KEY POINTS:
Ministry Of Education guidelines for school tuckshops were launched today.
Here is the latest selection of Your Views:
Lisa (Papatoetoe)
Why should my child not have the option of a pie for her lunch? My daughter only buys her lunch once a month on my pay
Concerned parent and teacher
Huh?! You are only able to eat ham occasionally and yet you are able to eat a sandwich and filled roll every day? What do you have in that filled roll or sandwich? Also, why on earth are you only able to eat puffed rice and cornflakes "sometimes"? It all seems very confusing!
Grandma (BOP)
Interesting lists - but what about some fresh fruit and vegetables to be included in the everyday list? It seems strange they have not been included. Is there some reason?
Rhea
For children and adolescents, the kinds of foods they eat are one of the few things they have control over in their lives, this is why two years olds have tantrums at the dinner table to exert a degree of power over their frazzeled parents, and why teenagers develop anorexia or bulimia, as an attempt to fit an ideal image and be accepted by peers. Over-regulation can be counter-productive as we see the govt intruding more and more on our personal lives and our individual choices. Are overweight children seen as a burden on society and not valued? What will this do to enhance personal responsibility and freedom of choice for children and adolescents? Is the Labour govt re-enforcing the thin ideal?
Single mum
I think the list is very good but very ambitious. Why? Because most tuck shops have little more than a cubby hole and a stove and refrigerator in them. Most barely break even and putting more of a range of food in would be beyond the funds available to them as well as staff to spend time preparing it. Perhaps we need to look at paid employment for tuck shop workers rather than free labour so that it could become a much more businesslike venture.
I also think that many still look on their children buying lunch as a treat, or I would hope so. It is therefore the time that a little bad food is allowed to be purchased. If a child is buying lunch every day then something is wrong.
Leah (Auckland)
I suggest those of you fearing "Aunty Helen" and her Socialist government should have a look around you. People are not saying "all kids eat unhealthy food" or "all parents are teaching bad-eating habits", but have a look at Britain. Jamie Oliver had his work cut out for him trying to evoke a change in the way people think about, eat, and purchase food. We cannot deny that bad, over processed food is more available today than ever before. Its not about control, it's about changing attitudes. It is about changing the way the next generation think about their health, go down to your local high school and have a look. The facts are that we as a nation are edging ever closer to the American TV dinner society, its not over reaction, it's a plain fact. And it's a good start.
Alan Wilkinson
Michelle has it wrong. We can complain about Nanny State if we pay own way irrespective of how we decide to live and what we decide to eat and do. Those who spend their lives with their hands out are less likely to complain, though considering their moral turpitude perhaps some will.
Sir Hunky Bumble (Masterton)
Plain water is okay, huh? Is this plain town supply water with all the additives, or does one have to specially collect rainwater, with all that dreadful greenhouse gases pollution in it? Or does one have to go and buy the commercial water that is so much more expensive than milk? I do wish these bureaucrats would get the detail right. After all, it's obvious that parents can't be trusted to bring up their kids, so the parents should be given complete and detailed instruction on everything. And if the bureaucrats aren't sure of anything, Aunty Helen should be able to help. She may not have had kids, but apparently she knows just how raising kids should be done.
Michele (Geraldine)
So many people complain about the ever-increasing "nanny" state. And schools complain they are being dumped on to do all the teaching that should - but doesn't - occur at home by parents. Wake up, everybody! If the majority of society wasn't sitting in front of the TV pigging out on takeaways instead of actively enjoying life and eating healthy food, we wouldn't need the kind of "nannying" that is so resented. If you want freedom to make your own choice, and then persist in making the choices that make you fat and unhealthy, you have no right to complain about a nanny state, or the public health system that is groaning under the weight of having to treat you for your own poor judgment.
Lollipop
From someone who does not have her own children? Running the country is not the same as running a day-to-day household. I had a yum tum tuck shop at my school and I am not over weight, lazy, never visit the doctors and have a full-time job and involved in sports and coaching. I had pies every Friday and fish & chips for dinner, pizza on the weekends. I think it's called being a kid?
Live Life
Will the kiddies at the preschool named the Beehive have there tuckshop menu revised to show these changes? Or is it a case of "do as I say" not "practise what we preach".
Alan
All children should be wards of the state, all income should be taken by the state and people should be thankful that Clark, Cullen and all the other idiots are running this country towards a perfect socialist island. If they get back in I am taking my family to Australia.
Lynne
Are we trying to make our children body image obsessed? Great for kids to be healthier but the way the Government is going we are going to end up with a lot of anorexics. I for one would not think of giving diet drinks laden with chemicals to my children. I think the government is going too far. We need to teach our children healthy choices not restrict it so that when they are old enough they binge on what has been their forbidden fruit.
Hooks
Gee, it certainly is a detailed list Aunty Helen! If I am a good little boy and do as I am told, can I please have something from the deep fryer for my tea tonight? It's not all the time mind you, just occasionally. I promise that I will always check with you first before I have anything from the "naughty" list. Before they are banned altogether, can I also have a choice as to what baby formula I choose to feed my new born baby? Lastly, am I allowed to have some vitamin supplements before they are banned as well? Thank you comrade!
Staci
I think this government are becoming too involved in our homes & our lives. They are trying to control us and our families. By taking all the junk food from our schools, isn't going to stop the kids from buying the same stuff at the dairy before or after school. Because if you look at it, there is a dairy within walking distance of almost every school in the country. The kids/parents should be educated on what foods to eat etc, and then they can make their own choice. This government just needs to back off us and leave us to live our own lives, and raise our own children the way we see fit. New Zealand is a free country after all.
Rob (Wellington)
Good to see some black and white descriptions for a change. No more advice about 'eat everything in moderation', 'choose a balanced diet' please - who can understand that, or more to the point, it can be interpreted and twisted anyway you want. And finally the Government seems to be grasping what parents and teachers have known for ages, that food does influence educational outcomes, academic success, behaviour, truancy, etc.
pCb (Auckland)
Another example of the state of the government - our diets are obviously deemed controllable while the exchange and inflation rates seem to be in the 'too hard' basket. Makes me want to go out and buy a pie, donut and a large bottle of soft drink.
Andrew
Repeat after me children: "We must eat what herr nanny says, because she knows best!"
Lynda of TCL
Puffed rice and corn flakes should not be eaten everyday. What a load of tax payers funded rubbish.
Paul (Auckland)
Outrageous! When will we see the Labour Government employing lunch-box police??? At least that'll get people off the dole queue..........
