Scottish 9-year-old Martha Payne's ban on food blogging lifted by local council

A photo of a school meal from Martha Payne's NeverSeconds blog

/ Martha Payne via ZDNet

(CBS/AP) Martha Payne, a 9-year-old blogger from Scotland who set off a brief international outcry when local authorities banned her food blog containing images of her school's meals, has won her blog back.

9-year-old's blog shames school into changing food

Since setting up her NeverSeconds blog six weeks ago, Martha's images of uninspiring school meals - one consisted of two croquettes, a plain cheeseburger, three slices of cucumber and an ice pop - drew international attention. The blog, which kicked off as a writing project and to help raise money for a school-meals charity, has since drawn more than 2 million hits.

Martha, who lives in the coastal town of Lochgilphead, about 130 miles west of Edinburgh, gave each meal a "food-o-meter" rating, and offered an assessment of its contents.

"I'd really like to know where the chicken comes from," she wrote in an entry about chicken fajitas, "so I am going to write to the lady in charge to ask. I know it comes from a hen but I'd like to know where the hen lived."

She'd also give the meals a "Health Rating." The cheeseburger, croquettes and ice pop meal - with three cucumbers on the side - was scored a 4/10 by the 9-year-old.

Local officials weren't amused, and ordered the schoolgirl to stop taking pictures.

In a statement, Argyll and Bute Council said Payne's photos were misleading and had caused distress to cafeteria staff. The council was particularly irked by a report about the blog in Scotland's Daily Record newspaper headlined "Time to fire the dinner ladies."

The council complained of "unwarranted attacks on its schools catering service" and said the blog "misrepresented the options and choices available to pupils."

As a result, it said, "a decision has been made by the council to stop photos being taken in the school canteen."

Martha's father David Payne said the blog was never intended to make the food look unappetizing. It includes such positive assessments as, "Lunch was really nice today and it helped cheer me up."

"The last photograph of a meal at school that she blogged, she gave it 10 out of 10," Payne told the BBC.

On a Thursday post titled "Goodbye" Martha bid farewell to their readers.

"I was told that I could not take any more photos of my school dinners because of a headline in a newspaper today," she wrote. "I only write my blog not newspapers and I am sad I am no longer allowed to take photos. I will miss sharing and rating my school dinners and I'll miss seeing the dinners you send me too. I don't think I will be able to finish raising enough money for a kitchen for Mary's Meals either. Goodbye, VEG." [sic]

The ban quickly became an online talking point Friday, with free speech group the Index on Censorship even weighing in on Payne's behalf. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver tweeted "Stay strong Martha" to his more than 2.5 million followers.

The Internet storm was quickly followed by an official U-turn. Council leader Roddy McCuish said he had ordered officials to lift the ban on cafeteria photos.

He praised Martha as "an enterprising and imaginative pupil."

"There is no place for censorship in this council and never will be whilst I am leader," McCuish said.

Amid the blaze of publicity, donations to Mary's Meals, the charity the blog had been promoting, climbed from 3,000 pounds ($4,700) to almost 20,000 pounds ($31,000) Friday.

[fiddlestickawshucks]

School lunches have a history of being bad.

As long as 35 years ago; my son; who was in elementary school at the time; went to the Principals office and politeley informed him the lunches were not fit to it.

He and the other students who went with him told the Principal "First the high school gets it, then the middle school gets it and the elementary school gets what's left",

School officials don't want the left hand to know what the right hand is doing when it comes to food served in schools.

Please tell the cooks in these schools not to feel hurt by this childs' comments.

The are only serving up what they are given.

It's not their fault.

[trekie70]

This little girl has a bright future ahead of her as an investigative journalist. The school administration and other officials that demanded she end her blog are a bunch of cowards.

[bonzothemonkey]

Suggested meal change: A large raw apple (sliced), a couple of ounces of cubed cheese, a couple of ounces of sardines, a large glass of low fat milk and a handful of "dark" chocolate for dessert! This kind of meal could be done simply, quickly, and, best of all, handled entirely by the school cafeteria staff, avoiding altogether the costs associated with any catering company. It's power packed, giving the kids the energy needed to attack the second half of their day!

[MegaProcrastination]

Ah! But apples are high-glycemic sugar-bombs just waiting to go off. PLUS they have the benefit of NEARLY no nutritional value. At most, a half-apple should be served with any given meal, or a whole SMALL apple but not a large one, especially for children.

