The great lunchbox debate

School dinners have become a massive talking point in the UK over recent years after popular TV chef Jamie Oliver launched a radical crusade to ban junk from all school kitchens.

It caused a massive furore.
Jamie spoke passionately about fresh, nutritious foods for our next generation. He visited schools to teach the children themselves the truth about the junk they were craving, he lobbied the government and he shouted as loud as he could to bring about a revolution.

He met children whose lunchbox consisted of two bags of crisps and a Mars Bar. He tried to turn around teens who only wanted chips with everything and he spoke of making it compulsary for all youngersters to be taught about how to prepare food and good eating habits.

He launched a manifesto which aimed to empower headteachers to make their school a junk free zone, invest in dinner ladies with proper training and he also wanted a long-term public campaign "to get people back on to a proper diet and empower/persuade (and possibly scare, if needed) the public to make better choices".

The jovial chef with two young girls of his own, was outspoken, totally determined and inspiring.

But it divided parents.
While some welcomed his words with open arms, others were outraged that someone should be telling their children what they could and could not eat.
In some episodes of the TV show which accompanied the campaign, parents were seen handing their youngsters bags of fish and chips from the local chippy through the school gates at lunchtime because they could no longer obtain chips in school.

As a result of the campaign, the government pledged to make school dinners healthier -but at a cost. Uptake of the new improved school dinners has dropped significantly.

My 6-year-old son has school dinners and they are good healthy meals and a reasonable price. He enjoys the likes of roast dinners, bolognese or pasta bakes.
He loves them. It is what he is used to at home as I am trying to bring him up to understand good nutrition and why he needs to keep a balanced diet and that he can have treats, but he must eat the 'good stuff' first.

He helps me in the kitchen, he knows what a pepper and a mango is and we've made dinner time a family affair.
Hopefully, when he hits his teens and then moves into adulthood, he will be equipped with the knowledge to make the right choices for himself.

So I was really interested to read a debate about whether certain foods should be banned from your child's school lunchbox over at the Times' SchoolGate blog.

A mum is upset because she was 'named and shamed' by her child's teacher for sending her son to school with chocolate spread sandwiches and they are asking the question should teachers get involved in what you pack for their lunch every day or have we gone healthy eating mad and this is just "teachers just flexing their muscles and showing us that in school, they're the boss!"

I would be really interested to hear your views.

Tweet