THIS' (plonking the jelly on his desk) but not 'THIS' (plonking the orange down next to it).

The headmaster agreed with me that it was ludicrous and changed the ruling immediately.

From then on, *I* was allowed to have fruit, but other kids entitled to free meals were NOT!


AAaarghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!