Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

Three months ago a schoolgirl in Scotland decided to write a blog about the meals provided by her school.

School meals are remembered less than fondly by many of us and have been the subject of government reviews and guidelines to make them more healthy. Schools have, in the face of financial pressure, either stopped supplying meals or pared the menu to the bone.

Martha photographed her meals and wrote a critique for her blog - and some of the meals scored well and look quite appetising if on the small size. Students in other countries sent her pictures and commentaries on their own meals from school. At the same time her friends were also raising money for the "Martha's Meals" charity that sets up school feeding projects in communities where poverty and hunger prevent children from gaining an education.

The the local newspaper picked up the story.
The school meal staff were not especially happy about the coverage. The local authority - but not the school, which has been supportive - banned Martha from taking any more photos, effectively suggesting an end to the blog.

And that's when the gravy hit the fan! Celebrity chefs and other readers picked up on the story when the national media copied it, and soon #neverseconds was trending in the UK on twitter. (That means a lot of people were mentioning it!)

I have never seen a web-counter, much less a blog counter, moving as quickly as this one. It's on 3,304,000 as I write - and clicking over (mine has 374,000 in 4 years!)

The head of the local authority has overturned the ban, although nothing new has been posted yet, but the real beneficiary of this monumental public sector boob is a massive boost to the funds of Mary's Meals.

Martha and her friends had set a target of £7,000 ($10,850). At lunchtime today the amount donated to Martha's Meals was over £21,000 ($32,550). But as social media pushed the story higher, the donations came in faster and one commentator on twitter calculated that they were running at over £100 ($165) per minute!

The total is currently approaching £34,700 ($53,800).

Daily Telegraph report on the story.

_________________
Ian Billings - Norvic Philatelics GB stamps info: http://www.norphil.co.uk - also /catalog for our ecommerce site, blog.norphil.co.uk, shop.norphil.co.uk and Ian_norvic on twitter

The heading promised boobs and all we are reading about is high school food?

I'm off to WalMart ..............

Great story, and the total donated to Mary's Meals on Martha's JustGiving page is now £51,331.40!!

Damn kids don't know how lucky they are - all I had were vegemite sandwichs which had sat in my schoolbay for a LONG time before I got to eat them.

D.

_________________
Visit my Website - http://WWW.DJMSTAMPS.COM for Australia & World Stamps, Collections and Accessories

LUXURY! I was given small empty bag with 'ole in it and 'ad to pick up bits of gravel on me way uphill to school to eat for lunch. A couple of times a year, me dad would throw in a small rock, but rarely 'appened.

_________________
Geelong, VFA Premiers 1878, 1879, 1800, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, AFL Premiers 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951, 1952, 1963, 2007, 2009, 2011, .

You just would've been given a sharp stick to go hunt some wildlife wouldn't you ???

_________________
Visit my Website - http://WWW.DJMSTAMPS.COM for Australia & World Stamps, Collections and Accessories

Gravel, gravel?? I used to dream of gravel......

What's a bag? Let alone picking up gravel.

_________________
Mike
Why do we need perforations? Scissors are cheap!

Sharp STICK???

LOOOOOKSURRRRY.

We had to use dried cardboard to make the stick ..................

Getting back to normal tranmission, I wonder what Jamie Oliver thinks of the blog? He was disgusted at the quality and type of food served in British schools and took it to the Government (and TV) to embarass them into doing something about it.

His main idea was that it costs no more and takes no more time to make a decent healthy and hearty lunch.

Nice idea with the 'Martha's Meals' angle.


(PS - School lunches for me were usually a honey sandwich. You thought a vegemite sandwich was bad 5 hrs later? Try having a warm soggy honey sandwich for lunch!)

_________________
Greg - Looking for Goulburn Australia Cancels and Grangemouth Scotland Cancels and Covers
Member of the S.T.A.M.P Club for Slightly Twisted And Mad Philatelists - Motto: "Bring back the lick!"

Honey SANDWICH?

We had to first climb 200 foot tree barefoot to find the bees nest, guarded by 6" long Killer Bees, and ...............

Trees ? You had Trees ? We had to hike 200 miles to even FIND a tree....

D.

_________________
Visit my Website - http://WWW.DJMSTAMPS.COM for Australia & World Stamps, Collections and Accessories

Ah the good old days when teachers ruled the class room with a well aimed board rubber and the cane. Dinner was vegetable pie and suet crust so healthy, pudding sago pudding fogs spawn.

Most school dinner facilities were privatised in the 1990s, causing this downward spiral in standards.

Vegemite? Doesn't that come under 'cruel and unusual punishment?'.

_________________
With kind regards, Jim

I think I saw that person while I was eating breakfast in a restaurant last week. No can't be, the one I saw had tatoos. Talk about losing your appetite! Ewww!

