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Even The Tatties Have Batter - Chapter Five |
Local survey of children
Louisa Graham, Mary Harkins and Kait Laughlin
Will children eat healthy food?
Some people say that there is no point in giving children healthy food, as they won't eat it. We did our own local survey, and asked 51 10 and 11 year olds, what they thought of that statement.
Of the 46 who answered:
"Ridiculous"
"We will eat it because we might not get enough at home"
"I think you should give healthy lunches out because some people aren't very healthy and if you give out healthy food they might get healthier!"
"I know I would eat the healthy food!"
"I think all children should eat healthy because it's not good to eat junk food all the time"
"That's a load of crap" (the statement not the food!)
These statements are made in a climate where junk food is continually being pushed at children including in the dining hall itself.
Do school meals fill you up?
In the same survey, we asked the children: When you have had your lunch, most days do you feel:
a) Full up
b) Just had enough
c) Still hungry
d) Still very hungry
24 out of the 51 children took school dinners. 23 answered the question.
Of those:
Remember, this is when they have had their lunch. They have a whole afternoon of schooling to get through - hungry. Hungry children cannot learn properly.
Packed lunches
This is contrasted with the twenty-seven children who took packed lunches. 25 answered the question - only one was still hungry after lunch. However, good packed lunches every day are not an option for many families in our society.
School meals are failing all our children
Of those who had packed lunches a substantial proportion had previously been to school lunches and found them 'disgusting’, 'not nice' or 'Yuck!' In the words of one child when asked to write three words about how she feels after her school lunch: "Hungry, sick, uncomfy."
A typical school meal
Here are two typical days school lunch for my two children, age seven and eight.
Day one:
A sausage (as there are no nutritional standards, goodness knows what's in it), three McCain's 'Happy Faces' (small circles of processed potato in batter, about 2" across) and one spoonful of baked beans, followed by a small, very sweet cake.
Day two:
Nothing left by the time they get there, except the cold choice, a lunch bag containing a roll with a thin slice of processed chicken(?), an apple and a very small packet of maize snack 'things'.
"Every day when they come out of school they are very hungry; and the first thing I have to do is to give them something to eat".
What children and mothers think
We also spoke to another group of children and their mothers in a different area of Glasgow. Here's what Louis, age ten, thinks of his school dinner,
"Not very nice stuff. The food is really greasy... nearly all of it is deep fat fried. They never have normal potatoes. Even the tatties have batter! The meat is pink. We have fruit and then none for a month but it's horrible. The pears are hard and green bananas."
Here's what Brodie, age six, says about his school meals:
Here's what his mum says:
Harriet, age six, says:
All of the parents were concerned about their children's school meals. Louis' mum says:
"The Scottish Parliament is being asked to make school meals healthier, and to make all school meals free. What do you think?"
Finally, we asked our initial group of 51 young people this question:
Here are some typical comments:
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