It’s In the Bag

When I was in elementary school, we were split about half and half between kids who brought lunches from home and kids who ate the school cafeteria food. As I grew older, fewer and fewer students packed from home, although I brown-bagged it into middle school (Underwood deviled ham sandwich, chips, and some sort of Hostess or Little Debbie snack cake.)

However, one of the things I learned over my time in those institutional learning facilities was that griping about school food is par for the course. Some folks have even written songs about it.

However, an elementary schooler in Scotland has raised the bar. Wired reports that 9-year-old Martha Payne started a blog called Never Seconds, in which she would post pictures and reviews of her day’s lunch at her primary school. The blog got a great deal of attention, which Martha used to solicit donations for a charity that feeds African school children. What’s more, Never Seconds also seems to have resulted in upgrades in the school chow. (And remember, this is in the nation that invented haggis and deep-fried Mars bars.)

However, the blog also drew the attention of administrators, who tried to force her to shut down her blog by forbidding her to take pictures of her meals. Happily, after a kerfuffle described in the Wired article, the blog will be up and running again in short order.

Me, I think I’ll have another sandwich.