Who is responsible for feeding our kids?

I've been watching Jamie Oliver's TV series filmed in the USA,  Jamie's Food Revolution with a degree of interest. I call shows like this (and its UK-based predecessors, Jamie's School Dinners and Jamie's Ministry of Food) car-crash television: some of the scenes are so horrific, you can't help but watch them.

Jamie's message on the Food Revolution website says:

This food revolution is about saving America's health by changing the way you eat. It's not just a TV show, it's a movement for you, your family and your community. If you care about your kids and their future take this revolution and make it your own. Educate yourself about food and cooking. Find out what your child is eating at school. Make only a few small changes and magical things will happen. Switching from processed to fresh food will not only make you feel better but it will add years to your life.

In this series Jamie heads to Huntington, West Virginia - which has been called the unhealthiest city in America - to start his new cooking initiative. He aims to combat obesity, heart disease and diabetes by challenging the way the people are eating and he hopes to use Huntington as the spark to initiate positive change across the United States.

I've only watched two episodes so far, but I was especially shocked by the meals that were being served up to young children in the school cafeteria in the first school he visited in Huntington, and I remember being similarly shocked when I watched the UK version, Jamie's School Dinners.

While the meals may technically tick all the boxes with regards to Government nutrition guidelines, I would hate to think my children were being dished up processed, frozen and reheated pizza for breakfast, or chicken nuggets for lunch (washed down by flavoured milk).

Have a look at the (top) photo of a school meal that meets that US Federal guidelines here.

Or how about this promo video which shows some of the processed foods Jamie found in the school kitchen freezer?




Whether it was by design or default (I don't know, perhaps someone may be able to enlighten me) I think one of the cleverest choices Australia made before our time, was not to provide Government-subsidised school lunches. I suspect that when a Government delivers food, cost-cutting and efficiencies become paramount. In addition, parents lose some of the accountability of choosing what their children eat.

Australia has a strong culture of 'packed lunches'. Each child brings his or her own lunch to school, or selects and pays for his or her own from a school canteen (which doesn't always offer great food options, but that's another story). This places the total responsibility for that child's nutrition firmly back in the family fold. It doesn't mean parents always make great choices either, but at least we don't have to battle an institution and Government to ensure our children eat what we want them to. (We just have to battle stubborn children!)

On the other hand, the provision of subsidised meals can offer a guarantee that children are getting at least one meal a day which will be filling and will meet some nutrition guidelines, as not all children are fortunate enough to be well-fed at home.

What do you think? I'd be interested to hear the school-lunch experiences of readers in other parts of the world.

What's for lunch?

Could you wish for better proof? Here is the ideal lunch for your youngster. So easy to prepare. No cooking. Packed in a few minutes – but what a carefully planned and balanced meal!

The Oslo Lunch gives a full daily quota of “protective” food elements…it’s minerals and vitamins you and your family need for health and vitality. Put it in young Jimmy’s satchel, Dad’s bag, Joan’s suitcase…the OSLO LUNCH.

Kraft Cheese advertisement in The Argus newspaper, 14 July 1945.

See an image of it at: http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/968370

School’s back for another year for many Australian children this week, and the remainder will follow in the next week or so. There is nothing that creates a fear and loathing of schoolday mornings (at least in this household) than the thought of preparing school lunches. It's an ongoing challenge to prepare something tasty and healthy with some degree of variety.

And then there’s the age-old dilemma of keeping the food cool until it is consumed at lunchtime, especially on days like today when it is forecast to reach into the 40s (degrees Celsius). My daughters take insulated lunchboxes with a frozen icepack included with the food.

Before our time, in the 1940s, the concerns about school lunches were more to do with the nutritional value of what the children were eating. During the Second World War many children were considered to be malnourished. This, of course, had implications for their ability to learn.

A chain of Opportunity Clubs had been established in the industrial suburbs of Melbourne to encourage the well-being of children in those areas. In the early 1940s, these clubs adopted the concept of an “Oslo Meal” and offered schoolchildren an Oslo Lunch.[1]

The Oslo lunch consisted of a wholemeal bread sandwich filled with cheese and salad, a glass of milk and an apple or other seasonal fruit. This interest in children's diet was part of an international movement which had begun prior to the War. In Norway, the head of the school health system at that time, Professor Carl Schiotz, devised a meal to be served to Norwegian school children called "the Oslo breakfast" which included milk, bread and fruit. Its reputation as an aid to nourishing children and enhancing their ability to learn soon spread to other parts of the world.

According to the Kraft advertisement, the experiment of introducing the Oslo Lunch through the Opportunity Clubs in Melbourne was a success. It was claimed that, after three months children on the Oslo lunch gained an average of over 7 lbs. in weight,which was more than twice as much as children on ordinary lunches.

The Oslo Lunch was then introduced in various states of Australia over the next ten years or so.

It would seem that the Oslo Lunch principles have definitely stood the test of time. In packing my daughters' lunches each morning, I try to include a selection of foods containing some complex carbohydrate, a serve of calcium, some vegetables, some fruit and a serve of protein. I just didn't realise I was being Scandinavian when I did so!

It's not always a sandwich, milk and fruit in their lunchboxes. In fact, it is rarely a sandwich, milk and fruit. My daughters' lunches are more likely to include something like a wholemeal ham and cheese wrap, a small serve of yoghurt, a fruit salad, and some carrot or celery sticks. There's often also a small treat such as a mini-muffin.

Do you remember the Oslo lunch? Inspire me - what's your favourite 'Oslo combination' in a lunchbox?

[1] “The Oslo Meal” in British Journal of Nursing, June 1945Accessed via: http://rcnarchive.rcn.org.uk/