If you want to join in the debate you are more than welcome, if you just want to take a dig at the staff then I suggest you do one.

Because if there are choices, you can bet your life some would take the crap (less healthy or balanced), option every day

Yep, admittedly at secondary rather than primary school but we had healthy alternatives at school. Did we eat it? Did we balls. We had pizza and chips. We were kids, it made sod all difference because we spent hours before during and after school playing either football or rugby in some form and got a decent meal at home.

Unfortunately quite a few never did and I reckon even more so these days. The reason school dinners were introduced was to ensure that kids got at least one decent meal a day. Unfortunately when we now see school kitchen "managers" being rewarded for saving money, as opposed to being rewarded for providing the best food for the money allocated, we get to the bottom line.



It is very obviously the fault of a parent if their kids aren't eating properly, unfortunately we have to admit that there are some pretty shi[it[/ity parents out there and I don't believe it is indicative of a nanny state, if we try to at least mitigate any nutritional shortcomings through good school dinners.



I don't hold out much hope, especially when the party in power is the same one who, when presented with evidence that rickets had been eradicated, dropped free school milk.

It's also not just rubbish parents who want/need children to have good quality meals at school. When I was younger due to the circumstances my father left us in the fact that we got a good quality hot meal at school was a massive help to our situation. I imagine that is (or would be) the same for a lot of people who are struggling at the moment.



We've gone so far away from what school dinners were meant for it's unreal. It's not that long since those entitled to a free school lunch were still able to get it in the school holidays so that they still got at least one decent meal a day.

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18472795Some very positive outcomes[/url



It seems that the strangest circumstances still stirr our souls as members of the same species, and that is great news!

[url=http://thevoluptuousmanifesto.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/never-second-thoughts_18.htmlThe questions the journalists should have been asking.[/url

Looking at the choices issue for a second and I think this angle is being massively over-egged if you actually look at A&B's lunch menu.



Like most of the Scottish councils they work on a 4 weekly menu plan and it seems that Martha Payne and her classmates have the grand choice of two hot things.



Here's a sample of their menu;



Week 2 - Monday (Family Favourites)



Chicken in Gravy served with Boiled Potatoes and Carrots and/or Cauliflower Cheese

Or Pack a Snack Selection including Hot or Cold Wraps with

tasty fillings served with Carrot Sticks or Side Salad (v)



Tuesday: Around the World

Burger served in a Bun served with Potato Wedges, Broccoli or Side Salad

Or Creamy Ham or Vegetable (v) Tagliatelli served with Broccoli or a Side Salad



Wednesday: An Italian Feast

Meatballs in a Rich Tomato Sauce served with Pasta and Corn Cobettes

Or Pizza with a Selection of Toppings (v) served with Crunchy Diced Potatoes and Corn Cobettes



There's no a huge amount of scope there for the children to be always picking the wrong option. Some larger schools in the area serve baked potatos every day and they have a choice of having a sandwich either. The issue, to me, appears to be the quality and quantity of the actual food. For example the pizza appears on another page of the menu described as being served with a "side salad" - is 3 slices of cucumber now a side salad? Children certainly shouldn't end up having a sandwich because the hot meal options are crap.



In one report the children were told that unlimited salad and bread was available to them, and had always been available to them. Can it be possible that the majority of children in the class missed that fact or could it be that it was something that was kept quiet because it is yet another area of cost cutting? Worryingly for those associated with the primary school is that it is part of a flagship joint campus, it shares with a nursery complex and the High School. So the kids will be exposed to the crap food they are being dished up until they leave school.

... or, as I have raised in the piece linked to above, is the school doing as it should, and the photographs do not represent the whole story?



Apparently, only Martha's parents have complained about the school meals. Why? What was the nature of the complaints? WY have no other parents complained?



And frankly, as I also also mentioned above, I do not believe that the voice in the blog is the voice of a nine-year-old child.



Perhaps Mr and Mrs Payne are peeved that, in offering choices, they give their child the chance to make poor choices - and that's why Daddy has, it seems, been 'behind' this way of trying to attack the school.



And an interesting side question: why are so many people so ready, apparently, to take what is being represented by the blog at face value, and assume that it tells the whole story?

It would appear that the whole sorry saga was actually the work of a sub-editor who thought they'd got themselves a "funny" headline. If they'd simply added one small word "up", hyphenated at the end of the word "fire", then I reckon none of this would have happened.



[url=http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2012/06/15/read-the-martha-payne-article-that-made-council-bosses-overreact-and-ban-her-blog-photos-86908-23896447/The offending article[/url

For me I'm happy to take it at face value because I know that is the same crap that gets given to kids in our local school.



If you can provide a 2 course meal for £1.75 and make good amounts of profit from it then, imo, you are cutting corners somewhere.

So you're saying that the council and the school are liars?