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Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

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Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#71

Post by bootload »

kevinalexbrown wrote: post #32

Awesome and hilarious - I would be a very proud father or older brother. But on a serious note, directed at the media woohoo that always ensues, demanding better food for schools Jamie Oliver style misses the constraint of a limited budget. Presumably there's some price/utility tradeoff between the cost of the food and the health/taste. Then there's a tradeoff between teacher quality and wages, school size and the nu…

"... The UK has the highest rate of childhood obesity in Europe, with 25% of young people being classified as obese or overweight. The Government’s Foresight report suggests this will only get worse, with 40% of Britons expected to be obese by 2025 ...." [0]

Are these constraints factoring in the long term health benefits & lower health costs?

[0] "Why is school food important?" ~ http://www.jamieoliver.com/school-dinners/

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#73

Post by forza »

grecy wrote: post #66
sukuriant wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. It almost makes me question whether this was a real 9 year old, or a teacher that wrote lower than their level (but not low enough) and that was outraged by the activities ... and then signed it their child's name.

Possibly the family talked about the lunches and the Dad asked her to take photos and tell a story about it.... It's clear he's helping with the tech aspect (i.e. number of hits), so he could be helping with editing/spelling/content too. I don't see a problem with that.

According to the radio interview[1] it started out as a writing exercise.

[1] http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17908017/VEG%20You%20and%20Yours.mp3

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#74

Post by [deleted] »

leot wrote: post #68
hack_edu wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost of the materials is only a small part of it. Preparing and cooking fresh food requires much, much more effort than prepared packaged foods. Microwavable or similarly low/zero-prep food products require very little labor, require only a few steps before they are served, and create almost zero items to be washed and cleaned. You would be surprised how much cheaper a flat of microwave burritos is compared to an…

Given the success of various "healthy fast-food" restaurants, it seems nearly everyone can be taught to cook the simple stuff. But I was thinking, here, of quinoa prepared in a rice cooker (comparable in difficulty to microwaving a burrito), salad, and pre-made vegetarian chili. There's no way the total cost of this is higher than calorie-equivalent microwave mexican fare. E.g., Costco organic quinoa is about 700 kCa…

[deleted]

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#76

Post by kaybe »

hack_edu wrote: post #36
leot wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blarney. Healthy food is not pricier unless you get fancy. Legumes, quinoa, and vegetables aren't more expensive (though they do have smaller margins!) than the crap that they had been serving previously.

The cost of the materials is only a small part of it. Preparing and cooking fresh food requires much, much more effort than prepared packaged foods. Microwavable or similarly low/zero-prep food products require very little labor, require only a few steps before they are served, and create almost zero items to be washed and cleaned. You would be surprised how much cheaper a flat of microwave burritos is compared to an…

Deep-frozen vegetables are even cheaper than fresh ones and still have nearly all the nutrients, plus they usually come cleaned and preprocessed. Put it in some boiling salty water, wait a few minutes and you're good to go. How much easier can it get?

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#77

Post by sukuriant »

jentulman wrote: post #69
sukuriant wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. It almost makes me question whether this was a real 9 year old, or a teacher that wrote lower than their level (but not low enough) and that was outraged by the activities ... and then signed it their child's name.

I get the impression from reading it that it's her content but her dad is doing the editorial for her which, given it's a 9yo with a blog, I'd call pretty sensible parenting.

That's a reasonable and less conspiracy-esque theory. It seems more plausible than my idea -- though it wouldn't surprise me if a teacher actually did do that.

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#78

Post by mvzink »

jdietrich wrote: post #64
kevinalexbrown wrote: post #32

Awesome and hilarious - I would be a very proud father or older brother. But on a serious note, directed at the media woohoo that always ensues, demanding better food for schools Jamie Oliver style misses the constraint of a limited budget. Presumably there's some price/utility tradeoff between the cost of the food and the health/taste. Then there's a tradeoff between teacher quality and wages, school size and the nu…

If your political system doesn't see child nutrition as a priority, your political system needs to be burned to the ground. Are we honestly expected to believe that a first world nation can't find room in the budget to give children vegetables? I cannot imagine a future in which they do not look back and think "Food was cheaper in their age than at any point before or since, but they fed their children worse than cat…

That first sentence isn't quite right. I agree, personally, that every political system should be burned to the ground but, as usual, some Marx might give a slightly saner perspective here: the problem is precisely that there is a political system, which separates political personhood from private, civil personhood. Today, a group of people acts in social cooperation primarily through a political system. They may have an important social goal, like improving child nutrition, but the political system has already leeched the social power necessary for its achievement. Thus, any other social goals being worked out through the political system, such as economic growth, national security, even personal liberty, are at odds with the social goal you're concerned with, simply by nature of having to work through a defined, singular system. You can only push and pull a lever in so many directions, no matter how complicated and multi-axial it is. And as a sidenote, the political system itself doesn't have goals, even if its initial creation did have specific goals. They inform the system, but are not properties of it.

The intent of communism (esp. with the abolition of the state) is not, contrary to many views, some evil dictatorial master plan, but simply to put social power back into the hands of the people, allowing the existence and implementation of real social priorities, such as child nutrition.

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#79

Post by droithomme »

superuser2 wrote: post #67
slantyyz wrote: post #2

I get the impression that had she been American, the school would have suspended her for her actions.

Of course, the justification wouldn't have been "her actions," but the reasoning would go something like this: 1. She is a student using personal electronics on school property during school hours without permission. This is explicitly disallowed in the handbook she and her parents would have been compelled to sign. This is not about food - she broke the rules. 2. That's great that she wants to be a journalist, but y…

Totally accurate; nice summary; have seen this myself; was thinking the exact same things while reading the article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_on_Kids recommended to those who are skeptical.

Nothing is your post is overly dramatic or exaggerated in the least.

Re: Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes

#80

Post by malnourish »

Splines wrote: post #70
kevinalexbrown wrote: post #32

Awesome and hilarious - I would be a very proud father or older brother. But on a serious note, directed at the media woohoo that always ensues, demanding better food for schools Jamie Oliver style misses the constraint of a limited budget. Presumably there's some price/utility tradeoff between the cost of the food and the health/taste. Then there's a tradeoff between teacher quality and wages, school size and the nu…

Growing up in central Canada I never had a school that provided meals. Now that I'm in the US I find it odd that schools (of all ages) can provide lunch for students. My son now gets his food at school - while it's nice that we don't need to prepare his lunch beforehand, I'd much much rather have my school district's food-related costs be used towards teachers and learning. I have prepared lunch for my son when he wa…

The biggest thing with this is that there are some parents who are unable to prepare food for their child due to financial costs.

For some kids, a school meal might be the only thing they eat, or the largest meal of the day.

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