Lunch lady slammed for food that is "too good"


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Annika Eriksson, a lunch lady at school in Falun, was told that her cooking is just too good.

Pupils at the school have become accustomed to feasting on newly baked bread and an assortment of 15 vegetables at lunchtime, but now the good times are over.

The municipality has ordered Eriksson to bring it down a notch since other schools do not receive the same calibre of food - and that is "unfair".

Moreover, the food on offer at the school doesn't comply with the directives of a local healthy diet scheme which was initiated in 2011, according to the municipality.

"A menu has been developed... It is about making a collective effort on quality, to improve school meals overall and to try and ensure everyone does the same," Katarina Lindberg, head of the unit responsible for the school diet scheme, told the local Falukuriren newspaper.

However, Lindberg was not aware of Eriksson's extraordinary culinary efforts and how the decision to force her to cut back had prompted outrage among students and parents.

"It has been claimed that we have been spoiled and that it's about time we do as everyone else," Eriksson said.

She insisted, however, that her creative cooking has not added to the municipality's expenses.

"I have not had any complaints," she told the paper.

Eriksson added that she sees it as her job to ensure that the pupils are offered several alternatives at meal times.

The food on offer does not always suit all pupils, she explained, and therefore she makes sure there are plenty of vegetables to choose from as well as proteins in the form of chicken, shrimp, or beef patties.

From now on, the school's vegetable buffet will be halved in size and Eriksson's handmade loafs will be replaced with store-bought bread.

Her traditional Easter and Christmas sm?rg?sbords may also be under threat.

Parents and pupils alike find the municipality's orders distasteful.

Fourth-graders at the school have even launched a petition in protest against the decision to put a lid on Eriksson's passion for cooking.

Source: The Local

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government regulations and equality - lowering standards and trampeling the aspirations of exceling men and women since 1848

It's another example of how the working classes are put in their place, (as you mentioned) having their aspirations shot down.

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So she is getting told to dial it back because she is considerate of others and she actually enjoys her job? You'd think that such qualities were promoted in places.

If she can do it without tweaking the budget, so can the other schools. The point of their regulation is to make sure that there is a minimum level of quality, it wasn't meant to be used to hold quality back.

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If I did not see that this was in Sweeden, I would have said, "Only in ...........!" All this correctness and pandering to others is bordering on insanity!

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If I did not see that this was in Sweeden, I would have said, "Only in ...........!"

I must admit i was thinking that too.

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This article raises another issue which may be the underlying cause if this.

"Moreover, the food on offer at the school doesn't comply with the directives of a local healthy diet scheme which was initiated in 2011, according to the municipality."

If she was following this she may not have brought attention to herself. I work in a school and we're given a new menu every year which states what you can and cannot give each day/week, everything must be balanced and it must be adhered to.

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Instead of knocking her down, put her on the board, give them someone to listen to who works in the field and is doing good with what she is given.

Her meals may need to be tweaked somewhat due to regulations but surely someone who is willing to put their all in to something like this is also someone who needs to be on the board that decides is these thing? Unfortunately having worked for a council for 10+ years, this is never how it works :(

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No one at the governing/supervisory level stopped to think that a better solution would be to bring the quality of lunches in the OTHER SCHOOLS up to the same level as this one??

So instead lets tell her to dial it back to make it "fair".

This is idiocy.

This article raises another issue which may be the underlying cause if this.

"Moreover, the food on offer at the school doesn't comply with the directives of a local healthy diet scheme which was initiated in 2011, according to the municipality."

If she was following this she may not have brought attention to herself. I work in a school and we're given a new menu every year which states what you can and cannot give each day/week, everything must be balanced and it must be adhered to.

Except often times "healthy" diets that schools implement are not, and are usually created using horribly outdated information as the scheme passes through many levels of boards and councils and governing bodies, that all want to add their own touches and tweaks.

Id bet dollars to doughnuts that this lady was offering far more healthy diets to these students than the supposed plan that the powers that be want to follow.

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