(no subject)

[pez]

The next chapter of [The City] has been written, but I think it's a very boring chapter. I may go write the following one (or two) too, and then edit them together and see the overall effect.

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Jamie's school dinners started yesterday. I really enjoyed the show, as I did with his old show where he trained his chefs for "15".

For those who don't know, Jamie Oliver's a top chef who has become some sort of a celebrity chef. His style is rugged, very "throw everything together and voila" but it really works (I tried). In this show he went to take over the kitchens at a state school and has to cook for hundreds of kids with a very tight budget - 37p per person per meal. That's how much state schools get from the government to feed the kids.

It's a phenomenol challenge, to jump into something like that and trying to make it work on day one. With that sort of budget, the school has no choice but to feed them the shit everyone knows as school food. And if it has one single bit of veg in it, the kids refuse to eat it. What Jamie tries to do in the show is to cook them all healthy food that they'll like, with that sort of a budget.

At one point, what he said really struck me. He complained to a friend after seeing the food the kids were fed with. Processed, reconstituted crap with no nutritional value at all. He said something to the effect of, we've got this government trying to get people to be healthy, we spend all this money on the NHS trying to help people with heart disease, obesity... but look at the sort of shit they feed to our kids. This is where all the problems start! They give you 37p per kid for lunch, what are you supposed to do?

And I thought, fuck, that's so true.

Can't wait for next week's show.

Comments

[ex-semishade366.livejournal.com]

Yeah, whatever happened to the spam fritters, beans and mash we used to get when I was a kid?

Mind you, I still struggle to come to terms with the fact that schools now have to provide breakfasts.

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

Beans and mash. I had beans and mash too! XD

I'm just glad my family sent me to a private school... the food was much better and even though it's a boarding school meaning everyone was eating school food for nearly every meal for 7 years, there was no obesity in my school that I can remember.

[ex-semishade366.livejournal.com]

Went to state school in the 70s - there wasn't much obesity then (I can remember one, but it didn't have much to do with school dinners). But these days kids have been raised on junk food before they ever set foot in a school. I was only ever allowed sweets on saturdays (20p worth!) and maybe once or twice a week could buy crisps from "missy" in break (2.5p). I can't think of a day when my teenage half brother hasn't had sweets or crisps, not to mention all the sugary drinks. (And what really ticks me off is he's never needed a filling!)

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm really not in a position to say what's wrong with the kids these days (sometimes I still consider myself a kid -_-), but when I was in school I never ate *that* much, and nor did most of the others there... there was one girl, but her obesity (and appetite) could almost be considered inherited, an isolated case. We all seemed to have had other things to do with our time... comparatively, the hobbies children have now seem to involve a lot of /visual/ stimulation, so they can do it sitting down. And we office workers know sitting down all day = wanting something to munch all day...

Fastfood giants, generally more junk food being available, TV commercials and parents too busy to look after their kids, all of that of course don't help. *sigh*

[scribblemoose]

wow, spam fritters. that takes me back.

I loved the programme too. I loved the way he stomped around the kitchen saying 'fuck' and 'bollocks' every two minutes. Hope the walls were thick...

Any idea where that school was, by the way? As I understand it it's the Local Authority that are responsible for giving the school their budget for meals, so the amount allowed varies from school to school. Plus the school can supplement from their 'general' budget. The school where my husband works gets about £1.30 per child, which is much more sensible!

[scribblemoose]

Sorry, I meant LEA to LEA, not school to school.

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

The school is called Kidsgrove School, seems like somewhere in Staffordshire if Google's right (I still don't know my north from south in this country... ^^")

At one point I thought he'd throw his hat and say he gives up. Still, he swore less than he did on the programme for "15" *snicker*

£1.30 is very good! My school (private boarding, charged nearly £5000 a term in 2000) served meals that cost less than £1, as far as I can remember... (I used to chat with the cooks quite a bit ^^)

[vicky-guu-sama.livejournal.com]

if i remember right, we had more in woldingham..right? or else i wont' have gained so much weight in my 2ndary sch years XD

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

I think our meals were like 70p to £1, something like that... or was it a bit more?

[vicky-guu-sama.livejournal.com]

cost wise, i dunno, how much they make us pay for it? at least 2.50

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

The money's just the cost of the ingredients, so if you consider all the other costs, £2.50 isn't that bad. You get a sandwich for that price or higher in Central London.

[vicky-guu-sama.livejournal.com]

i dunno i actually feel like i started liking school food after year 11, hence the explanation of weight gain Oo"