Slashdot Mirror
Primary School Girl Told To Stop Photographing and Blogging School Meals
JamieKitson writes "British primary school (elementary to those of you in the U.S.) pupil Martha/'Veg' has been taking photographs of her school dinners and writing about them at her blog Never Seconds since April. The blog has become popular, and Martha decided to do something with the popularity: namely, raising money for an international school dinners charity. Unfortunately, the local council, Argyll and Bute, having apparently not heard of the Streisand effect, didn't like the publicity that her blog was generating and have shut her down. They said the blog made the catering staff fear for their jobs. There is a happy ending though: donations have gone through the roof and she has already passed her target."
Just heard an interview with the council on BBC Radio 4, and it sounds like they've reversed the decision.
Apparently the Chief of the council was on radio 4 just now and he has reverted the ban live on air. It remains to be seen if this filters down correctly!
SURELY NOT!!!!!
Is valid at all ages... how is that different from resto clitique?
Tomorrow is another day...
The more you try to hide something, the more attention it will attract.
THE SOFTWARE, IT NO WORKY!!!
the blog didn't make catering staff fear for their jobs.
the press reaction in the UK has made catering staff fear for their jobs
Martha was blogging what she had for dinner NOT what the full menu was.
the press ommited this detail and pitchforks started being sharpened as it appears Martha wasn't picking the best of what was on offer (health wise)
all that said, i think it's a bloody shame the council have stopped given that the school actually encourages children to talk about their diet and this girl's only taken that training to the next logical conclusion of sharing with the internet.
did the 3rd party catering / food service push for this??
fear for their jobs may put at that or they are just poorly funded and take the heat for poor food that they don't have a lot of control over.
there is very little meat in these gym mats
To be honest, all the British (and the foreign food) all looked fairly decent. Really the only terrible looking food was the "foreign" (being as she is from the UK) US meals. If anything it is a good showcase of what school lunches are from around the world and honestly I'd say it puts the British in more favorable light than the US.
The public have a fundamental right to see what their tax dollars (or pounds in this case) are doing, whether that is detailed information about Afghanistan and Iraq or school lunches.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
OK too lazy to look up that blog, but if the meal providers are afraid of their jobs, then I'd say that implies they know their food is of poor quality.
All they have to do is make their food decent. That is: reasonably healthy and balanced, reasonably fresh, and reasonably tasty. No need for five-star dinner quality, it's school dinners, but that also means you shouldn't serve them crap.
One of the links IN THE SUMMARY says that the ban has been lifted (on the BBC.) Perhaps it's been changed since the submission but before the story hit the front page.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The food she photographed looks pretty amazing compared with what I recall eating in primary school.
Pack and bring your own in a paper bag or a lunch box.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Exactly. I mean, it doesn't work in any other industry, why should it work in this case? If you do a poor job, expect to be fired.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Now I can't make my own snarky comment about it!
You have to look at the articles as the summary doesn't say this. The food service feared for their jobs because of the press reaction to the bans and not because of the blog.
I think it's awesome she named her blog "NeverSeconds". I always remember being left hungry in middle/high school by the paltry lunches we got, to the point where I started bringing in my own every day. The worst was pizza day - you got the equivalent of one piece of pizza, a drink, and a "salad" (actually a couple pieces of lettuce and some shredded carrot). That was it. I guess it all worked out, because after the long lines, including many line-cutters, you only got about 10 minutes to eat anyhow.
My point is: school lunches suck! I fully support this girl in her efforts.
incompetent or poor ingredients / equipment / time tables.
Maybe they are useing poor ingredients with under sized equipment with a time table does not let them put out grade A food.
I miss pizza day... the best day of the week.
All they have to do is make their food decent. That is: reasonably healthy and balanced, reasonably fresh, and reasonably tasty. No need for five-star dinner quality, it's school dinners, but that also means you shouldn't serve them crap.
On this topic: the girl and her dad inquired the school about the type of chicken and sausages they serve, and apparently they are "safe to keep for up to three years". That says it about the quality of the food for me.
for i in `facebook friends "=bday" 2>/dev/null | cut -d " " -f 3-`; do facebook wallpost $i "Happy birthday!"; done
This may be helpful:
The blog: http://neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk/
BBC story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18454800
Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/school-dinner-blogger-martha-payne-photo-ban-overturned-7854487.html
Council rebuttal: http://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/news/2012/jun/statement-school-meals-argyll-and-bute-council
Why can't women be like Hedy Lamarr - beautiful, talented and inventors of frequency-hopping spread-spectrum techn
which means that somebody needs to be fired.
