Kids Dish

Jamie Oliver’s school dinners campaign (which I wrote about here)isn’t going so well according to new reports. The number of students eating school meals has dropped drastically, as mothers sneak chips through the fence so their kids don’t go hungry eating freshly prepared vegetables.

Ofsted inspectors report a failure in marketing the campaign to kids and parents alike and a rise in prices that may be putting off some families. The quality of food in schools has improved across the board, especially in schools with on site kitchens. But dining halls are still rowdy and poorly designed and children eligible for free meals feel stigmatized, a sentiment that’s the same on both sides of the Atlantic. I often had students eat a bag of chips for lunch because they were too embarrassed to eat one of the “freebies.” Cashless swipe card systems can help with this.

The chief inspector of schools, Christine Gilbert, said: “Schools that had the most impact in encouraging healthy choices were those which gave a priority to this as part of their day-to-day work. They encourage pupil involvement in designing school menus, for example, and worked hard to make their families understand the importance of healthy schools.”

Some other problems the Ofsted Inspectors discuss in their report are that younger children in some of the schools don’t know how to use a knife and fork and had difficulty actually eating the meals. At a secondary school counselors had to be brought in because older girls with substance abuse problems were skipping meals to lose weight. Other kids complained that the portions were too small and they were still hungry.

I hope that schools take the report seriously and change their approach to school dinners. Involving parents and children alike in menu planning and giving families input about the program will help increase the numbers of students eating the meals.

Children’s minister Kevin Brennan said: “We are in this for the long-term. Cutting childhood obesity and unhealthy eating needs the backing of every local authority, school, teacher and parent in England.