School Dinners

Britain is not alone in having to rethink its school meals system. American school lunches are a shockingly non-nutritious mix of pizza, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers, pancakes and macaroni-cheese, with the odd placatory chicken salad thrown in.

At our kids' junior school, for example, with the notable exception of potatoes in the form of chips, "potato rounds" and mash, most vegetables are offered as optional and therefore ignored extras, and the emphasis is clearly on fostering a fast-food mentality rather than teaching children about healthy eating, not least since the children have no more than 20 minutes from the time they start queuing up to be served to the moment they are shooed outside for playtime.

However, this month the canteen has truly outdone itself, offering an appallingly multicultural culinary abomination termed "spaghetti taco's" (sic!), which the menu defines as - and the spelling and punctuation are all original - "Crisp corn shells Filled with spaghetti topped with shredded Cheese".

We're over here, Mr. Oliver!