School Dinners

I grew up in England before celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s campaign for better quality food in schools.

At primary school—up until age eleven—it was already pretty bad. At highschool, it was something else.

A popular meal at was “chips and gravy”. Chips means what much of the rest of the world calls “fries”, and gravy means something brown out of a packet with hot water added. And that was the whole meal. “Chips and cheese” was popular, too. The cheese did not, of course, deserve the name.

But that’s not the worst of it.

There was an ice cream van that showed up on school premises every day without fail, and anyone not wanting to subject themselves to the lofty nutritional experience of “chips and gravy” would instead opt to eat ice cream and candy for lunch.

Looking back it’s a little odd that I didn’t think the food at school was odd; I suppose it had always been like that. But it’s definitely odd that none of the adults involved saw it as a problem—until Jamie Oliver came along and made it a national issue through the power of TV.

Received Wisdom

The reason I’m writing about this now is that I’ve been reading “Three Men in a Boat” by Jerome K Jerome. It was published 134 years ago, now, and so anything within must be considered to have been known by humanity for some considerable time. And here is what it has to say on the spiritual importance of food:

> How good one feels when one is full—how satisfied with ourselves and with the world! People who have tried it, tell me that a clear conscience makes you very happy and contented; but a full stomach does the business quite as well, and is cheaper, and more easily obtained. One feels so forgiving and generous after a substantial and well-digested meal—so noble-minded, so kindly-hearted.

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> It is very strange, this domination of our intellect by our digestive organs. We cannot work, we cannot think, unless our stomach wills so. [...]

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> We are but the veriest, sorriest slaves of our stomach. Reach not after morality and righteousness, my friends; watch vigilantly your stomach, and diet it with care and judgment. [...]

And now with this in mind imagine the effect of poor school dinners on an educational institution such as the one I attended.

Happy Ending

I understand that the situation is much better now—and the change even triggered measurable improvements to absentee rates and exam results.

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