Tory MP blames food bank use on people not knowing how to cook or budge

Perhaps he shouldn’t have said what he said, but he is right. I have said for years that schools should not have stopped domestic science lessons (or reduced to 6 week modules). When they do cook in schools they use packet mix and processed food. Many people are frightened of trying to cook and have no idea what some of the ingredients are. All of my children could cook at an early age and still do so now. Cooking skills are passed down the generations, this seems to have been lost for many people.

What isn’t true is that you can make a meal for 30p

If you can't afford to buy bread and can't turn on the kettle because you can't afford the electricity costs, it doesn't matter if you are cordon bleu trained. You need a food bank.

Shropshirelass

Perhaps he shouldn’t have said what he said, but he is right. I have said for years that schools should not have stopped domestic science lessons (or reduced to 6 week modules). When they do cook in schools they use packet mix and processed food. Many people are frightened of trying to cook and have no idea what some of the ingredients are. All of my children could cook at an early age and still do so now. Cooking skills are passed down the generations, this seems to have been lost for many people.

Nope.
No packets or processed foods in my grandsons cookery recipes.
Not one.

Whitewavemark2

I think that we have deviated a long way from the subject?.

The reason people can’t cook proper food is poverty.

Nothing more or less.

?
How are parents who have to access food from the food bank supposed to buy all the ingredients for their child(ren) to take into school to make eg spaghetti bolognese for four?

Just how broad is the curriculum supposed to be?

Shropshirelass

Perhaps he shouldn’t have said what he said, but he is right. I have said for years that schools should not have stopped domestic science lessons (or reduced to 6 week modules). When they do cook in schools they use packet mix and processed food. Many people are frightened of trying to cook and have no idea what some of the ingredients are. All of my children could cook at an early age and still do so now. Cooking skills are passed down the generations, this seems to have been lost for many people.

How patronising! What is it about some GNers that makes them think they can cook better than others?

I know many people who can cook well, but not because they learnt about it in school or their parents. The best way to influence people's cooking habits is to use social media, such as Tiktok.

Callistemon21
How are parents who have to access food from the food bank supposed to buy all the ingredients for their child(ren) to take into school to make eg spaghetti bolognese for four.
I remember that situation back when I was doing domestic science in school. We were not well off and having to find the ingredients for me to take into school to do cookery in the same week that my sister was also having to take ingredients into school to do cookery was often a problem.
What isn’t helpful at the moment either, it’s all this virtue signalling about how people can cook a meal for 30p per person.

That is precisely the last kind of thing my boy cooked.
A huge amount of minced lean beef (I don't eat mince) with diced mushrooms in it (he doesnt eat mushrooms) on flat bread type things.
The mince would have made 5 or 6 decent portions of something.

Dickens

Whitewavemark2

volver

Pastry? You were taught at school to make pastry?And baby food? And this was the most necessary course you did?

No sorry. French. Maths. English. Etc. Not "how to be a housewife."

I did those as well. I have been educated to post degree level But that course has stood me in good stead throughout my life.

Don’t denigrate those oh so necessary skills.

I don't think pastry-making is an essential, but all children regardless of sex or gender-orientation, should be taught how to feed themselves with simple, basic meals. It's the stuff of survival!

When they are pitchforked into the adult world, if they don't know how to look after themselves, they will waste time and money puzzling over what to buy and wondering what to do with whatever they've bought. If they understand how to knock up a simple Cottage Pie or Vegan Casserole - or if they're armed with the knowledge that a can of low-salt baked beans on wholemeal toast topped with grated cheese is quite acceptable as an alternative when they can't be a**ed to cook - will surely make them a healthier generation, and give them more time to concentrate on their studies?

It's such a basic element of everyone's life, a 'skill' that everyone needs... a rudimentary knowledge of food and its nutritional value is an essential. It's no good sitting down to study if your stomach is rumbling with hunger an hour after you've eaten yet another pot noodle...

Give them a link to a couple of comprehensive websites instead! BBC Food and Delia Online would be a good start.

And make being able to read them a priority.

At school when we did cooking, we still read a recipe as we went.
We didn't cook how my mum did, just by "eye".

MissAdventure

That is precisely the last kind of thing my boy cooked.
A huge amount of minced lean beef (I don't eat mince) with diced mushrooms in it (he doesnt eat mushrooms) on flat bread type things.
The mince would have made 5 or 6 decent portions of something.

I rarely saw anything my DS made at school, it was eaten before it got home.
He's an excellent cook now, better than me but probably not from anything he learnt at school. He worked in a restaurant kitchen on his gap year.

What is it about some GNers that makes them think they can cook better than others?
Because they can?
I acknowledge that there are far better cooks on here than me. I'm a chuck it in, measure by eye kind of cook. It's usually successful, at least by family standards.

growstuff

And make being able to read them a priority.

