Jamie's School Dinners

[chunkster20uk]

Did anyone else watch this programme on Channel 4 Last night?

What I found incredible was the family that Jamie visited that basically ate junk food (bung in the oven reconstituted stuff) and snacks and pop. After a week of eating fruit and veg etc they said everything had calmed down in the house, the kids were more attentive etc.

The family decided to test it and fed the kids the old diet and pop for one meal, at which point they became hyper and like the way they were.

 

[gilld]

I used to help in an infant school and I have to say I was appalled at the junk some people put in their childrens lunchboxes. These pre-packaged things are always expensive as well.

 

[AlanUK]

I found it amazing that one of the parents was defending the school feeding the kids 'Turkey Twizzlers' and chips by saying that it was probably the only 'decent' meal the child would get all day as a lot of them were just handed a pack of crisps for tea when they got home

I was also worried that some of the children had no idea what any of the vegetables were that Jamie held up for them!!!

 

[lagunn]

i do blame the schools for this as the only cookery classes they do is pizza or something like that.
the rest of the time they are just learning about calories etc.
if they brought cookery lessons back like i had perhaps people would cook more..

 

[leise]

I know what you mean about cookery lessons, but these were primary school kids, though, we never did much cookery at primary school, only chocolate crispy cakes . It was shocking though. The kid who only had Pot Noodle for tea! And when the mum went shopping and said the basil must be for decoration as you couldn't eat leaves.....

The thing that amazes me though, is that Jamie's trying to replace the crap fast food with stuff which is sooo different, so ambitious, so of course they turn their noses up. He could so easily give them healthy tasty fresh food that they liked by making his own "chicken nuggets" from chicken breasts and fresh breadcrumbs, or home- made burgers from fresh mince. And start with simple vegetables, like peas or carrots, rather than asparagus and rhubarb! The thing that worked in the end was pasta in a vegetable sauce, which was probably because it was a healthy version of something familiar...

 

[lagunn]

sorry but i didnt mean for the primary school kids to be doing cookery lessons.

what i meant was that if their parents were taught to cook at schools the kids would get fed better.
their parents probably only know how to do pot noodles and reconstructed crap food plus just about open a tin.
and with each generation that does not have proper cookery lessons the problem will become worse.
also parents should teach their kids to cook. my daughters and my sons all know how to cook (ages 7 up to 29) and the eldest ones always cook nutritious meals for their kids.

 

[leise]

I know what you mean Lagunn, I can't believe the parents thought it was okay to give their kids such crap. Don't get me wrong, I'm no super-cook and I give my children stuff like fish fingers, but they have vegetables, and fruit and I think about what might be missing from their diet. The thing that gets me is the parents we saw all seemed to be my age (in their 30's), they would have had some Home Economics at school! And when you have kids you are bombarded with advice from Health Visitors etc. I suppose these parents all choose to ignore that. Can there be anyone out there who thinks three chocolate bars is a healthy packed lunch for a child, cos that's what one girl had?

 

[lagunn]

that is sad.

 

[lucy_love_]

yes it is sad but i have to say it made compelling viewing. jamie was brilliant and i deffo saw him in a new light. he was obviously affected by what he saw.

i have to say even though we have a proper home cooked meal every night and have packed lunches that consist of yogart and cheese and a sarnie my dd6 thought a kiwi was a leek too. i use leeks in stews and things quite often though. there is no way she would know what an asparagus was even though we have had it. i think its because its a case of she eats what i put in front of her (well apart from picking out the onions)

when my kids did stay for school dinners the choice was appauling and all they ate was pizza and roasties so i would rather put up a lunch i know isnt too bad. i know they are getting the calcium and stuff then. also the portion sizes were rubbish they always came home starving. my kids can pack it away.

love

lucy

 

[cheryl.UK]

Sorry guys but I have to disagree with some of you. Schools teach the facts behind the cooking (the things many parents wouldn't know) not cookery.

The fact is that kids are at school for only 190 days per year, at home for 175. Most kids (barring breakfast clubs) eat ONE meal per day at school prepared behind closed doors for health and safety reasons. The place for kids to learn about cooking or what a raw leek looks like is at home, like you and I did. I learned how to cook victoria sponge, bread, soup, biscuits, shepherd's pie and apple pie at school in the 70/80's, all the rest I learned at home from my mum who made good, simple, wholesome meals with fresh veg, meat and some sort of carbohydrate (potatoes/pasta/rice). Yes I ate some of these things for my school lunch but it was my mum who showed me how to cook them and what the raw ingredients were.

How many parents do the same for their kids these days? The parents in the programme were perfect examples of my Food tech teacher friend calls the pop pop ping brigade. (2 pops of the packaging and the ping of the microwave)

 

[Miffy2003]

I'm with Cheryl here!

