Hey! Today we're discussing NeverSeconds, a fellow blog written by Martha Payne, a nine-year-old blogger from Scotland. And what is the blog about, you ask? Well, it's about her school lunches. She reviews her lunches like a restaurant or food critic. Under the pseudonym "VEG" (an acronym for veritas ex gustu, meaning "truth from tasting" in Latin), she launched her first blog post on 30 April 2012, with the help of her dad, Dave. It features daily entries reviewing her £2 ($3.22 US Dollar) school meals, that she chooses. She rates the food on a 1-10 scale "Food-o-Meter", gives it a health rating from 1-10, and a picture of the food. The blog hit international news, and with the consequent revenue, she started donating it to a charity called Mary's Meals. By mid-June 2012, she raised £90,000 ($145,170 US Dollar), which the charity decided to use it to fund the building of a new kitchen in at the 1,963-pupil Lirangwe Primary School in Blantyre, Malawi. On June 14, Martha was removed from her Math class, taken to the principal's office, and told that she could no longer take photos of her food inside the cafeteria. The decision had come down from Argyll and Bute Council, who had become cautious of negative press reaction and the effect it was having on the school lunch ladies. Of particular concern was an article in the Daily Record newspaper, which had published a photograph of Martha alongside chef Nick Nairn under the headline "Time to fire the dinner ladies". In response, Martha wrote an entry entitled "Goodbye", explaining the council's decision, followed by a commentary from her father. Human rights group Big Brother Watch called the act "an authoritarian infringement on her civil liberties." On June 15, following an online protest, the council issued a press release defending the decision. However, after the intervention of local Scottish National Party MSP and Education Secretary Mike Russell, council leader Roddy McCuish told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme:
<<There's no place for censorship in Argyll and Bute Council and there never has been and there never will be. I've just instructed senior officials to immediately withdraw the ban on pictures from the school dining hall. It's a good thing to do, to change your mind, and I've certainly done that>>.
The ban was later cited as a "classic example of local government failing to grasp the power of social media", while BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones jokingly called the ban "a brilliant scheme to put their region in the west of Scotland on the map." As a result of the controversy, Martha's Just Giving total rose to more than £40,000 ($64,520 US Dollar) by the afternoon of June 15, and to £65,000 ($104,845 US Dollar) the following day. By July it stood at £110,412 ($178,094 US Dollar). In late November 2012 it was over £123,000 ($198,399 US Dollar).
It is one of my favorite blogs! I look foward to it daily.
Happy weekend!
Maria.
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