School Dinners

[WC1]

The pizza was not fried and even on the day the photo was taken, as is the case every day, ample salads were available.

[gizmo]

It has been a while since I had school dinners, and I do not know if young Martha served herself, but from the photos I have seen, the teaspoon full of sweetcorn, the three slices of cucumber and the solitary potato croquette dont strike me as "ample".
I would have thought beefburgers and pizza would only have been on the menu occasionally, otherwise most of the youngsters would choose them before the more nutricious choices.
That said, I used to love school dinners. Even the brightly coloured custard and the semolina, which I have never seen since.

[Anne Baird]

The pizza was not fried and even on the day the photo was taken, as is the case every day, ample salads were available.

I can confirm that the pizza was not fried, but am alarmed that anyone is still taking the position that a nine-year-old is somehow responsible for the paltry morsels on those plates.

The council is an organisation manned by adults and ought to be able to deal with the notion that it gets things wrong sometimes. Indeed if it didn't, you'd have to marvel at it given the range of services it delivers over this huge and challenging geographic area. The persistent denial of blame or responsibility simply creates a polarised debate and does nothing to solve problems or heal wounds.

We are talking about a child here; one who is learning not just about food but also about the education system and whether or not she is of value within it. So far, the council has taught her that it considers itself to be infallible and that it feels able to have a public spat with a child. Meanwhile hundreds of people across the planet are putting words of encouragement on her blog and Jamie Oliver has been kind enough to send her a book with a personal message in it. I suspect she's learned a great deal the council didn't mean to teach her!

Tam Baillie, the Children's Commissioner should be invited to cast some twenty-first century light on the council's procedures.

[easypeasy]

Chuckle wrote ''Hang on a minute! What do you mean Martha made a bad choice????'' I did not mean anything I was merely quoting what the council official said. The point I was trying to make was one's understanding of the situation changed when one realised that the child helped herself from a wide choice of what was avaiable. Martha's parents were contacted and invited to air the views on the program,by phone, but declined.

[Hume]

I see the council has banned this wee girl from taking anymore photos.

[dunc99]

The story was featured this morning on Radio 4. Her father was interviewed. The school is supportive of her blog, but Argyll and Bute council are not. The council refused to comment.

Maybe our council reps who read this forum would like to comment?

[StephenJ]

This morning, this story was the number 2 trending topic on Hacker News (after being picked up by Wired.com).

Hacker News http://news.ycombinator.com/ is probably one of THE most influential newsfeeds in the USA, being read by the vast majority of software developers and venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.

The embarassment must be acute. I suspect Argyll and Bute may go on to become a national trailblazer for healthy eating initiatives?

[Mod8]

BBC Story:

A nine-year-old girl who became an internet hit after blogging about her school dinners has been banned from taking photographs of her meals.

Martha Payne, from Argyll, began publishing photographs of her Lochgilphead Primary School lunches on 30 April.

Her NeverSeconds blog got more than two million hits in just a few weeks.

Argyll and Bute Council said press coverage of the blog had led catering staff to fear for their jobs.

Martha gave each meal a 'food-o-meter' and health rating, and counted the number of mouthfuls it took her to eat it.

But in a post published on Thursday evening, Martha said her headteacher told her not to take any more photographs for the blog.

Under the headline "Goodbye", the post stated: "This morning in maths I got taken out of class by my head teacher and taken to her office. I was told that I could not take any more photos of my school dinners because of a headline in a newspaper today.

"I only write my blog not newspapers and I am sad I am no longer allowed to take photos. I will miss sharing and rating my school dinners and I'll miss seeing the dinners you send me too."

The council's decision to impose the ban came after the Daily Record newspaper published a photograph of Martha alongside chef Nick Nairn under the headline "Time to fire the dinner ladies.."

Martha had been using the blog - which she started with the help of her father Dave - to raise money for the Mary's Meals charity.

An explanatory note posted on the blog by her father read: "Martha's school have been brilliant and supportive from the beginning and I'd like to thank them all.

"I contacted Argyll and Bute Council when Martha told me what happened at school today and they told me it was their decision to ban Martha's photography.

"It is a shame that a blog that today went through 2 million hits, which has inspired debates at home and abroad and raised nearly £2,000 for charity is forced to end."

Mr Payne later told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme his daughter was not happy about the council's decision.

He added: "I can see that the photographs at the start didn't look the most appetising, but Martha marked the last school meal 10 out of 10.