 

[lagunn]

well i dont trust the education of my children to teachers at all so i teach them at home.
cookery and all.
but for arguments sake a parent is disabled who will teach their children?
why do they need to teach the facts and not cookery? you cannot eat facts now can you!!!!!
i think that we are just becoming a lazy nation.

 

[lucy_love_]

lagunn.

im interested about how you home tutor your kids. how many do you have? do you get lots of satisfaction from it? what support do you get from outside associations.

going back to what cheryl said. i dont disagree with you but my mother certainly never showed me how to cook. i was a child living on twizzel type food. i think thats why its so important to me to feed my children nutritionally balanced food. plus it just tastes better doesnt it? my dd6 is an expert spout preparer. we do have the odd mcd's or junk food. that film about that man who ate nothing but for a month or however long it was has been advertised on film 4. has anyone seen it? what was it like? i think the smell would make me want to puke after a few days of nothing but mcd's.


lucy

 

[Queenie]

lagunn - I'm interested in how you home school your kids too, I've been following the thread about home schooling on the general community board but the US school system is so different from ours. Any info you could give would be great!

As for the topic at hand, I think my Home Ec education was pretty good (I finished school in 2003 for reference.) I just pulled out my old exercise book and some recipes we learnt were: Savoury Mince, Vegetable Soup, Savoury Sausage Plait, Buns, Pineapple Upside-Down Pudding, Truffles, Cheese Sauce, Swiss Roll, Bread and Coleslaw. We also got taught loads about nutrition, low fat alternatives, how much sugar we need in our diets and other useful information. I actually keep the book in my kitchen for reference.

However a more worrying note is the survey on school meals we did in my first year:
Monday - Chips, Banana, Orangeade
Tuesday - Chips, Bakewell Tart, Water
Wednesday - Chips, Sausages, Baked Beans, Banana, Water

I was off school Thursday and Friday. We basically had chips every single day and a choice of hot dessert or fruit. There was the option of cold dinner (bread, cheese, salad) but the line for that was always tiny, I'd say 85% of pupils went for hot food!

 

[AlanUK]

I think a lot of the problems come down to what is advertised on the television with this. Kids are bombarded with adverts for Sweets, chocolate, crisps and junk food in general. The companies put massive amounts of cash into these marketing campaigns, the adverts nearly always have good hooks and stick with you once you have seen them. The big companies know through reearch that kids make up a large proportion of their customer base.

How often do we see advertising for fresh foods and things that are good for you aimed at children? There are none that immediately spring to mind and even the older ones that I can think of would never attract a childs attention.

This isn't the whole solution by any means but I think we have to look at the things that influence childrens decisions rather thaqn having to force them into making the correct choices.

 

[Madjock]

I wasn't terribly surprised at what came out of it. My DH is a trained chef and does all the cooking at home so both our girls have grown up eating a wide variety of dishes and healthy stuff since they were babies, along with the ocassional tea of fish fingers, but when they've had friends stay for tea I've often had a hard job trying to find something for them to eat, they've never heard of things like lasagna, for example, let alone tried it!

Once after running through the entire contents of the fridge, the freezer and the cupboards I asked one little 7 year old "well what would you have for tea at home" the answer "chips and bread"! Sadly she wasn't unique!

I think what Jamie is trying to do is a fantastic idea but like someone said I think he's being a bit too ambitious to start with. A lot of the dishes are probably way too 'fancy' for kids who've been brought up with a very limited diet.

Annmarie

 

[allie5]

I think what Jamie is trying to do is a fantastic idea but like someone said I think he's being a bit too ambitious to start with. A lot of the dishes are probably way too 'fancy' for kids who've been brought up with a very limited diet.

Annmarie

Totally agree with that Annmarie. My MIL works for Jamie and Ive known about his school dinners campaign for awhile now. Its a great idea, but as you rightly said, its a bit of an ambitious start.

My kids wouldnt touch a vegatable "plain" on their plates (well, the eldest MIGHT nibble a bit of broccoli) but I hide them in mash, sauces, pizza topppings etc. How hard is it for schools to chuck some swede and carrot in the mash? Sweet potatoes are a big hit in our house, and I wonder schools dont use them more often. I make roasted sweet potato "chips" which are the fave meal of the week with my two. Roast parsnips work as well.

Ive only had experience of "School Dinners" for about 7 weeks (eldest started in Jan) and she repeatedly says she has hot dogs, chips and beans for dinner. Im not very happy, and I certainly hope her school will be taking on some of Jamie's ideas. MIL says he will donate a load of books free to DDs school, so thats a start I guess!

I do admit to using some of the M&S kids meals for DS's lunch. He doesnt eat bread (except a tiny piece of toast for brekkie), so sandwiches are out (and Ive tried variations of pittas, rolls, pikelets etc). The M&S meals arent bad - the salt content is very low, so I dont feel TOO guilty that he has them a couple of times a week! Dont tell Jamie!