To expect children have enough to eat?

Nothing wrong with cold food Bags I eat cold rice pudding and custard and love cold baked beans, legacy of hiking and Youth hostel holidays. I don't eat cold chips but there again I hardly ever eat chips.
We have had to resort to paying for full adult meals for GC because they don't like whatever and chips.

in our local indian restaurant a demand for such food would be followed by someone nipping out the the back door into Budgens to buy fish fingers

Moving on from the original thread. I hate it when cafe's or restaurant offer children's meals as opposed to smaller portions of the main menu. The children's meals offered usually consist of the usual (very boring) fish fingers and chips, chicken nuggets and chips, sausage and chips, plain pizza and a burger.

My GC love most kinds of food from pasta dishes and risottos to curries and traditional roasts.

I knew what you meant, jess, but others who don't know Irish history might not have. (anyway, I like being a tinker )

absent, that just beggars belief. Surely that is the height of hypocrisy.

Sorry I left out the words "post famine". You know i didnt mean that the population declined as a result of eating too man potatoes bags you tinker.
Perils of an impoverished population relying on monoculture.It is sad to see the abandoned settlements throughout Ireland.
It is not much talked about there - but in the back of people's minds I guess they remember that the English refused to help them.

The Irish population declined because of a lack of potatoes (because of the blight) though, jess, not a surfeit. Your post is a little ambiguous on that score.

Typical Absent why commission research on the bleedin' obvious? The money spent on the so called "research" could probably provide hundreds thousands of children with a decent meal !

Sometime don't you just want to SCREAM !

JessM The government has commissioned research into why food banks are being and have been set up all over the country. Well that's money well spent.

We went to italy on holiday once. My DH, half Irish, was delighted to discover that they had a kind of large ravoili with a potato based stuffing.
I suppose potato growing in Ireland meant that it was much easier to produce calories from a small patch of dampish land than by growing any other crop.
The graph of population decline (death and emigration) is extremely steep - it halved.
It is not necessarily the case that parents are all smoking at the expense of their children's diets harrigran. In some cases no doubt. But have you ever tried to feed a family and pay the bills while receiving benefits? It is not much money.
Food banks are becoming common in UK cities and it must be embarrassing to turn up and ask for help.

I expect the Irish peasants ate them cold quite often too.

Been thinking... People eat cold pasta and cold potato salad. Jane Eyre ate cold porridge that would otherwise have been given to the pigs, and was glad of it. After all, cold food is just as nourishing as hot food, if not always as pleasant to eat. But, who knows, maybe some people like cold chips, and how many is a few?

So, I'm thinking, that a 'few' cold chips for lunch might be fine actually, if that's what you like. If I liked cold chips, I might well have them for lunch sometimes, just as I sometimes have and apple and a slab of chocolate (good (and I mean good) mountain food). I think that because we can be so choosy, we are getting too picky and too critical of what is in fact good food.

How do I know potatos are good food? Well, Irish peasants, including some of my ancestors, lived on them as a staple for generations and not only survived but increased their survival rate. That's the bottom line – survival to reproduce offspring that also survives to reproduce. How life works.

Thank you for that JessM I suppose I have cooked them like that when I've been "slimming". Actually it was very slimming as they were horrible so didn't get eaten

I worked in a school where the kitchen produced meals for several other schools and meals on wheels. The food was taken in insulated boxes. I was always glad we got it freshly made.

I am shocked that some schools do not have kitchens, as Jess M pointed out.

That means there are schools where a hot meal cannot be provided.

My GC had a lot of trouble with her teeth. The dentist told us it was her diet. Too much fruit. Can't win sometimes.

I have heard mothers say " oh he wouldn't wear those shoes/trainers, it doesn't have the right name on " How come they can afford to be so choosy ?
JessM I do agree with what you are saying and such a shame that children may be deprived of a good diet whist the parents continue to smoke.

One of the students in my tutor group used to come to school with tattered shoes, and we knew mum was struggling bringing the kids up on her own. The Senior teacher team met with the Head of Board of Governors, and decided to visit to tell her the school would pay for a pair of sturdy school shoes for the boys. She presented a bill for Timberlands at £80 a pair (15 years ago). A vicious circle. The UK is unique in its support of those in need, and that is so wonderful. But some get into a vicious circle of need which gets passed on from generation to generation. Comparing with other countries I've lived and worked with, I just do not know what the answer is. But the UK system of care does seem to create long-term dependency for far too many.

And they come to school with disintegrating shoes.

Yes it is. And we hear a lot about obesity. But to be honest, in really impoverished areas, not that common (certainly not the very impoverished area that I am thinking about)

It is surprising, isn't it, that in this age of universal education, that gap has not narrowed more.

Go to a school in a wealthy area and observe the average size of the 15 year olds. Then go to a school in a poorer area not far away - you'll notice the 15 year olds are smaller. And then compare a "top set" in maths or english in that poorer school with the kids in the "remedial set" - you will notice an even more pronounced size difference with many of the slower pupils at this age looking more like 12 year olds.

I've worked with children who were so underweight you couldn't miss they were malnourished. Naturally they get the input as do the children who are overweight because they were malnourished too. The most worrying though are those who conform to the norms when the bmi tests are done. I've seen children who's teeth are black from too much sugar, who rarely drink milk, eat dairy products or fresh vegetables and live pretty much on takeaways but they don't get monitored even though they're probably the most malnourished of all.

I notice that we're not talking about children having enough to eat any more, but about whether they eat what is regarded as a good enough (healthy) diet. Meanwhile childhood obesity is the highest it's ever been. I'm sure the problem exists, but I doubt if children not getting enough to eat is a big problem in this country.

What measure could be taken to ensure that parents do take responsibility for feeding their children? Those who can't afford to do get benefits- so how could we ensure that it is spent on good food? Many of the children who had free school meals at the secondary schools I taught at made really unhealthy choices for the available money - like a plate of chips with several sugary cakes and a sugary drink - but any suggestion that a roughly balanced meal had to be chosen was considered an attack on personal rights.

It is amazig how many kids enjoy cucumber ! My Gch do, but will fight over broccolli and sprouts. Dead easy to feed. Sadly gone off fish but may come back to it.