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Blog power helps Martha make a meal of her council

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Nine-year-old Martha Payne was banned taking photos of food served by her school's cafeteria and posting them to her blog, NeverSeconds. Photo: AP A NINE-YEAR-OLD Scottish girl has inadvertently harnessed the global power of social media to beat her local government, raise thousands of dollars for charity, and gain the admiration of celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Nick Nairn.

What Martha Payne has for lunch at Lochgilphead Primary School has drawn millions of people to her blog, Never Seconds, which she began as a project with her father, David, in April, with the permission of teachers.

She posts photos of her lunches with commentary on each meal's tastiness and nutritional value - and whether any hairs had been found. Readers have gobbled it up. Many have responded with photos of their own meals - or with their own horror stories.

Advertisement: Story continues below But last week, the Argyll and Bute Council in western Scotland banned photography in her school's cafeteria, effectively ending her popular project.

She wrote a blog post on Thursday simply titled Goodbye, explaining that she had been pulled out of her maths class and told to stop taking her photos. So many people jumped on Twitter on Friday that Martha was trending worldwide. The number of hits on the blog leapt from 2 million that morning to more than 5 million by Saturday evening. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver joined in, tweeting to his 2.3 million followers: Stay strong, Martha.

On May 25, Martha had written: It happened today! As we lined up for lunch, we were officially told that we are all allowed as much salad, fruit and bread as we want and that we had always been able to … well my friends and I never knew that. It must have been a well-kept secret. The council insisted it hadn't made any tweaks to the school meals based on the blog.

The council defended the ban last Friday, saying the media attention had left the kitchen staff fearful of losing their jobs. It also said her photos misrepresented the variety of school food.

But in the wake of the bad publicity, it revoked the ban. Council leader Roddie McCuish said: There's no place for censorship in Argyll and Bute Council. There never has been and there never will be.

Martha has used her blog to raise money for Mary's Meals, a charity that helps feed children in poor countries. Before the ban, she had raised about $3000. On Saturday, her donation page said she had raised more than $110,000. She has now agreed to team up with celebrity chef Nairn to help the council provide more nutritious meals for her and her classmates. | Nguyễn Hùng Hậu | Nguyen Hung Hau | Hùng Hậu | Hung Hau