Yes, I thought I said something similar but it must be another thread.

Whitewavemark2

I think that we have deviated a long way from the subject?.

The reason people can’t cook proper food is poverty.

Nothing more or less.

I agree with so many comments on this thread, but I think this one sums it up perfectly. Every crisis we have (Covid 19 for example) ends with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Please correct me if I am wrong about this.

It seems to me that we are encouraged by the rich and powerful to blame and misrepresent people in need, by calling them 'benefit fraudsters', 'illegal migrants', 'homeless addicted to drugs and alcohol', ' lazy', 'obese'; anything to make it seem that they are at fault.

The problem is that inequality increases year upon year; the gap between the richest and the poorest widens consistently; the people in power have demonstrably no idea of the situation of people using food banks, filling up tummies with the cheapest carbs and fats. The 'big reset' needs to tackle this, but I don't honestly think it ever will with the system as it is.

I suppose there are people who are better or worse at all kinds of things.
The £1 a day menu, though...?
Not seen any evidence of someone being able to do it.

I bought mine a student cookbook

Callistemon21

MissAdventure

That is precisely the last kind of thing my boy cooked.
A huge amount of minced lean beef (I don't eat mince) with diced mushrooms in it (he doesnt eat mushrooms) on flat bread type things.
The mince would have made 5 or 6 decent portions of something.

I rarely saw anything my DS made at school, it was eaten before it got home.
He's an excellent cook now, better than me but probably not from anything he learnt at school. He worked in a restaurant kitchen on his gap year.

What is it about some GNers that makes them think they can cook better than others?
Because they can?
I acknowledge that there are far better cooks on here than me. I'm a chuck it in, measure by eye kind of cook. It's usually successful, at least by family standards.

Sorry, but I don't think they always "can". Being able to make cakes, bread and pastry doesn't make for a cook of healthy food. Understanding nutrition does.

Necessity here.
My boy is learning to do some cooking because I often can't.

Callistemon21

I bought mine a student cookbook

So did I! And sent her off to uni with enough pasta, rice, mushy peas and lentils to feed herself for a year!

volver

If you can't afford to buy bread and can't turn on the kettle because you can't afford the electricity costs, it doesn't matter if you are cordon bleu trained. You need a food bank.

In one of my life's digressions I was taught to cook to cordon bleu level. I can bone a chicken - but what help is that when inflation, and the disruptions to trade provoked by this government, will put chicken out of reach. I also learned to fillet fish. How many of those living in poverty in this country have a wet fish shop near by or any access to any fish except frozen - which they may not be able to store.

Right now it's a time to feed people. We have two choices; we may need both. We can set up more food banks and extend them into food kitchens. Or we can ensure they have enough money in their pockets to feed themselves.

Moralising about whether we have taught them to cope with these conditions is as useful as trying to decided if Ukraine taught it's people to cope with war. This is an exceptional circumstance. You cannot teach people about all the exceptions that occur in life. You can only put governments in place to ensure we get through them. This government has made it very clear it is not prepared to do that. Please do not attempt to normalise what is happening.

Trying to blame the capability or the morals of individuals who have been pushed into poverty is just an excuse for the government that has actually brought it about.

Callistemon21

Dickens

Callistemon21

I never had cookery lessons at school and seem to have managed over the years .....

I'm sure you're not alone in that.

Do you think it's a good argument against teaching basic cooking skills?

I think if you can read you can follow a recipe.

... well that's certainly true.

But cooking is about more than just following a recipe.

However, I suspect you don't approve of the idea of teaching basic cooking skills in schools. Fair enough. I'll not expand on it further.

DaisyAnne - well said. We need to deal with the situation as it is right here, right now.

DaisyAnne hear, hear.

Exactly!

I don’t think that learning to prepare for dinner parties or to be ‘a housewife’ is the point. Men cook too, in my world.

My point was that rather than teach things in isolation, lessons could incorporate calculating quantities of various ingredients for a dish, how much they will cost, how leftovers could be used for other other meals, and how much each one would then cost per portion- that sort of thing would be far more useful than ‘chopping skills’ and wouldn’t have to be done at the expense of other subjects if there were a rethink about the curriculum. They could be built in to history ( food through the ages), geography (food in other cultures) RE and so on. I’m talking primary, or at least pre GCSE, probably- I’m not saying that the whole school experience should be about food, but life skills such as running a bank account and paying household bills could be included (calculating interest payments on loans would be more useful than learning the necessary skills in isolation in maths). Maybe there could be an exam in life skills which brings all this together- why not?

All of the above would be useful IMO, but obviously no use unless people have money to spend on food in the first place.