With one in three children in the UK currently affected by obesity – a growing problem that costs the NHS around £500 million each year – should kids be encouraged to take part in a discussion about what they eat? Or not?
The answer may lie in how you react to the story of nine-year-old Martha Payne, the young Scottish blogger who was recently involved in a battle with none other than her local council. Martha’s blog, called NeverSeconds, soon became an internet sensation after she started taking photographs of her school dinners and posting them online, along with their relevant health ratings and food-o-meter scores.
Helped by her father, David Payne, Martha started her blog at the end of April. Each day she posted a photo of her school lunch, along with her comments and ratings. Soon, chidren from around the world started sending her photos of their school meals, which Martha posted on her blog too.
The fact that Martha’s blog helps to raise money for Mary’s Meals, a charity that donates food to the third world, arguably makes this schoolgirl’s efforts even more worthy (she has already raised enough money to build a kitchen in Malawi for children receiving the charity’s meals). But when her local council banned her from taking photographs of her school dinners, it made Martha even more famous.
However her supporters – including Scotland’s education secretary MSP Mike Russell – kicked up such a fuss that the ban on Martha taking photos of her lunch has been lifted. And thanks to the publicity the ban created, her readers have kept on multiplying.
As a result, school dinners are now the subject of almost as many headlines as they were back in 2005, when celebrity chef Jamie Oliver – now a supporter of Martha’s – challenged school caterers around the country and made his famous TV series, Jamie’s School Dinners.
But whether or not you approve of the fact that a nine-year-old has been allowed to stir up so much controversy, you have to admit that it can only be a good thing that more people are talking again about healthy eating, in school or out of it.
There again, it would be a mistake to assume all schools offer the same nutritional standards in their meals, or that all local councils have the same attitude to an open debate about school dinners as did the council where Martha lives.
There are in fact some inspiring efforts in place that are encouraging schools and children to discuss school dinners and healthy eating, including the Department for Education’s Healthy Schools initiative, the School Food Trust, School Food Matters and the Save Our School Food Standards campaign.
School meals account for a third of a child’s daily nutritional intake, and for some it is the only square meal they receive each day. So don’t we owe it to them to make sure voices like Martha’s aren’t silenced? Or do you believe that blogs like Martha’s do could do more harm than good?
