How exciting - our review in the Evening Standard!
Keeps us all focused & and we have found a site to open in Islington so we can continue with our City Scoff contracts -exciting times ahead!
Off for a celebratory drink now!
Friday 12 October 2007
Wednesday 3 October 2007
Healthy School Meals
Sitting in my car on the way to our Kingston kitchen today listening to the news headlines…
‘Jamie Oliver’s School meals project crashes’
Apparently the number of kids eating healthy meals has declined since the launch of Jamie’s Healthy School meals project. Interviewed children were reported as saying that they didn’t like the food and that it was too expensive. Firstly – what do kid’s know about how much good food costs and in any case, when you are a kid you feel pretty invincible and so would good food really concern you?
I remember when I was growing up and in my teens feeling pretty healthy. OK – I had no choice of school meals. Meat and 2 veg and I played sport every day. BUT – I also smoked and ate the usual rubbish (KFC/Burgers etc. though not in the quantity kids eat them today). Did it have an effect on me? – Not that I would have realised at the time. Your body at that stage in life is pretty good at working and so some abuse really doesn’t do it too much harm, as long as that abuse isn’t long term. Try keeping up the abuse until you are 40 and then apply for a slot on Channel 4’s ‘10 years younger’!
The issue we have now is that because kids are allowed choice of food at school they will normally in their masses choose (a) the unhealthy option because despite Jamie’s best efforts healthy food is not seen as cool and (b) choose the food they recognise. We cook everyday at home (well, we used to until we moved to a SCOFF delivery zone!) and don’t eat deep fried food. By comparison, out children have supper at friends houses and it does still amaze me how many smiley faces there out there. In my childhood days it was either a case of eating what was on the table or go hungry (I think the war and rationing was still remembered and with that now a long way away values have shifted).
So – in this PC world we live in we allow Kid’s rights and choices often in line with adults choices, failing to remember that these are just kids and that the point of education is to teach them the right from wrong, good from bad and impart knowledge so that they can make the right choices later in life. Perhaps with the healthy food question we should have also asked if the children valued Maths, English and Latin! I am pretty sure that the response would have been the same as that when questioned about healthy food – but does that mean that we then don’t teach them the basics anymore?
Why is good food a fundamental part of a good education?
The knowledge we learn in our youth sets us up for life. Independent tests have shown that children eating healthy food have a better attention span in class, less allergies and therefore stood a better chance of learning what they needed to know to go on and achieve the best they can.
The habits that children learn in their youth will set them up for life. Why we are obese as a nation, why do immigrants to this country achieve more than some of our indigenous population (see Jon Snow’s Channel 4 Despatches). Food – our fuel, has a part to play in answering some of these questions, if not in full, certainly in part.
The survival of our intelligence, our abilities, our countryside management, our animal welfare, our place in the world is dependent on what we eat – our fuel. I know that I always feel more content, balanced (not that I am unstable!), nourished and a better husband and parent after a good meal and that I make better decisions.
So – let’s not give up on this project. Yes – it’s difficult to produce food that kids will like who are more used to eating junk. It will take more than just putting the food in front of them – it will take class & home education as well. It’s of course difficult for the caterers to work within budgets and re-train their staff to cook properly. It’s difficult, so what, what things worth doing aren’t difficult in life.
For our part we have committed to supplying SCOFF to a local school from next January. No, it won’t make us oodles of money (or any really) and requires us to operate slightly differently. But on the plus side we can guarantee some children receive food produced ethically without the use of chemicals, cooked with care without any gunk and it will really nourish them. Let’s hope we have more success than the schools I am hearing of on the news this morning.
‘Jamie Oliver’s School meals project crashes’
Apparently the number of kids eating healthy meals has declined since the launch of Jamie’s Healthy School meals project. Interviewed children were reported as saying that they didn’t like the food and that it was too expensive. Firstly – what do kid’s know about how much good food costs and in any case, when you are a kid you feel pretty invincible and so would good food really concern you?
I remember when I was growing up and in my teens feeling pretty healthy. OK – I had no choice of school meals. Meat and 2 veg and I played sport every day. BUT – I also smoked and ate the usual rubbish (KFC/Burgers etc. though not in the quantity kids eat them today). Did it have an effect on me? – Not that I would have realised at the time. Your body at that stage in life is pretty good at working and so some abuse really doesn’t do it too much harm, as long as that abuse isn’t long term. Try keeping up the abuse until you are 40 and then apply for a slot on Channel 4’s ‘10 years younger’!
The issue we have now is that because kids are allowed choice of food at school they will normally in their masses choose (a) the unhealthy option because despite Jamie’s best efforts healthy food is not seen as cool and (b) choose the food they recognise. We cook everyday at home (well, we used to until we moved to a SCOFF delivery zone!) and don’t eat deep fried food. By comparison, out children have supper at friends houses and it does still amaze me how many smiley faces there out there. In my childhood days it was either a case of eating what was on the table or go hungry (I think the war and rationing was still remembered and with that now a long way away values have shifted).
So – in this PC world we live in we allow Kid’s rights and choices often in line with adults choices, failing to remember that these are just kids and that the point of education is to teach them the right from wrong, good from bad and impart knowledge so that they can make the right choices later in life. Perhaps with the healthy food question we should have also asked if the children valued Maths, English and Latin! I am pretty sure that the response would have been the same as that when questioned about healthy food – but does that mean that we then don’t teach them the basics anymore?
Why is good food a fundamental part of a good education?
The knowledge we learn in our youth sets us up for life. Independent tests have shown that children eating healthy food have a better attention span in class, less allergies and therefore stood a better chance of learning what they needed to know to go on and achieve the best they can.
The habits that children learn in their youth will set them up for life. Why we are obese as a nation, why do immigrants to this country achieve more than some of our indigenous population (see Jon Snow’s Channel 4 Despatches). Food – our fuel, has a part to play in answering some of these questions, if not in full, certainly in part.
The survival of our intelligence, our abilities, our countryside management, our animal welfare, our place in the world is dependent on what we eat – our fuel. I know that I always feel more content, balanced (not that I am unstable!), nourished and a better husband and parent after a good meal and that I make better decisions.
So – let’s not give up on this project. Yes – it’s difficult to produce food that kids will like who are more used to eating junk. It will take more than just putting the food in front of them – it will take class & home education as well. It’s of course difficult for the caterers to work within budgets and re-train their staff to cook properly. It’s difficult, so what, what things worth doing aren’t difficult in life.
For our part we have committed to supplying SCOFF to a local school from next January. No, it won’t make us oodles of money (or any really) and requires us to operate slightly differently. But on the plus side we can guarantee some children receive food produced ethically without the use of chemicals, cooked with care without any gunk and it will really nourish them. Let’s hope we have more success than the schools I am hearing of on the news this morning.
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