UPDATE: Last month, 9-year-old Scottish schoolgirl Marth Payne became an internet talking point by blogging pictures of her school lunches. But after making headlines around the world, she was banned by the local council from doing so. As for the reason, the council sited: “unwarranted attacks on its schools catering service which culminated in national press headlines which have led catering staff to fear for their jobs.”
Martha wrote on her blog: “This morning in maths I got taken out of class by my head teacher and taken to her office. I was told that I could not take any more photos of my school dinners because of a headline in a newspaper today.
I only write my blog not newspapers and I am sad I am no longer allowed to take photos. I will miss sharing and rating my school dinners and I’ll miss seeing the dinners you send me too. I don’t think I will be able to finish raising enough money for a kitchen for Mary’s Meals either. Goodbye, VEG”
However, thanks to an enormous media and social media campaign, the ban has been lifted and Martha will continue to blog. She’s also raised £45,889 for charity.
Here’s what we previously reported:
In the hope that she would provoke some kind of a response, Martha began taking photos of her lunch every day and putting it on her blog, NeverSeconds. She also rated each lunch for taste, healthiness and the number of hairs she found in it each day.
Hairy macaroni & cheese. No vegetables. Tiny portions. These are just some of the problems 9-year-old Scottish schoolgirl Martha Payne was facing when she sat down to eat her school lunch everyday. Not the lunches her parents packed for her – the lunches that the school was providing for her and the other primary school students.
See more images here
And soon enough, people began to sit up and take notice. Especially Jamie Oliver. Tweeting to Martha’s dad, Jamie wrote: “Shocking but inspirational blog. Keep going, Big love from Jamie x.”
The moment Jamie Oliver stepped in, Martha’s dad was asked to meet with the local council to talk about improving the school lunch menu. The kids are now allowed unlimited amounts of fruit, bread and salads and there are new systems in place to make sure that everyone gets enough.
What did you eat when you went to school? If you have kids, what do you put in their lunch boxes? What do you think of the response from the school and the local council?
Top Comments
Very interesting blog and good on her for bringing this issue to the attention of the authorities!
Is it only Australians who make their kids lunches? It seems in the US and the UK lunches are provided for buy the school. I don't think this is a good idea. Isn't the child's welfare and nutrition the parent's responsibility?
Making lunches isn't the best job in the world, but it is certainly one of the easiest. If you know what your kids take to school, then you know what they are consuming. And if you don't give them money for the canteen - they can't buy anything!
I must admit I don't like making the kids lunches in the morning - it's just one of those chores I dislike doing. I would rather clean a toilet that make lunches. So my husband and I have an agreement now where he will make the sandwiches and I will add the snacks.
He makes a healthy sandwich on seedy or wholemeal bread, usually with a sandwich meat and some salad and I will add snacks like dried fruit and nuts, fresh fruit, home-made slice or biscuits and a yoghurt.
The kids are happy with their lunches, they never complain, they are healthy and if they eat all their food, I let them have one slightly less healthy snack of their choice per day.
While I'd prefer to make kids their lunches and hope that they eat it, there are the parents who for a number of reasons chose to give the child money to buy lunch from the canteen and hope that they make a good food choice. The problem with that though is if the child has their lunch money pinched by an older kid, or consistently makes poor food choices, or chooses not to have lunch at all because they want baseball cards instead.
If lunch is provided by the school and it is included in school fees, then at least the parents know food will be provided for the child at lunch time. Whether the child eats it or not is going to be the same no matter the situation. Whether it has a hair in it or not is going to be the same as well, I've made my own sandwich for lunch and had hair in it, and I've served lunch/dinner with the occasional stray hair as well.
I don't think society is ever going to be happy with what is seen as the norm when it comes to lunch for kids. There will be those who will say the lunch photo sent by the Taiwanese student was showing they were fed too much food.
There will always be the naysayers and the put-downers.
The best that parents can do is to hope for the best while the child is out of their care and provide the child with healthy food while they are in their care.
I also live in Australia and when I went to school our Mum only allowed us to order our lunch once a week, she made our lunches every other day of the week.
Now that I am a mother, I am like Michelle (above) and I really do not like making the lunches. However I do it everyday anyway and try to stick to healthy food stuffs when possible. I usually stick to a sandwich, fruit and yogurt, and sometimes cut up pieces of ham/chicken, cheese and crackers, that sort of thing.
After reading this article I am glad we do not have cafeteria style canteens at our schools. I would hate my children to eat that kind of thing every day and I find it refreshing that a nine year old can see that this food is not very healthy as well.. Smart girl
Jo
Just as I always believe the western diet is not that balanced, it proves me right when I saw the photo of the Taiwanese lunch. That for me is shocking, portion wise, nutrition wise, it's not difficult to see who's having better lunches. And no wonder more and more kids in the western countries are overweight!