1 cheap food can be healthy (unless somebody gets bribed)
2 needed equipment should always be on hand
3 then somebodies time management is BAD (or the allocation is off)
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
Aparently it's appropriate to refer to those employed in school lunch production as Catering staff. If the drivel on the blog is typical fare of what they produce, then they (and their bosses) should be in fear of their jobs. Yes we'll hear the arguments (a la Food Inc) that there's only so much they can do for the discounted/subsidized price point they have to hit for school lunches, but at some point there has to be consideration of more nutritionally dense foods that will allow students to survive through the day than the food that kids want to eat.
Yeah, but often the wrong people get in trouble. As the saying goes, praise travels up, blame travels down. I could see cooks (or their immediate superiors) getting public ire for things that are not really under their control.
I'm from the U.S. and our school lunches were awful compared to this. The Finnish lunch on the second page looks great. And they get nice plates and bowls. We made due with paper and styrofoam plates with a burger or some spagetti. It's not like I had it so bad, at least I had food, but that the council took down the blog when food like this puts many American school to shame is pretty ridiculous. Of course, maybe kids that went to school in the upper-middle class suburbs got similar treatment. I wouldn't know...
This is the END? No, it's just the BEGINNING!
Each review also contains an awesome "Pieces of Hair" tally.
I'll save you the effort: looks like the last sighting was May 15th.
That doesn't sound promising.
Actually I had a look at the blog now, and the food on the photos on the first page of that blog looks pretty good. Varied, little deep-fried stuff, quite some fresh vegetables and fruits. Of course the looks don't say everything about overall quality and taste, they do usually go hand in hand, as in most low quality food also doesn't look good.
Despite what they think, kids not having a phone to dick around on during school won't hurt them.
Say someone rides a bicycle to and from school. Without bringing a mobile phone to and from school, how do you expect her to call for help should she end up having a flat tire (or tyre, as the case may be) on the way there or on the way back?
You can actually watch the Streisand effect happening in real time as the hit counter at the bottom of her page shoots up. Heading for 3 million pretty quickly :-)
I hate the press when they blow things up in to such a stupid case that people panic.
It is unfair that they took it out on her when it is the awful newspapers who blow simple things out of proportion.
There should be more of this, not less. Customer care is still applied when it comes to a kid in primary school.
Feedback on food is a very valuable thing indeed, it isn't like she went full-on "I HATE THIS MEAL YOU SHOULD BE FIRED" or something else like the news were implying.
They said something like "she never took pictures of all the things on offer", she never insulted the chefs either, she never said the meals were terrible, she BOUGHT the meals after all. She just gave some constructive criticism of the meals with a little humor.
If there is one good thing, she has had a very valuable lesson of how the world works. It is corrupt as high-hell. Hopefully this turns her in to a fighter and not a quitter. Very few people go on to challenge the norms of society.
Her meals actually don't look half bad, except a notable few that looked like it came from another dimension.
They certainly look better than the nonsense I suffered in primary school, which is why I resorted to packed lunches instead.
Nothing beats a nice cheese, gammon and lettuce sandwich, yogurt, pear or grapes and some light crisps with orange or blackcurrant drink.
Secondary School was different. The years I was there it got so much better, even eventually opening up a 2nd line exclusively for sandwiches, baguettes and other light meals like that. Both were pretty popular.
I still went to the libraries cafeteria though. Our school had a learning center open up in part of the 3rd building that was self-funded and, despite the school now being knocked down (4 buildings), that one still stands. The cafeteria there was nice, quiet and then we were also right around from the library.
The meals weren't like your bog-standard factory-produced crap, they actually made a considerable number of the meals, my mom being one of them who worked in there for 4 years with the team. That is for both the school and library cafeterias.
That school was such a good school. Every year it got better. Not just for me either, but in general such as scores, teaching methods and general atmosphere.
Then along came finances and DOWN IT GOES, all because a stupid pipe issue and little bit of asbestos in an almost-unused room of the main building
I guess that is what happens when you have too much quality, the expenses go through the roof... then all it takes is one wrong thing and axed.
Sad times these are indeed. Hopefully they get better for Martha as she ages too. If we get hit by another recession, it is going to be so much worse this time.
In that case, the government could just claim that any and all restrictions on speech "are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary."
I know what would have happened at my school after such a ban. EVERY kid would start taking pictures of their meals and posting them.
I wish someone would explain to me why the UK is becoming so totalitarian these days.
Proverbs 21:19
Why should they fear for their jobs? Who ever heard of good British Cafeteria food?
Nearly fifty percent of all graduates come from the bottom half of the class!
