Sir Jamie Oliver ?

[Miki]

I personally think it is time for Master Oliver to be given a real heap of congratulations. I just hope that the "dinner ladies" will back him up all over the country but there are rumblings and if so, I hope the parents get in there and argue for the more healthy option, now hopefully to be made available to school kids.

He had no reason to do this and certainly it has cost him a lot of time and, I do not know how much he was paid by the BBC but one thing for sure, not as much as he could have made elsewhere with the huge amount of time taken up by his genuinely heart felt venture and no doubt it has put some stress on his marriage.

Well whether you think it is political or not by Mr Blair (and don't forget that Thursday it is the chance for Mr Howard to also "jump on the bandwagon" !) The problem the PM had, was that he would be damned if he turned his back on the school dinners matter and of course, damned by the oposition and others for using it as a political football !

I wish Mr Oliver the very best, none of the other "celeb" chefs appeared to have given a monkey's before but now one or two seem to want to get involved.

Go alone Jamie, I reckon a knighthood will await you in the future if you pull this one off.

[Teamedup]

I am so glad that JO has stirred up a fuss about this, about time someone did. So yes, I wouldn't mind him being honored in some way.

I would hope that JO had been aware that some schools were already onto this and have been buying food from local farmers and getting healthy food on the table.

One interesting comment today. Someone contacted the tv news service and said that it was too late for their school as the kids were just being given packed sandwiches at lunchtime. However, what is wrong with sandwiches, especially if they have some salad on them, add to that a yoghurt and fruit and I would be very happy that my kids ate that as a meal. Which is what I always told them here in France when I would have loved for my kids to take a packed lunch, but they never ever accepted this, what they considered, nonsense from me.

[Val_2]

Good for JO. I'm still angry with the sort of parents over there who consider two or three chocolate bars and a bag of crisps as a packed lunch. Where on earth did they get their education from or is it a case of out of sight and out of mind whilst they do their own thing?

[Russethouse]

We have been this route before Val - IMHO the lack of good old fashioned domestic science lessons has left a generation without the basic knowledge to feed a family healthily. ( This was obvious in the program where JO went to one of the pupils homes)

Delia Smith made a fortune from showing the basics of cookery, maybe Jamie and Nora could do a series, not in the daytime when working mothers are unable to watch, but in the evening.

Yes, I hope JO get a knighthood too!

[Will]

I personally find JO even more irritating than Nigel Farrell, but he has certainly done a good job in highlighting the shortcomings of school dinners just as he did with teaching no-hoper youngsters how to run a restaurant. I wonder why it has taken so long? In the 1960s when I remember school dinners they were crap - chips and burgers would have been a far better option than the gristle and stodge that we were served then, and as I recall it we had to pay far more than the equivalent of 37p or whatever it is.

Trouble is, you have to get the kids to eat the healthy options. I remember that if we didn't eat ours, we were punished by having to pick up stones from the playing fields for the rest of the lunch break, you could never treat today's little darlings like that. If given proper food at home, and made to eat it, there is no reason why kids should not accept a decent lunch at school. I think Gay makes a good point about education.

It's a pity that the UK politicians of all colours have seen JO's campaign as no more than a useful pre-election bandwagon.

France is a country with probably the strongest lunch culture in the world. What are their school meals like?

[chicfille]

School meals here are very good generally, they usually have starter - main - cheese and/or fruit and/or dessert.  The key point is that the children get no choice and they are encouraged to try everything (though not forced).

Incidentally, 37p isn't what the parents pay in the UK, it's the part paid for by the state. The parental contribution is something like £1.50. However, my children's UK primary had no kitchens at all, not even facilities for heating up food cooked elsewhere, so the children all brought packed lunches. I wonder how the government's extra cash will benefit children at schools in this situation?

[Miki]

".....It's a pity that the UK politicians of all colours have seen JO's campaign as no more than a useful pre-election bandwagon....."

Not really Bill, it will come down to more than that in the end, so any political posturing now will be very much remembered after the election and JO has a pretty strong TV presence and so will be able to keep the pressure up. As I said, politics will be in the forefront but the end product is what parents should all be concerned with.

".....France is a country with probably the strongest lunch culture in the world. What are their school meals like...."

According to our kids..... absolutely dire (my words not their exact words !!)

Lyndsay couldn't wait to get to Lycée and take herself out to lunch, now she is at Saint Malo, she and her Mum go out once every so often and buy food for her to cook at school. There is a small cooker and a microwave in the rest room for her year and going by the number that like to cook their own food, others must have thought the same as well. I have to admit of course, that I can only talk for the schools that they have been to, or the ones we have listened to others kids about.

[SaligoBay]

French school dinners get a universal BEURK round here!   Menu looks good, varied, healthy, etc, but quality of cooking is zero.   Meat with lots of fat on, greasy gravy, soggy salads.    And all for only 3 euros a go.

[Russethouse]

OMG - I'm older than I thought ! School dinner used to be 5/- per week and for that we got such delights as Cowboys breakfast-Bacon, egg and beans, Sooty's favourite - chocolate blancmange, Rice pudding, Prunes and custard (tinker tailor, soldier, spy ?) Liver and onions etc, egg & bacon pie, junket ( I love junket ) Also had free school milk. .

