The extremely popular blog, NeverSeconds, in which a schoolgirl posted pictures of her school dinners, has been forced to shut down by her local council.
Martha Payne, 9, set up a blog to highlight the standards of her school dinners and posted pictures of each dinner. She soon attracted attention from all over the world, with hundreds of other school children sending pictures of what they were having to eat (often looking far superior to our piffling little excuses for lunches.)
Is it right that a council is ordering a blog to shut down merely for telling the truth and exercising freedom of speech over something as innocent as food?!
She’s 9 years old for goodness sake, and has only spoken up because of the frankly meagre looking lunches.
I saw the blog, and read it. To be honest, some of those dinners looked like they wouldn’t fill a sparrow, never mind a growing child.
Not only has she set up a blog to highlight the problem, she has also raised money for a charity that sets up school feeding projects in communities where poverty and hunger prevent children from gaining an education.
She ought to be applauded for having the determination and creativity to do all that at the tender age of 9, not be stifled and have it all taken away.
What do you think?
http://www.neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk/2012_06_01_archive.html
Update: The council has now done a U-turn and reversed their decision. The power of social media and negative publicity 
I think thats really clever (and brave) for a 9 year old… and if the schools were feeding them properly, whats there to hide?
I think its good for children (and parents) to take an interest in what their children are eating in school. We trust the schools so completely but are they as concerned and interested in our children out of class time as we are?
My daughter (now 9) went through a stage a couple of years ago… she stopped eating and lost a lot of weight… weight she couldnt afford to loose as a tall skinny girl. The school refused to make sure she ate or even watch her, we were told she could not be removed from school to be fed and that we couldnt come in to make sure she ate something.
Equally I dont agree with their self service salad bar… especially when these junior school children (and ive seen it first hand) pick up 1 cherry tomato and a slice of cucumber and think theyre eating sensibly.
Think I might suggest the idea of lunch blogging to my daughter and her teacher… see how far I get
I wrote about this too
. The good news from a sad silly story is that now her fundraising target has been surpassed by more than she could ever have imagined I think! She wanted to raise £7K and due to all the press about her blog and the banned photos, people have been dontating to her charity page and now it’s up to almost £20k!
That’s great, something good’s come out of the ban and the media attention!
The council has shot itself in the foot – and Martha has had more encouragement than she could have dreamed of. Unintended consequences – her family must be hugely proud of her.
Exactly – and she’s one very remarkable little girl! :-0