In recent times, Jamie Oliver (an English chef; above), has made it his mission to improve the quality of lunchtime food in the UK's schools.
Out went Turkey-Twizzlers (preformed industrial gunge, based on Turkey waste products combined with chemicals and extenders), and in came fruit, salad, and simple well-prepared grub.
However, he had his problems. Some of the parental hoi-poloi revolted; they insisted that their children eat gunge and chips whatever, and they made their feelings known. They were even to be seen handing bags of chips through the school railings at lunch-time, rather than have their precious offspring eat anything 'healthy'. Frankly I think if that's what they really wanted, then they should have had it; and bugger the health and obesity consequences.
Regardless of the food itself, if I'd been given one of those red or green plastic sectioned trays (above) to eat from, at any time of day; I'd have thrown it at someone!!!
I seem to have been lucky in the school food stakes, our school dining hall was superb. We dined in a magnificent 14th Century Tithe barn (below), and had a Belgian chef who, when doing his daily be-toqued tour of our tables (as if in a high class restaurant) always asked if his dishes were up to standard. The answer was predictably 'yes'.
When the subject of school meals is raised in polite conversation, I usually find myself to be a lone voice. I ate extremely well at school, and find this whole subject quite sad. There's nothing difficult, or even necessarily expensive, about good food; it just takes a certain amount of knowledge, care, and attention.
Maybe Jamie O would have been wiser to concentrate on that aspect of food preparation, rather than try to impose a massive change of diet. I wonder how his food revolution is holding-up, and if Turkey-Twizzlers are back on the menu?
From australia we watch in amazement while hot lunches are provided for school children in the UK. Here we take a lunch supposidly packed by the mother/father and which usually comprises a sandwich , piece of fruit and a cakey/biscuity treat for morning tea.Frozen drinks packed in the top part of the box are used to keep this cool.
ReplyDeleteFrom my experience as a teacher looking into lunchboxes, prepacked dip'n biscuits, meuslei bars of questionable worth, candy or chocolate bars and frozen fruit drinks loaded with sugar seemed to be the order of the day.
Apparently the latest generation will be the first one that doesn't live longer than its predecessor. Wonder why !!
As you so correctly say, Mr M, food is not rocket surgery.
ReplyDeleteMy school meals were served in a wide variety of different schools and some were appalling and some were fantastic. The smaller schools were better and the three-thousand pupil hell-holes were poisonous. One of the best wa the village school in Achmore, Lewis, where the meals arrived in a blue Morris Minor van packed in large metal containers. It was simple, good food (served on plates, not prison trays!) and if it wasn't "interesting" or "stimulating" or "familiar" enough for us we had the option of going hungry instead.
I have seen what the generation younger than mine feeds its children - and I am gobsmacked. No wonder life expectancy is falling. Sugar and - excuse me here - sh*te. Anything that is quick, requires no work and keeps the sproglings quiet for a few minutes. A dismal effort.
Makes you wonder why every child has an allergy towards something or other. Rubbish food stuffed with E's.
Deletethe US says it is a country that values its children, and then school lunch programs feed crap to them, insurance companies won't cover their healthcare, their parents cannot find decent affordable childcare, the list goes on and on. I helped my daughter pack her lunch so there would be (good) things in there she would actually eat. Some parents object to soda machines being taken out of school -- WTF are soda machines doing in school? Oh, yes, raising money for underfunded schools. Never mind the health consequences to our children. The system is seriously messed up.
ReplyDeleteAll our school meals were of the meat and two veg variety - pretty boring, but no one complained - you ate what you were given. I can't remember chips ever being on the menu though.
ReplyDeleteWe loathed our school meals - stew, stew, stew and fish pie on Friday, all served with overcooked greens. But, looking back to the early 50s, I am amazed. Everything was prepared fresh from scratch and the school had its own garden! It employed two gardeners to produce all the vegetables we ate fresh every day and in summer we had soft fruit as well. Not a good economic prospect these days and the land has probably gone for housing now.
ReplyDeleteyes we had smashing meals at our grammar school, always 2 veg and proper puddings. It was all cooked on the premises during morning assembly, but towards the end of my school career, a choice of meals was offered and "snack" meals were creeping in, stuff like sausage roll and chips.
