school dinners, can we really change eating habits for the better?

Question

school dinners have been high profile news for being of bad quality and low value of goodness. whats gone wrong? whos to blame? mothers who cant cook? women who go to work and neglect their childrens welfare as going to work is now of extreme importance to the families income. can we really expect kids to switch to healthy and boring foods in their opinion?? do they really want pitta bread, nuts, fruit, so called health bars, and other dodgy healthy living products? who wins? shops selling rubbish food portrayed as healthy living! why cant cookery be brought back and teach kids how to cook properly? I did cookery at school and I loved it. life lessons are more important than fake dodgy tests and worthless exams. mothers teach yourself to cook and then teach your kids. get them involved. what will they pass on, nothing. the end.

Answer 1

I got educated in Belgium. For the first few years of secondary education we got what they called 'Technical Activities'. The class would be split-up alphabetically into two groups. On alternate weeks you did home economics or DIY.
It taught me the basics of cooking, sewing, crochet but also how to solder, wire a plug and build a wall.
Can't say i loved it but it was a nice break from academic subjects if nothing else.
I got a 3-year old with good healthy habits ... she loves fruit and white fish. I think i will bring her home over lunch the first few years.
One shop has a dedicated Kids range. the stuff is clean and in small portions. I don't care if they make money. As long as they keep the artificials out of food as much as possible my kid wins in the long run.

Answer 2

I have always thought that the teaching of life skills should have a higher priority in schools.
My children know who Plato was and they can name all the capital cities of all the countries in the world and they know the difference between animal cells and plant cells etc etc.

Ask them to change the wheel on a car or replace the plug on an electrical appliance and its a different story. Important things like what APR means or how listeria spreads in the kitchen are pretty much ignored in schools.
As it happens, I have ensured that my kids know this stuff but I do think it should be part of the education system.
Its very difficult to measure though. With academic subjects, its easy to judge who has been educated and who hasn't. It is therefore easy to tell the world that the education system is working because the exam results have improved.

We can teach computers the stuff that children learn in schools. As long as we can teach the children how to use a computer, or read a book, they can find out about almost anything.

How to cook, manage a home, maintain a car, raise a family should be at the top of the curriculum.

Answer 3

The problem is not just that kids get fed crap at school, they are also getting fed garbage at home. I agree that cooking should be taught in schools, it is such an important thing to learn how to do. When I was at school it was an optional subject but it really should be made compulsory for boys and girls. However this doesn't solve the problem of primary school children getting turkey twizzlers for lunch at school and then McDonalds for dinner at home.

I really don't understand why some parents can't see the damage they are doing to their children. In some cases they way they are feeding their children, in my opinion, is bordering on child abuse. They are setting their children up for strokes, heart attacks and obesity from such a young age. Luckily I can cook and my children have eaten proper cooked meals since they were weaned. Even those parents who maintain they can't cook have no excuse. Get a cookery book and follow the damn recipe. It's not difficult to make a decent meal. People need to wake up and see the damage they are doing before it's too late.

Answer 4

The answer lies ultimately at home and at school. Parents who can't cook (or won't cook) and who have no appreciation of nutrition or how what goes into your body affects it, haven't been taught to cook at school.

However, cooking is no longer on the school curriculum - it's changed to Food Technology! That's the reason I gave up teaching it. I felt that the lessons were simply designed to churn out factory fodder, with a generation of children recognising risk factors in preparing a hot desert but having little appreciation of how to cook a balanced, healthy meal.

Somehow we've missed a generation. We must get back to educating our children about their health, promoting good food and sharing the enjoyment of eating together. I could talk about the neglect of a whole generation under the tories, but that's another story.

Answer 5

I guess it all comes down to home and how you treat yourself. There are cooks and non cooks and people who think they can cook!I loved cookery or home economics and needlework both O levels in my day. I went to Catering college for a management course and enjoyed cooking at home only not commercially.But I had an interest in food and recipes and trying out flavours. I think it might just be a personal preference thing. My children love my cooking and I try to pass on tips and recipes. But I started from scratch and with school Some just hate cooking....

Answer 6

I am a working mother, but don't see how that stops my kids eating well.
I am not really one for school dinners, mine get a reasonable mix of a packed lunch, a whole meal roll, some fruit, raisins, a geobar or the like, and occasionally crisps or a cake! They then get a balanced meal at tea time, and are more than happy to eat a nice home made chilli, stir fry, jacket potato, piece of nice fish! It's not exactly hard to find healthy food! And mine certainly don't have to be persuaded! I'd be hard pushed getting a fish finger down them though...
I think it is mostly about common sense, and if I wouldn't eat it, why should they.
And it is generally cheaper!!!

Answer 7

I agree the only way childrens' eating habits will change is by starting at home. Most children have no idea what real food tastes like, junk food has taken over their lives and the health implications are horrendous. Children need to learn to cook nutritious meals, maybe they will then be able to educate their parents. Scientists have predicted that the generation of children now will be the first generation to die before their parents due to bad eating habits. Feeding children fast food convenience junk is actually child neglect.

Answer 8

A lot of the problem is price, the healthy options are just too expensive, but I can't agree that they are "dodgy", how are melons, mangos, bananas, pears, grapes, strawberries ect boring, the only thing that makes fast food so popular is the fat and sugar it contains, your body craves these. And why do you see exams as worthless our children need results to get on.

The children need to start eating healthier foods from the very start, and be encourged to get out and play more, if not on their own then with their parents, make time for your kids

Answer 9

You are so right in most of what you say.

Cooking good food does not need to be difficult or time consuming and there is no excuse for not feeding children properly.

Some people are forgetting that they actually have a responsibility to feed there children properly, like so many things, they seem to devolve that responsibility to someone else.

Blaming advertising, fast food outlets and supermarkets is just an easy option.

For God sake, they are the adults, if you don't give your kids junk they can't develop a taste for it.

I have a constant battle with my Stepson who's mother (who does not have work as an excuse), fills him with salty, sugary snack, rather than real food.

Dairylea Lunchables are not real food, nether is a packet of crisps between 2 slices of white bread, however he thinks this is dinner, I personally think it is child abuse to deprive your child of nutritious food and instead to fill them with a series of E numbers.

You have found my soap box subject I'm afraid - as it would appear for many others too.

Answer 10

I think you can change eating habits but eating prices is the problem for me. You can buy 20 economy burgers for 99p but a small packet of basil or a couple of pieces of fruit will cost you the same and they're only just one small part of a healthy meal. A full and decent healthy meal (unless of course you want to eat very cheap vegetables like carrots or turnips every day which would soon get boring) can easily cost you 3 or 4 quid! Low income families are much more likely to reach for a buy one get one free ready meal lasagne for 99p than putting this all together with separate ingredients costing them 5 times as much!!