"I understand that it's brought pressure from around the world and media interest, but that is really out of our control.

"But we are very supportive of the school - the fact that she has been encouraged to blog and she got permission to do this is testament to them.

"Everyone in the kitchens has been wonderful to Martha and she enjoys going into lunch every day."

In a statement released on its website, Argyll and Bute Council claimed media coverage of the blog had led catering staff to fear for their jobs.

It added: "The council has directly avoided any criticism of anyone involved in the 'never seconds' blog for obvious reasons despite a strongly-held view that the information presented in it misrepresented the options and choices available to pupils.

"However this escalation means we had to act to protect staff from the distress and harm it was causing.

"In particular, the photographic images uploaded appear to only represent a fraction of the choices available to pupils, so a decision has been made by the council to stop photos being taken in the school canteen.

"There have been discussions between senior council staff and Martha's father however, despite an acknowledgement that the media coverage has produced these unwarranted attacks, he intimated that he would continue with the blog.

"The council has had no complaints for the last two years about the quality of school meals other than one from the Payne family received on 6 June and there have been no changes to the service on offer since the introduction of the blog."

Cleland Sneddon, the executive director of community services at Argyll and Bute Council, told the BBC that school catering staff had been left "in tears" by press coverage.

He added: "Newspapers have a significant impact on public opinion. They have a significant impact on this particular staff group.

"If you had met with the staff at the school yesterday, the level of distress that was there - it was palpable. It was very significant for them. People were in tears. This was a culmination of a period of seven weeks of this level of coverage and we had to take some action to protect our staff."

Martha's blog was featured by media across the globe, with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver tweeting: "Shocking but inspirational blog. Keep going, big love from Jamie x."

After hearing about the ban, Oliver tweeted on Friday morning: "Stay strong Martha" before urging his 2.3 million followers to retweet the message to show their support for the schoolgirl.

Martha had been raising money through a Justgiving page for the Mary's Meals charity, which helps feed some of the poorest children in the world.

Publicity caused by the ban helped her smash through her £7,000 target - with total pledges of more than £12,000 being made by Friday lunchtime.

The total stood at only about £2,000 on Thursday evening.

A Mary's Meals spokesman said: "Martha's support for Mary's Meals has been amazing and we are extremely grateful for everything that she has done to help us reach some of the hungriest children in the world.

"We are overwhelmed by the huge response to her efforts today which has led to so many more people donating to her online donation page.

"Thanks to this fantastic support, Martha has now raised enough money to build a kitchen in Malawi for children receiving Mary's Meals as part of our Sponsor A School initiative and has broken the record for hitting a Sponsor A School online fundraising target in the quickest amount of time".

Among the pictures Martha published on her blog was one featuring her £2 lunch of a pizza slice, a croquette, sweetcorn and a cupcake.

Martha wrote: "I'm a growing kid and I need to concentrate all afternoon and I can't do it on one croquette. Do any of you think you could?"

The decision to ban Martha from taking photographs has been criticised by Scotland's Education Secretary Mike Russell, who is also the MSP for Argyll and Bute.

On his Twitter account, the MSP for Argyll and Bute said: "I think the decision is daft and I will be asking the council chief executive to reverse it."

View the full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-g ... t-18454800

[riggbeck]

Argyll and Bute Council deserve to be raked over hot coals for this idiocy. Put enough pressure on them, though, and they'll be forced to provide better food, and allow Veg to continue taking photos and get on with her fund-raising.

[StephenJ]

Also the NUMBER ONE topic on Reddit today

http://www.reddit.com/

[Sheik Yir Erse]

"In particular, the photographic images uploaded appear to only represent a fraction of the choices available to pupils, so a decision has been made by the council to stop photos being taken in the school canteen.

If that's their stance, I don't see why they don't just post picture of all the other choices available to pupils as a response. If for example, as a parent I saw that there were 19 other choices which were all much healthier than Martha's choice, I'd probably be happier in the knowledge there was better food on the menu. The Council banning this is an incredibly bad PR move - like they've got something to hide.

[Sheik Yir Erse]

...... and now the ban has been overturned!

[riggbeck]

Great to hear the ban has been overturned (http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/15/school-meals-blogger-council-ban). The moral is, never mess with 9 year olds who have a popular blog.

[dunc99]

Good article on the bbc website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18454800

[gizmo]

The Council shold be ashamed of themselves on many levels.