Thursday, January 14, 2021

Thursday 14th January 2021




Do you remember school dinners?  Plain, unsalted and the lack of butter was abysmal.  At convent, lettuce with the livestock still crawling through.  Our school  dinners when I was a child were plain and unappetising but I concede a point here, probably healthier to what is on offer in the supermarkets today.

Yesterday those terrible pictures of what is being offered to our poorer children left many dumbstruck.  Welcome back to the Victorian age, the bare necessities of life figured.  Two carrots, two potatoes, 3 apples, lump of cheese,  and various other bits and bobs. Yes you and I could make a meal out of that but the insult to the mothers and children is hard to stomach.

I went online to France to see what French children's school meal may look like, very different of course.  Nutritionally balanced, attractive to look at (a tired old carrot does not inspire much creativity), and filling.  Well we are a long way from this pleasant trayful, and I am sure the argument to prise our children away from the wrong type of food, think pizzas, chips, crisps and sweets etc, will take a long time, Jamie Oliver tried it when the schools were used, but............


The argument is of course to allow mothers the cash or food vouchers to make their own choices, and not allow the private sector to interpret (through their profits) a diet that is laughable.  The companies are now being drawn over the  hot coals of public scrutiny.  But surely, we could have got this right?

It is snowing, a winter wonderland, though cold, even the little cat came in for a few minutes this morning but his natural scared nature got the better of him.


Contrasted with Welsh meal box for 3 people for 2 weeks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55646023

13 comments:

  1. According to Kier Starmer, that meal kit comprised of exactly the things that the government stipulated it should to the supplier. He read out the list in Parliament. At least Boris had the sense to be outraged.

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    1. You would have thought that over all the years both parties would have addressed feeding our children properly. But no, put it in the private sector and then bury your head. Though Jack Monroe did say the battle had been won as vouchers will now be given out.........

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    2. Can you imagine - spending billions whilst poor families actually go short of food.

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    3. The problem is there is no overall plan, charities fill in some of the spaces and famous cooks add their voice. But we live in a country where media type chefs dominate the airways with mostly cooking food quite a few people can't afford and silly competitions who bakes the best cake!

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  2. The latest in a long list of scandals from a government who don't believe in giving money or resources to poor people who need them and who view this epidemic as a business opportunity.

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  3. It is very wet snow here Pat, so lots of ice around.

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  4. Some fathers lead on family meal provision - it's not just mothers.

    What I find appalling about this business is firstly the lack of trust - as if to say: "You are a poor scrounger so we cannot trust you with meal vouchers or money!" Secondly, the idea of profit making providers exploiting the poor just like Tory friends profiting from PPE production. It's not "Let them eat cake!" it's "Let them eat massive carrots!"

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  5. When you come to think of it we have lived a long time with people who seemed to think that being poor, or in this case, not particularly poor but probably out of a job, that it makes them scroungers. As you say, 'let them eat carrots' is an unimaginative deplorable view of children who should be protected.

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  6. You know the first thing that struck me here? The fact that potatoes and carrots are included. It wouldn't happen here in the US. Nothing that requires cooking. A sandwich. Fruit snacks. Microwave mac and cheese. Things like that. Back in my difficult days, I found myself cooking for two extra boys, which really wasn't a problem. I worked, generally had a pot of soup in the crock pot and some day old bread to be toasted. If they were there they got fed. Their mother called to apologize that they were eating there. I told her I didn't mind. She wondered how I made my food vouchers last to the end of the months because she could not. I did not get vouchers, but I was fortunate enough to know how to be thrifty with food so I began to explain crock pot cooking. And she said, "I. Do. Not. Cook. No, no, no." She had a choice between feeding her children and not, and chose not to. I am not sure how it has happened, but it seems to be the way of it these days. The idea that children are being given things to be cooked says a great deal about your system compared to my own. We do have an obligation to take care of the children who are not being taken care of. You get NO argument from me.

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  7. Hi Debby, different systems will out of course. I spent 10 years as a young widow being thrifty and there was no complaint from my daughter. But the situation here, as it must be in America, is that some people are experiencing hardship. Maybe can't even afford the gas to cook by. Money was handed out to the firms to buy adequate food, the above is seriously lacking, cheaply sourced and the profit goes into the pockets of shareholders. The above picture was contrasted with a Welsh school meals box for three people over two weeks, I will put the photograph on and you can see the difference.

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