Thank God for Jamie Oliver

[watervole]

I'm not a big fan of celebrities of any kind, but sometimes, one person with a passion can make a difference.

Nutrition is something I feel pretty strongly about (my main gripe about my daughter outlaw is that she doesn't eat enough decent food, especially vegetables)

I watched his school dinners programme right through and was appalled at some of the stuff being fed to children who never get a decent meal at home either. And as for the resulting health problems, not to mention inability to concentrate in class...

I've never watched his cookery programmes and probably never will, but I'd cheerfully nominate Jamie Oliver for a knighthood.
Jamie Oliver wins fight

Comments

[kerravonsen]

School dinners? Que?

[watervole.livejournal.com]

That's what the link is there for...

British school dinners are junk food of the worst possible kind. Jamie is a celebrity chef who decided to try and improve things. He went through hell trying to produce nutrititous food on a budget of 37p per child and to find ways of encouraging kids who only get fed burgers and pizzas to actually eat it.

I've never seen a more stressed out man in my life.

He won. The government is taking some of the right steps. He's probably saved the lives of some of those kids. There's a reason why diabetes is becoming an epidemic.

[kerravonsen]

No, I did read the article. It's the context I don't have. The implication, which I am unsure of, is that the British government provides free lunch for all kids at school. Or a subsidized lunch. Is that correct? Because we don't have such a thing in Australia.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Lunch is provided in schools. Free to those whose parents are receiving state benefits, subsidised (apparently) for the rest. They charge the consumer about £1-50 for a main course whose ingredients cost 37p. As you can imagine, working down to a budget like that it's mostly chips with something provided by C.M.O.T. Dibbler.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what I did to my youngest but she loves vegetables. She's the only teenager I've met who goes "Sprouts, yummy" Mind you she doesn't like fruit.

Our school dinners improved greatly when a new catering company took over in September. The meat in meals is recognisable, they do a nice balti and you can get little pots of fruit salad.

[dev-iant.livejournal.com]

Our 8-year old loves broccoli and eats most veg., but (reassuringly) hates sprouts. Her school is supposedly one of the better ones in the borough for school meals, but she refuses to touch them. Mind you, if you saw the variety Kathy puts in the packed lunches, you'd probably opt for them!

As for the Jamie Oliver programme, some of the things described)(e.g. kids vomiting up faeces) were nauseating and terrifying in equal quanties.

Well done that man!