This has resulted in a variety of criticisms, one of which is that children won’t like them/
The obvious response to that is that hungry children aren’t fussy.
Another criticism is that the lunches won’t be healthy.
This made me look back to the school lunches I had. they were made by my mother every evening, each package labelled with initials to identify which belonged to which of my brothers and me, and stored in the fridge for the following day.
They consisted of two white bread sandwiches (progressively more stale as time passed from bread delivery day); two biscuits or pieces of cake, homemade of course; and a piece of fruit; plus a bottle of cordial which I suspect consisted of lots of sugar, artificial colour and flavoring.
Sandwich filling on Mondays would be cold mutton left over from Sunday’s roast, the rest of the week might be tomato in season (which would make the whole greaseproof-wrapped sandwich package soggy); honey and cheese or what we called Belgium that is now known as luncheon sausage.
Once a term we were given a shilling which would fund a pie with tuppence over for sweets, or we’d spend the whole lot on fish and chips.
For my first few years at school we also had milk, warm after sitting in the sun on hot days but I opted out of that early on.
By the time I got to high school, Mum had discovered cheese boats – an egg, onion, bacon and cheese mixture in a bread case – as an occasional change from sandwiches.
Yoghurt became popular around then so a pottle of that – a good source of calcium and some vitamins, but also high in sugar – might have been added some days.
Our lunches were much the same as those of our classmates.
I wonder what the food police who are so opposed to the government’s menu would think of them?
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
This made me look back to the school lunches I had. they were made by my mother every evening, each package labelled with initials to identify which belonged to which of my brothers and me, and stored in the fridge for the following day.
They consisted of two white bread sandwiches (progressively more stale as time passed from bread delivery day); two biscuits or pieces of cake, homemade of course; and a piece of fruit; plus a bottle of cordial which I suspect consisted of lots of sugar, artificial colour and flavoring.
Sandwich filling on Mondays would be cold mutton left over from Sunday’s roast, the rest of the week might be tomato in season (which would make the whole greaseproof-wrapped sandwich package soggy); honey and cheese or what we called Belgium that is now known as luncheon sausage.
Once a term we were given a shilling which would fund a pie with tuppence over for sweets, or we’d spend the whole lot on fish and chips.
For my first few years at school we also had milk, warm after sitting in the sun on hot days but I opted out of that early on.
By the time I got to high school, Mum had discovered cheese boats – an egg, onion, bacon and cheese mixture in a bread case – as an occasional change from sandwiches.
Yoghurt became popular around then so a pottle of that – a good source of calcium and some vitamins, but also high in sugar – might have been added some days.
Our lunches were much the same as those of our classmates.
I wonder what the food police who are so opposed to the government’s menu would think of them?
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
11 comments:
Lettuce and Marmite sandwiches. Lettuce and cheese sandwiches. An apple. We drank water out of the fountains.
Doug's school lunch would be close to being just right in terms of carbo's, protein, vitamins and minerals. Perhaps more importantly, it is very low in fat, salt and sugar. Children do take to these culprits like a fish to water and their eating habits when they grow older reflect that.
And most of us grew up to be healthy adults even though we ate extremely simple sandwich type lunches at school.
Now we are the most long lived generation ever despite never having a hot school lunch !
Yes, and Mum made them, not the interfering corporate state system. Those were the days.
Is it not interesting, that here in New Zealand, we have a sport, that has more participants than Rugby - and that sport is called -
"lets bash any new idea, concept, project, outcome, proposal, that we suddenly hear about, suddenly do not like (because we have a literacy & listening issue on such matters) and will both by verbal and/or in print ridicule it, before it has even been tried".
I am very pleased to see "the written reminiscence's of lunches past", but we have moved on - so let us support the idea of CHANGE.
Just watched ' What are we feeding our Children?' a documentary on TVNZ plus which is a British documentary on the horrifying addictive nature of junk food. Everyone especially parents and medical people should view this well presented programme.. After going on a predominantly junk food diet for only a month , the doctor who offered himself as guinea pig in the study had various tests to compare the body changes undergone from when he was on a good diet not including a high proportion of junk food.
The most shocking change was in his brain which scans revealed he had developed a brain similar to someone who was addicted to substances or behaviours like gambling. Even the professor , specializing in obesity, and conducting the study was astonished and resolved to monitor her own children's eating habits more carefully.
We have a bad obesity problem here . When are the appropriate agencies going to look into this very serious issue ? Tobacco and vaping are bad but this addiction to junk food by our children and produced by manufacturers for profit, is probably worse. As Barend mentioned children can't resist food over endowed with harmful ingredients. In fact they are insidiously addicted to them.
So you support "you will own nothing and be happy" change then?
Gaynor @12:14
Have you ever done the "can't be bothered to cook" thing on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday evening and thought, "lets get takeaways" ?
I venture to suggest, not one family here has not gone down that path.
I also suggest that it's not necessarily the food its self but the quantity. Would the eminent professor have developed the same issues had he or she (your post says both) if "junk food"
was consumed on a very seldom basis rather than continually as was the case conducted by the professor.
Certainly watching, even controlling, childrens diet is most important, but again, like most things we shouldn't do or eat, we usually think "now and again won't hurt"
There is another popular pastime, Anon.
It is writing comments on blog sites under the pseudonym of "anonymous".
Ray S , I am sorry you were confused by my description . There were two people in the study a doctor and a professor studying obesity. I found the programme helpful because it showed why people become addicted to junk food I now feel more sympathy for the obese. The programme gave a thorough description of the food eaten and the different categories of food and the rough percentages of each category were given in various diets which included what children are eating daily. The 'junk 'foods were those mostly highly processed and de nurtured with lots of additives. Eating out occasionally on fast foods would not increase the overall percentage of 'bad component ' of a diet by much. I highly recommend watching the programme.
Anon 12:03 - change for the sake of change, and toss out the old simple school lunch that was a proven success ?
The fattest kid we had in school was the only one whose mother collected him at every lunchtime and took him home for a cooked lunch.
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