ReplyDeleteTrouble is the power has shifted... little didums is consulted as to what he/she would like to do. 'Are you ready for bed?' " Would you like beautiful food, lovingly prepared by Mumsie?' 'Would little future PM like some much more flavoursome food made by the very jolly Col. Saunders?' Forget school nature trips, let's get the little darlings out on a wake-up trip to a turkey twizzler production line. Where a the end of the visit they can scoff as many twizzlers as their little tummies can hold.
ReplyDeleteWould it work? Probably not.
LLX
Maybe not, but I like the idea. I wonder if Mr Mathews would grant access?
DeleteThis class question as to what to call a mid-day meal is more complicated than you (one) might think. 'Dinner' has shifted around the clock a full 8 hours since medieval times, when lavatories didn't exist, and the 'toilet' was what you did when washing in your bedchamber. I always talk about 'lunch', but I feel I am letting down generations of 'dinner-ladies' when I do, as if they never existed. They served us brats our lunches all those years, and they can call themselves what they like in compensation, I think.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't give a fig what they call themselves; I shall still eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
DeleteYou'll eat what you're given, my boy. Now go to bed without supper.
DeleteI've always been a fan of school dinners...I was lucky in my own schools, in that the quality was always good...but more than that, my grandmother was a school kitchen supervisor in the late 50s, early 60s. I remember visiting her kitchen and getting to know her " dinner ladies" who always spoiled me rotten. I also remember the pride she took in developing nutritious recipes within the allowed budget. At Christmas she went to work at 2 am in order to get the turkeys in the oven, ready for lunch time....she saved 3d and 6d pieces all year, to put in her puddings, ( no health and safety regs then ! ) and her Christmas cake was to die for. I think she's probably turning in her grave over turkey twizzlers....and she would have loved Jamie Oliver.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine that many of our present day dinner ladies take much pride in what they do; if one is to believe everything one hears about what they serve-up. Given a free hand, I'm sure most of them could do much better with the same budget.
DeleteAt our school, 90% of children are on free or reduced lunch and breakfast and lunch at school are the only decent meals they get. There is a salad bar everyday which has fresh veggies and fruit on it, and recent federal guidelines in the US have really limited the amount of fat and sugars that can be offered. Unfortunately though, I conveniences name much of the rest is packaged food. It seems with some careful planning real food could be served and multiple meals from the turkey example mentioned above could be made through the week.... Jamie Oliver is a hero really.
ReplyDeleteHe's certainly a hero over in the UK, amongst those who care about what their children eat!
DeleteI agree that Jamie Oliver is a hero and so far it has proven to be a thankless task. The trouble is that so many parents don't have the slightest inkling of nutrition and the importance of a balanced diet -- and they feed their children as they themselves were fed. I am always astonished when in France at how French children eat everything without complaint. The worst behaved are the English and the Dutch children with their eternal chorus of 'I don't like it'!
ReplyDeleteThat drives me mad. Maybe it's because I was always something of a 'gourmand' that I get so annoyed about children who judge before tasting. You're right; French children seem to be much more adventurous.
DeleteI'd like to see Jamie tackle nursing home food. The grub my poor mum gets is appalling. I believe nursing homes in Canada get $4.49 per resident for food and prisons get around $10.00.
ReplyDeleteIf the kids get fed crap at home, the school dinner won;t help much in the long run, but may educate the kids somewhat for when they make their own choices.
I never seen a turkey twizzler (other than on Jamie's show and hope I never will.
I've not seen a TT either. I quite expect they been 'discontinued' (thanks to Jamie).
DeleteOur school dinners were great. Pretty much the same stuff as we were fed at home.
ReplyDeleteI think that's the problem, parents want their kids to eat the same as they get at home, which nowadays is mostly crap.
Our school dinners were cooked from scratch using fresh produce every day, nothing fancy, by a fearsome team of ladies. I blame the councils and government for deciding they would pay so little for the service that it had to change for the worse. While the producers of nutritionally dubious food get rich, the kids suffer.
So glad you all can remember back that far, just makes me feel old that I can’t. I do however remember as a young boy in Spain going to an Olive factory and eating so many olives for my lunch that I got sick all over one of the teachers. When my twin brother saw what happened he promptly reciprocated down the back of the same teacher. Have I ruined anyone’s lunch yet?
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