Jamie & Jimmy's Holiday Hunger

grey_lady

A couple of years ago i attended a speech given by a local head teacher to prospective parents, not that bad an area - quite a good area really and a very very popular school. The head teacher made a point of saying how disgusted he is at the number of children that get sent to school without breakfast.

dirty_magic

Schools preach about healthy eating but then school meals aren't always healthy! At my friend's child's school they check lunch boxes and confiscate cakes or chocolate, but then the children having school meals get pizza with chocolate cake for pudding! They have also tried to tell parents that only water is allowed to drink, even if other drinks are sugar free.

LilElvis

dirty_magic wrote: »

Schools preach about healthy eating but then school meals aren't always healthy! At my friend's child's school they check lunch boxes and confiscate cakes or chocolate, but then the children having school meals get pizza with chocolate cake for pudding! They have also tried to tell parents that only water is allowed to drink, even if other drinks are sugar free.

Do they not also serve vegetables? At my daughter's (primary) school there are vegetables with every meal - including with pizzas - and also a salad bar every day. The food is portion controlled, balanced for nutrition and with strict guidelines as to the amount of salt and sugar they contain. Theres a choice of meat-based main, a veggie option and a jacket potato with fillings every day. The children also have a piece of fruit at morning break eaxh day. Certainly a huge improvement on the dessicated, overcooked liver, spam fritters and gelatinous custard I was served for my school lunch.

foolofbeans

I must admit i was expecting to get flamed for being annoyed at the campaign idea. I have a large social conscience but I do feel that it is a very basic expectation that a parent will feed their children.
Obviously this doesn't always happen and it is not acceptable for any child to go without but I'm not sure the answer is to provide when a parent refuses to do so.
Perhaps any child who regularly requires feeding should be paid for out of the parents income, whether that be benefits or earnings.

f0xh0les

I don't really think anyone on here is going to understand how someone can decide not to feed a child. It is inexplicable. When push comes to shove, you feed your kids first. It should not be normalised not to feed them. If there is an underlying problem, be it debt, mental health issues, eating disorders, working patterns, break down of the family unit, parental neglect, whatever, that needs to be addressed, not just making a school dinner available 365 days a year. Just my tuppence worth.

dirty_magic

LilElvis wrote: »

Do they not also serve vegetables? At my daughter's (primary) school there are vegetables with every meal - including with pizzas - and also a salad bar every day. The food is portion controlled, balanced for nutrition and with strict guidelines as to the amount of salt and sugar they contain. Theres a choice of meat-based main, a veggie option and a jacket potato with fillings every day. The children also have a piece of fruit at morning break eaxh day. Certainly a huge improvement on the dessicated, overcooked liver, spam fritters and gelatinous custard I was served for my school lunch.

They probably do serve it with vegetables or salad, but I still don't see why they would remove a small chocolate bar or cake from a packed lunch, regardless of whether there are also fruit or vegetable sticks included. A chicken salad sandwich with an apple and small cake is still healthier than pizza and chocolate cake, even if there is salad with it.

FredG

Predictable amount of poor shaming already in this thread. Bad parenting occurs at all levels in society. This campaign appeared to be centred around food waste and using the school as a community base to increase social inclusivity.

It wasn't pushed as lets give people a free lunch. Parents were volunteering in the pilot, both employed and unemployed. Food that would have gone to waste was used to make balanced and nutritious meals.

The scrounger rhetoric we're fed every single day by the media at large is massively debunked by actual statistics. Yes, there are always people who will swing the lead and try to take more than they are entitled to but this happens at every level of society from Shazza from the estate claiming she's single for benefits purposes right up to national treasure Gary Barlow and his accountant finding him as many tax loopholes as he can find like he hasn't made enough money and been given enough by the country and society that has enabled him to be the success he is. Let's not even start on corporate tax avoidance which eclipses both Shazza and Gary's faux pas but very few seem to get angry about.

My belief system tells me that all 3 of those examples should be treated with contempt but I only hear about the lowest rung. Why is that I wonder?

I totally agree benefits as a lifestyle choice shouldn't really be an option but in a world where we have such job competition for even minimum wage positions and every day there appears to be a new cut, then we really should start being intelligent enough to look at the cause rather than the effect.

Straight away when someone tries to do something positive, be it Jamie and Jimmy or anyone else, they're immediately slandered by people with pitchforks and dismissive tongues. I say fair play to them for using their influence to do some good and giving these kids a better chance to be contributing to society when they grow.

We've turned into a horribly cynical nation in parts where as long we're ok as individuals we couldn't give a damn about anyone else due to us buying the demonisation of anyone we perceive as beneath us and "stealing" a living. About time we wised up.

System

As far as i am concerned, its all down to priorities. Parents get the priorities wrong and the kids suffer.

MallyGirl

I watched the program and a few things wound me up - the lady saying she couldn't feed the 8 of them in the holidays was the first. I suppose she could have been Catholic and devout and therefore contraception was not acceptable, or she might have been a young widow, but, if not, then maybe she shouldn't have had quite so many children if it was that close to the knuckle that she couldn't afford to feed them. There were a lot of tattoos and piercing - maybe the money for those embellishments would have been better spent on food? Maybe that is just me?

PasturesNew

I would say I used to go to school without being fed. Teachers called my parents in, parents said "she won't eat it". .... but recently my sibling pointed out to me that I wasn't the "bad kid" for not eating my breakfast, truth is, I wasn't offered any.

As my sibling pointed out "Can you honestly say that if somebody offered you food you'd not eat it??" and the answer is, no, I've always eaten any food I was offered. She said "Mum was just lazy".

I don't know what happened as it was a long, long time ago.... but I grew up without eating breakfasts as a rule and, because that's what I was used to, it's what I've done my whole life.