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cherry blossom delight · 08-28-2008, 04:16 PM

Jamie Oliver Says Ban Packed Lunches in the UK

Jamie Oliver strikes again. The British chef who has campaigned so hard to get better meals in UK schools is now turning to the parents & saying no more bag lunches.

Oliver is “bored” with being polite about the issue of childhood obesity & lashes out at parents of school children for not taking the issue seriously. The celebrity chef said the packed lunches given to kids are “disgraceful” and wants to see them banned.

Here’s Oliver now, “I’ve spent two years being PC about parents, now is the time to say ’if you’re giving your young children fizzy drinks you’re an a*******, you’re a t******. If you give them bags of crisps you’re an idiot. If you aren’t cooking them a hot meal, sort it out. If they truly care they’ve got to take control.”

Looks like Oliver may have been spending more time with foul-mouth chef Gordon Ramsay….

Jamie again, “I have seen kids of the ages of four or five, the same age as mine, open their lunchbox and inside is a cold, half-eaten McDonald’s, multiple packets of crisps and a can of Red Bull.”

“I have no doubts that these parents love their children,” but parents who think the solution to a tired child is a can of Red Bull, ‘because it gives you wings’, might as well “give them a line of coke”.

“There does need to be someone daddyish or mummyish at the top saying ‘they’re getting bigger, they’re getting fatter, they’re dropping dead younger’.

“Someone has to get strong, someone has to be the governor, and you don’t necessarily have to like them.”

On banning school lunches, Oliver says, “Many of us would like to say yes, if there were facilities for better hot meals in all schools. I would love it but that will not happen.

“Packed lunches are a problem. Most of them, whatever anyone says, aren’t appropriate.”

“These young parents haven’t been taught from the family unit which is the best teacher,” Oliver said. “There are two generations of young parents who don’t know how to cook … It’s not normal, someone has got to say it’s not normal.”

Well, at least someone is looking out for childhood obesity- Jamie Oliver & Muhammad Ali.

barefoot_mom · 08-29-2008, 03:46 PM

I was ready to be up in arms about this post, because I think a sack lunch can be much healthier than what's available from the cafeteria. But RED BULL!! I can't believe people give their children energy drinks! That's terrible!

JunkIntheKitchen · 08-29-2008, 04:53 PM

Don't be too upset with the poor chap! His comments are aimed at the UK, not the US, and in the UK there has been a long running campaign to clean up the school canteens.

The problem is that for so many families it is cheaper to send the child with a packed lunch. If they could address that, then they would be getting somewhere.

cherry blossom delight · 09-01-2008, 01:32 PM

Like in the USA we pack our lunches the same as they do in the UK because it is what the kids want to eat not what is good or health for them.

UK Typical lunch packed is: Crisps, biscuits, chocolate bars, fizzy drinks, Sweet sandwich = Peanut Butter and Jelly and maybe an Apple

USA Typical lunch packed is: Chips, Cookies, Candy Bars, Soda, Fruit, and some sort of sandwich.

I went to school here in the USA and our cafeteria catered in foods
from the fast food restaurants, Pizza Hut, Mc Donald's, and others, and no salads were offered, or the children were given lunch money and left school to purchase what ever they wanted.

If the child had money to purchase cupcakes and cookies then they could purchase that as well. I am form the late sixties and seventies in California whom has since change the way kids are fed in our schools but it is up to the parents to pack a healthy lunch for the kids of today in the US and abroad!