This week I talk to a young lady called Emmy, a year 9 student who studies food technology at school. This episode came about after episode 56, a podcast about malnutrition and education, and a conversation I had with Emmy’s mom.
Schools are teaching the right way!
Schools seem to be teaching the children really well, they are educating the students to eat well and considering there are so many children per class; they seem to fully engage with them. I love how Food Technology is a compulsory subject and that it is not just about baking, they educate the children too.
What is Food Technology?
Food Technology is a compulsory course which starts in year 7. At the start, Emmy baked all sorts of treats using healthier ingredients. In Year 8, she made Great British dishes, some of which she created during lockdown. During the current year, the class is focusing on hot meals. The school teaches the children how to portion correctly and how to eat well. They also teach about good and bad fats, giving an insight into what is in foods.
The students look at the Eat Well Plate and Emmy feels that she could use this to create meals that cover all categories.
How Food Technology helps
Not only does the course show how ingredients can be swapped to make better choices, it helps with practical skills so that the skills can be used at home too. The course also taught the children how to look at brands of products and to make comparisons in ingredients and price.
Emmy’s feedback
Emmy feels that some aspects of the course are not really appropriate for her age group and that she thought that the course would cover more basics, she knows how to make a risotto; would this really be eaten by a child of that age? Maybe learning how to make bread or cover the basics would be a great help.
When eating school dinners, Emmy has said that she does not feel that there are enough healthy options and does not have much to choose from. If school dinners were compulsory, Emmy would not have anything to eat as she does not like any of the choices. There is no on-site catering, all meals (including hot foods) are cooked and made off-site and brought in on trays.
My thoughts…
The concerning thing for me, was that when rating the school dinners out of 10 for healthiness, Emmy rated them as a 5. For the taste, Emmy rated the dinners as a 6 or 7. I had a suggestion that maybe the students of the Food Technology course could maybe create some of the choices for school dinners!
Is Food Technology compulsory at your school or your child’s school? What do you think of the course? Let me know via Facebook and Instagram!
Thank you so much for my lovely reviews and to my young listener, Grace!