Food Revolution Blog of the Month: Never Seconds

Food Revolution Blog Of The Month: Never Seconds

Wed 27 Jun 2012

Story by The Food Revolution Team
 

One Primary School Pupil’s Daily Dose of School Dinners



This month’s blog of the month has been catching the attention of people all over the world. Never Seconds, a blog run by school girl Martha Payne (A.K.A. Veg), documents the school lunches served each day at her primary school in Scotland.

Each meal uploaded is rated according to Martha’s own set of criteria, which include the number of mouthfuls (portion size), courses, a health rating out of 10, price, and whether there are any pieces of hair in it!

Not only does the blog show Martha’s school meals but also those from schools across the world as people all over the globe have taken to sending pictures of their lunches to compare. As Martha says:


“I started my blog as a writing project and chose to write about my school dinners. I got permission from school to take photos and then I rate them every day. I like the pictures other children send me about their food. It is great so many people care about what children eat.”



Martha’s blog shows transparency, allowing people across the world to see what is really on the lunch tray and opening up the conversation on school food. However, not all of the attention gained by the blog has been good. While Martha’s dad posts that the school were incredibly supportive, last week local council Argyll and Bute made the decision that Martha was no longer allowed to photograph her school lunches, with catering staff fearing for their jobs over the blog.

This news was followed shortly by an online protest and huge media support for the blog. #NeverSeconds was trending on twitter, over 200 news articles were written about the blog in 12 hours and over 2,300 people commented on Martha’s Goodbye post.

Shortly after the story went viral online, Argyll and Bute council reversed their decision to stop Martha taking picture in her dining hall and so daily images of Martha’s lunches can now be found back on the Never Seconds blog. Following on from the outcry earlier in the year over ‘Pink Slime’ this again shows the power of people and the power of social media in creating change.

Not only does Never Seconds showcase school lunches, but it is also raising money for a charity named Mary’s Meals, which organises school dinner programs in some of the world’s poorest areas. Thanks to lots of media attention Martha has now smashed her fundraising goal of 7,000 with over £108,000 being raised to for the charity to date.

“There was a comment on my blog that I am lucky to have any lunch as some children get none so I started to raise money for Mary's Meals. I have raised over £108,000 now. I am going to visit the kitchen called Friends of NeverSeconds at the school in Malawi and blog from there. I am really looking forward to it.”



While Martha is on holiday, schools from around the world are going to guest post their lunch photos on Never Seconds.

Showcasing School Lunches Across The World



Never Seconds has done a great job of continuing the conversation on school lunch and increasing transparency over what’s on the lunch tray!

Do you know what’s served for lunch in your local schools?

Visit our school lunch photo wall to see lunches from all across the world and add yours to help us build a powerful showcase of what’s really on the lunch tray.

The Food Revolution Team