Kid's turn backs on healthier meals

[AB Asks]

School children have shunned the healthier meals popularised by Jamie Oliver, with reports that 20% fewer meals are being served in secondary schools. Is this really such a big shock? Should we really be surprised that kids don't like eating healthy food?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6972699.s tm

[B00]

No, lol. Even at my old age given a choice of chips or salad, I know which i'd choose!

[LoftyLottie]

Perhaps if the kids got healthy food at home the chips at lunchtime wouldn't be too bad!!

I thought cakes were more your style Boo!!!

[andrea81]

Looking at the new healthy meals, I'm not surprised, they have gone over the top with very weird and wonderful recipies! I think they should have broght it down a notch or two.

For example, there are vegatables on there are a required taste. I'm sure they could have come to a healthy option and using more commonly eaten veg and worked up to it!

I'm all for healthy meals and my son's school meals are very good, but they don't go as far as griddled Aubergien and Celeriac mash!

[B00]

totally agree with Andrea. Kids aren't into arty farty food. I see nothing wrong with making them healthier options of food that are already tried and tested with them, like pizzas for example.

And yes lottie- cakes do indeed hold a special place in my heart.

[kwicky]

Correct me if I am wrong but I was told there is no unhealthy food. It is just the quantity! Maybe the schools should revert to former menus but serving less of it?

[LoftyLottie]

Nothing wrong with good (whole fish) fishfingers, a few chips and beans or peas and a tomato, or something similar. What I do believe is that schools should not have sticky cakes or fizzy drinks/squash. Milk or water should be the only drinks available and yoghurt or fruit would be acceptable puds.

I agree with Andrea, by the way.

[amonty1144]

My son has school dinners but every third week the menu is diabolical, it includes lamb pasta. The dinner lady says it's revolting. On the third week I give him packed lunch.
I was talking to the headmistress this morning who says a lot of her kids don't get fed in the morning and the first opportunity for food is break time, they are only allowed to offer fruit and as she points out it doesn't fill you up. I've taken to including cereal bars in my son's bag to fill him up, due to the rules they aren't allowed to offer them or crisps or choclate. She says most lunch is wasted because it's touched vegetables!!!
It's ludicrous, kids need calories and good wholesome food to concentrate, it's become a punishment.
Parent's need educating, but in the meantime let them have a bit of fun with food.

[B00]

No sticky cakes????


sobs

[Pippa68]

My kids don't get any choice ~ the council stopped school meals years ago.

Healthy packed lunches for them! my eldest daughter is at college and the canteen food is (in her opinion) revolting. She makes herself a lunch to take in.

[LoftyLottie]

I don't believe that the school's job is to provide snack food in the morning because some parents don't do their job of providing a wholesome breakfast. A good wholesome, filling lunch should suffice.

Education of parents is the only thing that is really going to work.

[LoftyLottie]

Well sticky cakes are OK in moderation Boo!!! I have eaten three today!! (true)

[B00]

How sad is it that many children are not even given breakfast in the mornings? Is this a sign of the times? Agree with lottie, perhaps if parents got their fat backsides out of bed and fed their offspring, children wouldn't be literally starving by the mid morning breaktime.

[andrea81]

There was a statistc somewhere (sorry no referance) that said that by the year 2020, 50% of our children will be obese.

I'm not big on statistics as I think they arn't very accurate, but it's not hard to believe that.

I agree LoftyLottie, education had to be the key a better understanding of what food contains... I was shocked to see what E numbers were in a my sons fruit drink... he is not drinking them now as a result!

[MrBen5]

Hmmm, well having the mental age of a child, i understand why kids dont go for these meals. They are so boring...

[~Wingnut~]

I'm a school cook but primary not secondary.
We started doing the healthier menu about 18 months before jamie Oliver started his campaign. It's been a hard slog but it has been good to get to a point where the kids are starting to enjoy their meals.
There has been a definate improvement in the uptake of eating veggies and salad.

I was annoyed & insulted at a comment I recieved once from a parent saying "My child won't eat that stuff and would be a waste if they had dinners as they wouldn't eat it" to which I thought "If they ate healthily at home they wouldn't think twice about eating it at school!

Everything is cooked from scratch and I think it is more the additives that are put into processed food that they are concerned about.
We maybe surprised in a few years times to see that there is an improvement once the primary school children filter through into secondary school after having eaten and gotten used to healthier food.

I've worked extremely hard against all sorts of obstacles to turn it around but until it starts at home I sometimes feel like I am fighting a losing battle :o(

[Shadow Man]

When I was at school, which wasn't really that long ago we had to eat our meal. No leftovers whatsoever. Yes, it was a borading school so packed lunches were not an option, but FFS, kids today!!!!. They don't know they're born half of them!!!

Would it be classed as fascist or against Human Rights if teachers forced kids to eat their vegetables nowadays??

Also we did so much PT that any meal was welcome!!!!

[andrea81]

Wingnut - I agree with you, it's the additives that are in foods. There is nothing wrong with pizza as you can make pizza from fresh ingredience!

[tiggerblue10]

This hasn't really got anything to do with school dinners, but when I was at school we had a Panda Drinks machine. One day we were in the hall as it was raining and I spilt some of my Panda cola on the varnished floor. I tried to mop it up with a tissue and and it stripped the varnish off the floor. I haven't had a Panda drink since!

[amonty1144]

It's not so much the food but the combinations they serve, today it was hot dog in a bun, potatoes with cauliflower and sweetcorn. It's not exactly appetising is it.
I work with a lot of families who don't feed their kids at the best of times, so getting up to do breakfast would be a step too far. I've even been in a house where the food cupboards had padlocks on, because otherwise the kids would eat the food, poor sods were starving.