Latest features What our kids think about school dinners

Date Published:

07/05/2008

They've been a rite of passage for generations of pupils but, thanks to the turkey twizzlers and rising obesity rates, school dinners have become a political hot potato. Nick Gulhane went to his local school for a lunchtime tasting with the people that really matter.

It’s lunchtime. I’m surrounded by the clatter and chatter of hundreds of hungry school kids. The generation gap feels like a chasm but it's bridged in an instant when 15 year-old Janae wrinkles her nose, tells me that the school dinner lamb was, "fatty, like jelly". Some things it seems will never change.

Noisy, boisterous, fearless; I’d only ever noticed these school kids on my way to work as they blocked the entrance to the Underground waiting for mates, or congregating around the halal fried chicken shacks that offer whole roast chickens for £2.99. So I was a little unsure what to expect when I met 14 and 15 year-olds in their newly revamped school canteen.

Dillon is a fan. He likes the neat layout, the trays and the new food. Today there’s lamb curry, pasta bake and salads. Chips are only allowed once a week and there’s not a sausage or pie of my youth to be seen, let alone a pot of slowly congealing baked beans, but then there doesn’t seem to be the variety either.

Ezekiel, Brandy and Janae

Ezekiel, too, enjoyed his rice and curry, remembering what things were like just a few years back. "Before, it was just burgers and stuff like that. Then it changed to healthier food but it didn’t taste good. Now I think they’ve got the balance right." It's all very positive but then most of my dinner companions get free school meals.

Chip-gate

A few years ago Rawmarsh School in Rotherham was grabbing headlines with pictures of parents rebelling against the new Jamie Oliver food order and poking portions of fish and chips through the railings for their hapless offspring.

At Grieg City Academy it would be more like chicken and chips. This inner city school in Haringey, North London, was one of the first of Tony Blair’s Academies to be opened, replacing a previously failing school. It now achieves results higher than the national average but, despite being minutes away from wealthy, media-trendy Crouch End, the vast majority of pupils come from low income and ethnic minority families from Wood Green and Tottenham.

Getting the balance right

The children show a real concern for their health. Ezekiel plays football and knows there’s competitive edge to be gained through a controlled diet. "Compared to the Year 7s that race to the chicken and chip shops after school, us Year 10s or older might do something more subtle, like have dinner with family." Things are also different at home for Janae and her family now: "We used to eat things from the freezer like chips and pizza but now, instead of letting my mum cook, my stepdad (he’s a chef) will cook pasta and rice and chicken dishes."

Sounds exactly what Jamie Oliver would like to hear. So why do the other half dozen pupils I speak to - even Brandy, who rates herself one of the school’s star athletes - all admit to eating chicken and chips out of school? Brandy responds that while she’s increased her salad intake, she feels it’s up to the individual if they want to eat junk food and not the government. A point echoed by Bianca: "It’s not as if I eat pizza and chips every day but whatever we like, we’ll eat." Only Dillon apparently takes pleasure in his weakness. "It’s addictive," he says with a smile, "you just have to keep going back for more."