I find it refreshing that she's given actual, metal utensils, including a knife.
I'm 30 now, so you can use that for a frame of reference. Back in elementary school, we were also given metal utensils, including knives. somewhere around middle school/high school (I think it was when I was entering high school), Minnesota passed a zero tolerance knife policy for the grade schools. Now, even a butter knife would get you immediately expelled from school, the cafeteria switched to plastic-ware and no longer had even plastic knives.
I'm glad to see that not everyone is insane.
The best bit about all this is that Martha has raised around 4 times her £7,000 target for the charity she supports. The proudest 9-year-old ever when she comes home from school and finds out!
If you aren't doing anything wrong, why worry about a little surveillance?
Here in Springfield, what we got was mostly old circus animals -- some filler.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Anyone wanting to show her some support might also consider donating to her charity page:
http://www.justgiving.com/neverseconds
I lived a little over a mile from school.
Nowadays, children tend to live farther from school. Could you walk five miles (8 km) to school and five miles back daily, crossing high-speed-limit collector roads between one hierarchical subdivision and the next?
I was, back then, a "latch key" kid.
Back then, there wasn't as much media hysteria about "stranger danger".
I got off the bike and pushed the damned thing home.
How far? I'm guessing there wasn't quite as much sprawl or quite as much of a magnet school system then than there is now.
It's not like bicycles didn't get flat tires before the advent of the cell phone.
I'm guessing payphones were far more common then than they are now.
then maybe the catering staff should fear for their jobs. If they produce decent meals, then they should be able to stand up to some basic scrutiny.
...yes, we have on the list drugs, guns and girls taking pictures of their meals. Thanks to the system for stopping the last one.
Well I am a Yorkshireman and after school dinners we sometimes had "secs" (meaning second helpings). However it you think about the pronunciation of that word you may understand what caused considerable confusion for me as a 7 year old when I came out of school and announced to my dad that "after dinner we had secs" and got into a lot of trouble...at least until he understood what I meant. Fortunately he did not "thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle" though so by Four Yorkshiremen standards I was very, very lucky!
I'm not sure I see those people that would fear ire or retaliation (up to losing their jobs) as having enough real or perceived authority to stop a student's blog. I think there is something more here.
Saw this article on the BBC's website this morning.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
Lisa Simpson: Isn't there anything here that doesn't have meat in it?
Lunch Lady Doris: Possibly the meat loaf.
Now overturned.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/school-dinner-blogger-martha-payne-photo-ban-overturned-7854487.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18454800
But I suppose you hate those damn commie schools daring to teach your kids all that science stuff and none of that healthy christianity, right?
The staff should be making food that when people see it, it pops in there face! Great food will lead to job security, if your not going to make good food then don't make food at all!
School dinners are cool dinners.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_xJHhbYQus
Just take that corner traffic or surveilance camera around and point it into the
Kitchen window. The coppers can then monitor the cooks, or even arrest them
if they see anything awry!
>which means that somebody needs to be fired.
Why is it that the answer to everything seems to be to fire someone?
If the cafeteria equipment is sub-par, why can't the person in charge simply be told to get better equipment instead of being fired?
Is this a common approach to problem solving in most companies?
Bug tracker not easy to use? Fire someone.
Windows has an occasional crash? Fire somebody.
There was a brownout and you didn't have enough diesel for the backup generators? Fire the whole IT dept.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
Nonsense. They would have just transferred the girl to the Guantanamo Bay Public School. She would be wearing a nice, white
uniform with blue accents and she would be home for curfew every night! No problem.
The girl writes a good food blog, with good pictures. She has a bright future, and will probably do much better in life than the people annoying her.
This is a new thing on trying to imply food is bad for you, or not good quality. It is simply untrue. We have become extremely spoiled in thinking that good food only lasts a few days. Having a ready supply of food from the grocery store who imports fresh food from all over the planet will do that to us.
Before taking the "It doesn't spoil in 3 days!" as an indicator of quality, you need to first look at what kind of food it is. Sausage is not a specific food, it is a class of foods. No doubt some types are more prone to spoilage than others. There is also the fact that the biggest problem in spoilage is bacteria and mold. To grow and spoil the food they need water and warmth. Packaging can for the most part prevent live bacteria and mold from being in contact with the food. No mold/bacteria, not mold/bacteria growth and the food can last a very long time. Prepackaging preparation can remove water from the food. No water no mold/bacteria growth. Lastly, we have refrigeration. Put the food in the freezer, and mold/bacteria growth is slowed dramatically.
Was the offending sausage vacuum packed? That would extend it's life without harming it's quality.
