Saturday, September 16, 2006

Healthy Eating Again


Rawmarsh School in South Yorkshire decided to go in for healthy eating in its canteen, but didn't bargain with Mrs Walker and Mrs Critchlow (pictured holding her letters of support from local fast food outlets)

They are busy taking orders from the kids each day at morning break for pies, fish and chips, sandwiches, baked potatoes, burgers and fizzy drinks which they deliver at lunchtime by pushing them through the school railings. I swear I'm not making this up.

Before we rush to condemn them however (and you can rest assured that I'm sorely tempted to), we should consider the following points:

1) They claim (and I will find out if this is true) that the food in the canteen is absolute rubbish and that the school is charging almost twice as much for food such as baked potatoes as local takeaways do.


2) The sight of these two at the school gates would certainly put me off my lunch.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

The problem is that the school meals are privatised now and they really are poor. Our canteen charges more than local outlets too.

Anonymous said...

God look at those horrors!

Anonymous said...

My generation (I'm 56) ate loads of fat and stodge but we used up far more energy in every aspect of our lives from mowing a lawn to walking to school.

Nowadays the kids expend very little, unless they play sport. Houses shops and all buildings are stiflingly hot, they go everywhere in cars and labour saving devices enable them to spend every waking minute in front of the TV/computer.

Many could probably get by hardly eating at all.

Anonymous said...

sandwiches, baked potatoes, fish and chips... sounds pretty healthy to me.

Our school encourages the kids to bring in sandwiches and sells baked spuds in the canteen.

Anonymous said...

If the food in the canteen is so bad, maybe these two should cook the kids something decent and bring it in?

Anonymous said...

im amazed by this and yet sympathetic too!

the school dinners are crap,but surely it would be better to ensure that the children brung in packed lunches and force the contractors to sort it out?

Anonymous said...

Saw this (or a very similar story) on the local news last week. The kids were hanging through the railings shouting orders and these women were raking the money off them. Local chippys were laughing all the way to the bank! It was a well run business if you ask me, they even had special containers for transporting food! I wonder if there are any laws and regulations about provinding such a service?

Anonymous said...

I wonder if these 'concerned' parents would sit in afternoon lessons where the kids are 'e' numbered up to the hilt! Our canteen has been through this difficult transformation and the kids have started to accept the change. Afternoon lessons are becoming easier!

Anonymous said...

I wonder if these 'concerned' parents would sit in afternoon lessons where the kids are 'e' numbered up to the hilt! Our canteen has been through this difficult transformation and the kids have started to accept the change. Afternoon lessons are becoming easier!

Anonymous said...

The meals at the school are very good, and were 'healthy' long before Government edicts. I would eat one myself.
What is 'healthy food' anyway?

Anonymous said...

The meals at the school are very good, and were 'healthy' long before Government edicts. I would eat one myself.
What is 'healthy food' anyway?
Sorry, this should have read 'at the school I work at'.

Anonymous said...

I read in some of the coverage of this story that the real issue was that this school had cut the lunch "hour" to 30 mins and that the children found it difficult to get served and eat in this time.

This would put a different spin on the story - as with most things there are probably more complexities here than the original - hilariously reaction of these parents!!

Anonymous said...

Mr Chalk, how could you. 'It's' canteen??????? If we can't rely on you to keep up standards, upon whom can we rely?

Anonymous said...

I'm a Police Officer - the other day I stopped a couple of young lads out of school at lunch time outside the local chippy. "Should you be here?" I asked. Boy says "The problem with this healthy food Officer is that it's F***ing Sh** !"
Jamie Oliver has a bit more work to do I think

Anonymous said...

It's good that the school provides healthy food (if indeed it does). But parents are entitled to decide what is best for their children, so the food supplied is not the issue, but the school's prohibitions on obtaining food elsewhere.

PS: I bought, read and enjoyed the book. Well done.

Anonymous said...

Our school meals have greatly improved this year. Delicious in fact!

Mary said...

I have no problem with these two harridans feeding their own spawn chips and fizz, but I don't like the idea that they do it to other children at the request of the children, who after all are too young for any other kind of responsibility (but that's another issue).

If they clear it with the other children's parents first, then I'm past caring. I just know that my friends who have youngsters wouldn't be amused if they thought they were giving their kids money for a guaranteed healthy lunch at school, and found that those two were standing outside the railings saying "go on, have chips instead..."

Anonymous said...

School lunches determine the health of our children! They should feature traditional freshly-made dishes, including meats, yogurts, soups, and of course healthy salads
! Junk food should be eliminated from school canteens.

Anonymous said...

Healthy eating and good dieting is all what we need to be healthy and beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Nothing wrong with Jamie Oliver's campaign - when I started to work in schools some 10 years ago, I was shocked to see the poor quality of the food there. Even cup cakes were "jazzed up" with blue food colouring to make them more appealing to the little E-numbers addicted kids. The problem is the way Jamie's suggestions were implemented. With a sledgehammer. "Healthy Eating" has become a mantra that has crept into every subject. Maths...weigh out ingrediets to create a healty meal. Same in DT. The kids are sick and tired of it because they get it thrown at them left, right and centre. A more non-nanny-state approach would maybe have taken longer but would have achieved more.
Same goes for all issues environmental. Whilst the kids are banged up in derelict buildings without double glazing every teacher has to go on and on and on about all things eco...worksheets are churned out in such numbers that surely schools kill half of all rainforest and food in schools is sold in plastic bags, packets and pouches that will haunt the environment for hundreds of years.