[bonzothemonkey]

Nine years old! She appears to have the insights of an adult! What a welcome addition she is to all the rest of us who've been (and remain so) critical about the foods we're eating. Food preparation in the schools over there apparently is no better than here in the United States.

[bonzothemonkey]

Nine years old! She appears to have the insights of an adult! What a welcome addition she is to all the rest of us who've been (and remain so) critical about the foods we're eating. Food preparation in the schools over there apparently is no better than here in the United States.

[rwsmith29456]

I guess she was supposed to keep her mouth shut about it? My kid goes to US schools and the food quality is very poor. He even got raw chicken one time.

[alphaa10000]

DEEP-FRIED TERMITES BEG THE QUESTION

nadelio said, "... cute and wonderful. But, if you think about it, real Scottish food is really an uninspiring, tasteless, and bland venture, so if this 9-year old girl doesn't like the school fajitas, then I don't know what else can please her. Deep-fried termites?"
------

Why not ask VEG? Presumably, she'll not only continue her blog, and others may start their own. However, to label the "Scottish food" in VEG's photo as uninspiring ans tasteless is completely unwarranted. VEG's photo, in the drab white and blue tones of an autopsy, is a model-- not for Scottish cuisine-- but for the kind of performance taxpayers get from "outsourcing" an essential function of the school to a private, for-profit catering service.

Clearly, what is left after caterers' profit is what is given to school children.

Such thinking led Reagan's Department of Agriculture to cut the requirement for vegetables in school lunches by one important vegetable-- the tomato. Rationale? Catsup supplies all the tomato goodness American kids need.

[bonzothemonkey]

I like the point you made about Reagan. That tells us volumes about the man's intelligence and also what he really thought of the people of America! Also, any and all contracting with caterers who supply food in the schools should and must be carefully monitored to ensure only the best nutritional meals are put on the table for the kids of America! Cut the chocolate milk, fries, and reheated pizza!

[kbrum1066]

The fact that she both criticized and praised over the period of time indicates an honesty seldom seen any more. This in itself deserves praise.
As far as what the newspaper wrote and the council's reaction to that make me wonder... what would have happened had the young lady not have been given the attention she got after they closed her blog? For that matter, if they did not want any "bad" publicity, then why let her do the blog in the first place?
In this case, common sense prevailed and she continues to display her honest opinion. Unfortunately, this may not always be so in the future....

[Jaylah54100]

Part of the problem is that everyone at the school was supportive of her blog. It was only when it came to the attention of the local council that trouble started.

The council's first response, when they got wind of the blog, was to send an e-mail to Veg's father, saying that students were allowed all the salad, fruit and bread they wanted, and always had been. Veg and her sister were a bit skeptical about that, so took a printed copy of the e-mail to school with them the next day. When Veg asked for fruit with her lunch, at first it was denied but -- after some "checking" -- it was given to her.

This suggests that rather than this having been policy all along (as the council claimed), it was an adjustment on the council's behalf.

Then one rather assumes that the council figured either that would hush Veg up or else that -- at only 9 years old -- Veg would soon tire of her blogging, and give it up. But she didn't.

When she met with Nick Nairn, several papers had photographers there, and one of them (the Daily Record) published a photo of Veg and Nick with the headline, "Time to fire the dinner ladies."

Well that, of course, caused more scrutiny of the lunch program than the council wanted, so they banned her from taking photographs of her lunch with the lame excuse that it was causing the school kitchen employees to "fear for their jobs."

As they say on Saturday Night Live, "Oh really? Oh REALLY?"

You mean that same kitchen staff that had been so supportive of Veg and her blog?

[bonzothemonkey]

I for one am skeptical about the ties these caterers have with school systems all over the country (USA). There needs to be a "careful audit" of all money being spent on school lunches to ensure that kids are getting "only" the most nutritious foods and at a cost to the taxpayer that excludes any payoffs that might be finding their way into the pockets of the city officials who re handing these catering contracts!

[Jaylah54100]

Considering that it was the headline on the article in the Daily Record that got Martha banned in the first place, I wonder when they're going to be grown-up enough to apologize to her.

Also, Martha started her fund raising for Mary's Meals with the $50 she received from a publication for allowing them to publish her photograph. As Martha has said, many didn't even ask. So I'm not sure a MAJOR donation to Martha's fund-raising efforts from this paper wouldn't also be in order.

[alphaa10000]

We see in Martha Payne a budding investigative reporter. Best wishes, Martha, but remember a reporter must tolerate a huge number of official dinners with rubber chicken, lukewarm tea, stray bits of green stuff called "salad" and even less appetizing fare called "news-making speeches".