After ban on lunch blogging, global response brings success to Scottish girl’s transparency efforts
By Whitney Evans | June 19th, 2012
‘Never Seconds’ gets a second chance
The Argyll and Bute Council in Scotland recently reversed its decision to ban 9-year-old Martha Payne from taking pictures of her school lunch after a global response to their June 15 decision.
Payne, who with her NeverSeconds blog was bringing awareness to the poor-quality lunches in her school, says the food quality improved during her coverage. Her daily blog posts from Lochgilpead, Scotland, featured a picture of the day’s food (hand-drawn if she forgot her camera – see June 11 post) and a health and food-o-meter grade for each meal. Lunch eaters from around the world also wrote in with posts on their school’s lunches.
‘It’s a good thing to do, to change your mind, and I’ve certainly done that.’ Argyll and Bute Council leader Roddy McCuish announcement after withdrawing the ban on Martha Payne’s ‘NeverSeconds’ blog.
The Council initially banned Payne from taking pictures because they said the school’s caterers were afraid of getting fired. However, after protests came in, including appeals from celeb chefs Nick Nairn and Jamie Oliver, the Council reversed course.
Council leader Roddy McCuish announced they would withdraw the ban. He said, “It’s a good thing to do, to change your mind, and I’ve certainly done that,” the Daily Mail reported.
Martha’s father, Dave Payne, who has supported his daughter’s blogging, said Martha is upbeat about the positive changes.
“She is delighted she can carry on blogging, but more so about the money being raised for the charity. People have been very, very generous. The way the world reacted to the ban is very revealing, it’s just fantastic that common sense has prevailed,” Dave Payne said, according to the Daily Mail.
A fundraising effort through her blog has raised more than £84,000 (a little over $131,000) for charitable organization Mary’s Meals. The charity plans to build a kitchen in Malawi with some of the funds providing food to hungry children there, the BBC reports. Martha Payne said she plans to name the kitchen “Friends of Never Seconds” for those whose donations made her work possible.
Whitney is the summer Pulliam/Killgore intern with SPJ. She recently graduated from Brigham Young University after studying journalism. Connect with her via email – wevans@hq.spj.org – or on twitter – @whitevs7
*Know something about Freedom of Information that you think we should cover in a blog post? We want to hear from you! Send information to wevans@HQ.SPJ.org. It may be featured in a future post.