Was the sausage a dried sausage? That would extend it's life without harming it's quality.
Was the sausage frozen? That would extend it's life without harming it's quality significantly if at all.
Was the sausage vacuum packed, a dried style and frozen? If so, 3 years is not unreasonable. "Safe to keep for up to three years" is also not a statement that it doesn't lose quality over that time. A loaf of sliced sandwich bread is "safe to keep for a week" exposed to the air on my counter. That doesn't mean that I would want to eat it at that time, and it wouldn't be better if it grew mold in 3 days.
Shelf life is not correlated with quality.
the "Fire Somebody" response is used when said somebody is not only not doing the job they are being paid for but blocking anybody else from doing the job correctly.
so in your cases
was a directive passed down to ensure a useable bug tracker?? (then if its not easy to use maybe somebody is being bribed to force "solution" and needs to be replaced with the tracker)
This depends on WHY Windows is crashing.
I would think that whoever was responsible for the fuel supply needs to be fired but if the whole IT dept was stealing it and thats why its short then...
Investigate Then Fire AS NEEDED
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
Whoosh = insightful?
The papers reported that in response to her blogging, the schools started allowing the kids to have as much salad and vegetables as they wanted (like kids are really into overcooked vegetables), so the food was improving a bit. But they really really didn't like to do that.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
The problem you, and many others are missing is that the world has changed since you were at school.
Has the world really changed that much? Or is it that we're being led to believe it has?
There's a lot of money being made, and a lot of power to be grabbed, by trading on people's anxieties...and the more anxious they are, the more you can get.
So our news reports emphasize horrific crimes; our TV shows and movies depict the world as a dangerous place, full of perverts and angry minorities who want to destroy us and debauch our children; and our politicians respond with righteous indignation to horrible (but isolated) crimes, and pass new laws that are inevitably, by their nature, restrictions and prohibitions that add a new encumbrance to the lives of those whom they affect.
And so, on to the next stage: real estate developers make money on the suburbs built for people who are afraid of their fellow human beings. Auto companies make money from the people who live 8 miles from school instead of half a mile from a bus stop. Big pharma makes money on medication designed to keep kids under control. The government gets a tighter rein on things that are difficult to control, like the Internet, using the pretext of children's welfare.
It's important to think critically about the narratives we're given, and think about whom they serve. When we accept a fearful vision of the world uncritically, we always play into the hands of the powers that be.
They'd probably have to convince a judge and/or jury
I'm aware of at least one law on the books in at least one U.S. state (Indiana) that includes an explicit purpose. If a legislature seeks to impose "formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties" on speech, a bill could include a preamble that mentions to which interest each restriction appeals and why. Until case law develops around a particular statute, such an explicit rationale would help convince a judge of the legislature's intent.
why so many Americans are fat.
we shouldn't inconvenience someone as self important as you are when it's only someone else's life on the line.
but considering the style of blather, you probably blame your situation on genes or something else other than the fact that you live like a pig, and don't like being reminded of this little fact by your betters.
Kids would go hungry without free food?! That's amazing and scary. In Australia most kids bring their own lunch and no one would go hungry. My kids school has "lunch orders" 3 days a week which some kids get as a treat (my kids get these a few weeks each term) and there is a strong healthy eating program. On lunch order days we are still expected to pack fruit for lunch break (fresh, not canned), and something like cheese and biscuits for recess. If kids came to school hungry the teachers would freak out and if it kept happening DOCS (dept of community services) would become involved.
with that kind of initiative AND creation and you fukkin censor her?
you want me to come over there dont you
what is wrong with those people?
the lengthy explanation would include the why can it be a problem if there's no problem with the lunch
the less lengthy one could stop at the first sentence
my orwell-avatar almost kicked a hole in the closet, who ? but who? who could interfere with something like that
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-16991417
10 February 2012
A council employee in Argyll and Bute has been suspended while an investigation is under way into so-called "social media spying".
It comes after communications chief Jo Smith reportedly told a conference she set up fake social media accounts to monitor what was being said about the council.
One of the local authority's biggest online critics, For Argyll, said it was a "sacking issue"
===
The employee in question was _boasting_ about what she'd done at a conference of IT managers - it's no wonder some decided to do something about it.
As a commenter on another site said, George Orwell wrote 1984 whilst staying in Argyll, and the local theory is that the council uses that book as its operations manual.
Of a major party candidate who won't increase the safety of those pesky areas, the other major party candidate who won't increase the safety of those pesky areas either, or a minor party candidate who has no chance of achieving a plurality, for whom is it wisest to vote?