Healthy eating in schools

Hi, my name is Ben Dickens and I’m here today to make you are aware of the appalling state of food on offer at Salendine Nook High. We all send our Children to school believing that they will be there to learn and work towards attaining good grades. We also expect them to get a healthy and well balanced meal at lunch but to my amazement, this isn’t the case.

During a recent visit to the school through my job I was perplexed at how awful the food at the school is. Unbelievably our children are offered crisps, chocolate, cakes and fizzy pop at break times. At lunch times the food gets shockingly worse, our children are once again offered cakes and fizzy pop in addition to chips, burgers and pizzas.

This is a total disgrace and it should not be allowed to happen to our children. The school has a responsibility to look after our children and I don’t believe that offering this complete rubbish as food is responsible. In fact it’s an outrage so I urge you to join me in my fight against the school and force them to change their menu. The only way it can happen is if we all join together and campaign to get the school to change.

I feel change starts in the classroom, and educating our children in school would be the first step towards achieving our goal of healthier school meals. The school would also need to train the current staff or find better skilled staff to be able to prepare the meals. Doing this would mean we have a better chance of succeeding on our fight to reform school meals.

I really can’t stress how important healthy eating is at school, not only does it teach the children good habits and get them used to healthy foods but it can also boost energy and concentration levels. In a recent survey conducted by The School food trust claims that if a child eats a hot, well balanced and nutritious meal at lunch time it can boost concentration levels for afternoon classes. So not only is eating healthy good for our children’s physical health it can also have a positive effect on their school work.

Recently you may have heard about Jamie Oliver’s healthy eating campaign and the positive effect it had on the children at Kidbrooke School. Before Jamie Oliver was involved at the school the exam results of year eleven students was at the lowly level pass rate of 74% after the school food was overhauled the pass rate is now at 90% and rising year by year. This is the effect that eating healthily at school can have on our children’s exam results and their overall wellbeing.

We all want the best for our children so why shouldn’t we campaign for the school to change? Questions needs to be asked of the school as to why they aren’t offering wide range of healthy foods. Is it just convenient for them to cook fast food without a thought for our children’s future health? Are the school cooks skilled enough to prepare good food? Does the school actually care what they feed our children? Only the school know so we must demand answers and we must plead for change.

We must do all we can to force the school to change, starting by directly contacting them and questioning their policies on the food in school. We must also contact local councillors and government officials to see if they can help change the food. Doing this may also spark a more widespread change which can only be good for the future of all our children. Hopefully if we persist with this campaign the school will eventually realise that the food needs to be healthier.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to change the food. After all we all attempt to give our children a healthy diet at home so why should the school ruin that by feeding them disgusting greasy food? We don’t want them growing up on such a bad diet so we must act now and stop the school from ruining our children’s diets. So join me in this campaign so we can ensure a healthy experience at school for all of our children. Thank you very much for listening, on your way out of the venue please take an information pack with some further information for you to read. You can also follow us on twitter for updates on our fight.