Favourite song in the 1950s in English schools was a rather poor parody of the popular song "Out of town". I must have sang it a lot as I can still remember it.

Say what you will
School dinners make you ill
Poor Davy Crockett died of shepherd's pie
School din-dins
Come from pig bins
Right out of town

It's a pity nobody improved on the last line to make it rhyme. For me, school dinners left me with a lifelong hatred of dehydrated mashed potato but to be fair, in those prewar years, if it wasn't for school dinners a lot of kids would have had nothing at lunchtime.

_________________
I'm John. I collect Italian, particularly the Mussolini years.

I started school in Australia in 1956.

I do remember being provided with a small bottle of milk at morning recess. The better off students were able to bring along flavoured straws.

I never ever received lunch provided by the school ... we always brought that from home ourselves.

Was this a regional thing, or am I in the wrong era?

_________________
A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

It's the UK Muruk.


I to had a bottle of milk at playlunch/recess and when in season an apple.
Until milk was left too long in the sun and kids got sick from drinking it.

Our school canteen though did a great lunch, even good salads - you had to order before school though. And their burgers were excellent.

But many European school systems have the works, cafeteria, cooked meals the works. Probably has something to do with cold weather and hot food.

_________________
Greg - Looking for Goulburn Australia Cancels and Grangemouth Scotland Cancels and Covers
Member of the S.T.A.M.P Club for Slightly Twisted And Mad Philatelists - Motto: "Bring back the lick!"

Ooohhh I can almost taste the squashed peanut butter and jam sandwiches! Squashed ones were best!! I did take a peanut butter and honey one once but the honey escaped and stuck everything to the bottom of the bag

Can anyone remember the very distinctive smell of kids school bags that carried a myriad of foodstuffs? You just don't get that...smell...anymore!

_________________
I am having fun collecting WW and Indian States.

Our high school canteen was operated (under a couple of pseudonyms) by Mr Whippy, the ice cream truck company.

We could get an apple pie and a 600mL carton of custard for morning tea!
Another school favourite was a sausage roll, inside a bread roll, with tomato sauce, maybe mustard.
I don't remember seeing fruit on offer.

Maybe that's part of the reason I weigh more than 1/8 of a tonne now.

PS. I am trying to bring by kids up to eat more healthy food than I did.

I knew that.

From the discussion, it looked like some Australians had had similar experiences.

I just re-read the thread more carefully, an they didn't. How embarrasment.

_________________
A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

My personal experience:

State School - the cut lunch, consisting of vegemite, cheese banana, Peanut Butter or Beetroot sandwiches was virtually universal, except for Mondays, as since no fresh bread was available on Sunday (Australia having closed down for the weekend) I was given sixpence to get "something" from the local Milk Bar across the road. A 6d bag of lollies usually constituted Monday lunch.

No canteen at all at the school but we did get the milk for morning tea, after it had sat in the sun for three hours. And for drinks, we had water taps. That was it.

High School - There was a canteen but it served only pies, pasties, sausage rolls, a few sandwiches, cakes and lollies. Lots and lots of lollies. Wagon Wheels were the sweet of choice, although twisties and the newly discovered Chicken flavoured chips were quite popular. For most of us however, the bagged lunch continued throughout our growing years.

There were also take away food shops including the mandatory Fish and Chip shop within comfortable walking distance.

University - A genuine canteen with hot meals and real knives and forks on proper plates - a "Chinese" section, plus traditional Australian meals - chops, sausages, vegetables, and of course chips. All at Union subsidised prices in the Union building and a cheap way to eat. And Pizza and Lasagnia - those brand new treats imported from the Continent, and never before seen by dinky di country lads like me.

Norm

_________________
Geelong, VFA Premiers 1878, 1879, 1800, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, AFL Premiers 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951, 1952, 1963, 2007, 2009, 2011, .

Back to normal transmission (again!) and now that the Scottish schools are on summer holidays, the blog is having guest contributors from around the world.

And the total raised for Mary's Meals from this bit of local authority foolishness (without which the whole thing would never have received the publicity it has) has passed £100,000.

_________________
Ian Billings - Norvic Philatelics GB stamps info: http://www.norphil.co.uk - also /catalog for our ecommerce site, blog.norphil.co.uk, shop.norphil.co.uk and Ian_norvic on twitter

Well Beetroot Sandwiches 4 days a week might have been "universal" in Lara or Hooterville Norm, but I can't imagine anywhere else on the globe.

The bread would get soggy in 20 seconds for goodness sakes! (Apart from tasting DISGUSTING!)

Twitter really dislikes censorship - I was expecting that after the school told her to shut it about meals that she started posting boobs so that people would still read the food project page.

_________________
'The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind.' -H. P. Lovecraft

Is that like when I seriously want to get my foreman's attention I have to put "Free Beer" in the heading of the email.

_________________
A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).