Similar at Secondary school, of course the price went up, we dropped the infant school food names and you could also choose to take sandwiches, but the cooks were cooks, not just heating up. At a school where my mother worked, the school cook was told to serve pork for the annual Christmas dinner - she wasn't happy and did a deal with a local farmer who supplied the Turkeys.

( I went home to a proper cooked meal too !)

[Quillan]

I watched the telly this morning and really could not believe my ears. Is this the state of UK politics? Miki you were right, Howard was there saying he will meet the £280M that will be pumped in to school dinners penny for penny and as for chummy from the liberals "we knew about this" god get a life. Then that stupid labour woman came on saying it had nothing to do with JO, they were going to give the money and do something about school dinners anyway and have been planning it for the last 2 years.

Well honestly to they (all the politicians from all the parties) think we are are all total idiots. Not that I am against getting ride of the junk meals and bringing back good healthy food in schools. I hardly think it's going to be an election winning strategy for anyone (mind you the state of apathy the electorate is in you never know). What I thought was even more scandalous was the fact that even raising the money spent from 50p to 72p a head they would still be spending less than half the money that they do on prison dinners. So to my calculation at present we must then be spending only about 25% of the money on school dinners that we do on prisoners dinners. It would seem that the government values criminals more than our children.

And they wonder why only half the population bother to vote.

I think I will vote for that Raving Monster Loony Party lot, at least they don't pretend to be sane.

Up the revolution (right up).

[Dick Smith]

Bill - I'm coming to this late, but 37p is the cost of materials - in Julie's school the kids pay £1.50 for a couple of spoonfuls of glop costing 40p.

[Alexis]

On all the news programmes here they are talking about this new 'fat' campaign.  They do have special places for overweight children already.  There was a programme about one months ago in Finistere I think.  They need more, apparently. . . and McDo has only just arrived!

Children are going to be weighed and measured every year at school and as soon as something 'abnormal' arrives, they can catch it in the bud.

Talk is of half an hour excercise per day at school.  This must be one of the main problems.  Us Oldies certainly didn't eat the amount of processed food the kids eat nowadays but we had lots or pies, dumplings and puddings.  Mmmmmmm!  We also ran about a great deal.  No computers or Game Boys for us.  Bit of elastic and jacks.

These Mothers of children of school age...didn't their Mother's teach them to cook?  No time I expect or the kidlets won't eat 'proper' food.  Thank goodness I never had a problem with my two gannets.

The saddest or strangest part is the children who can't recognise each vegetable.  Come on!  Apparently it is the same here.  What do they look at in the veg section of the supermarket?

Bah!  Humbug!

[SaligoBay]

The saddest or strangest part is the children who can't recognise each vegetable.  Come on!  Apparently it is the same here.  What do they look at in the veg section of the supermarket?

An interesting point, Alexis!  But if you think that most French children are imprisoned in school 9-5 from about the age of 3, most of them probably don't even go to supermarkets!   Parents with any sense try to do their shopping in their child-free hours.   Those with no time or no sense go on the mass family outings to Carrefour on a Saturday and clog all the roads up for miles around, and I'll bet they don't do veg-identifying lessons on their way round!

[Boghound]

When I first read this post....I thought it was some sort of joke....but no...alas...it wasn't.

The only award Oliver should get...is a skewer up his rectum....for being the most irritating person in the UK... and as far as school meals are concerned...Yeh right..kids in Britain are dropping like flies for the lack of nutrition...Another bandwagon for the election campaign and all the PC's back in the country that once upon a time truly deserved the name Great.

[chicfille]

Whether you like him or not, Jamie is a guy who uses his celebrity to do some good, not just to make pots of cash. It's just a shame it takes a famous face to rant in public to get something changed for the better. Also a shame that the reactionary politicians have hijacked the issue for a few votes. And no I don't believe they were going to do anything about it before Jamie's programme.

There is endless evidence to show that kids concentrate better at school and are calmer when they are fed properly. "You are what you eat" - it's not rubbish.  These kids may not be ill or "dropping like flies" yet, but they are storing up trouble for later in life. 

[Val_2]

Gay - your school dinners sounded just like mine in the 70's.I hated chocolate concrete with pink blamange! It was obviously better for us back then even with all the stodge and fatty meat because all us kids in my family would have our school meal and then another large family meal together at night and we were all really skinny in those days and very fit and healthy compared to most kids today. The same could be said here in France upto a few years ago when the local school dinners really went downhill and my kids refused them. At Lycée my boy takes sandwiches now because the food is so bad there is more waste than consumption.

[Miki]

I don't think Sir Jamie is actually standing at the elections Boggie, are you mixing him up with someone else?

Still a great country, even more so, if the lads from the Bridge can take the title !!

[Dick Smith]

As soon as someone does something positive and worthwhile - someone else slags him off...

 

What a lovely frame of mind.

[Furry Knickers]

When you slag someone off, is that when you rub them down with wet slags or is it the removal of slags from your person? Whatever it means, I shall never eat another chicken nugget again! I always wondered where a chickens nuggets were on the chicken anyway! and what about those prawn balls then?

If "you are what you eat" then I am a load of different things!

[steve@sarah]

yes, JO can be irritating, but then so can most people. At least he has done something about an issue he feels strongly about, not just sat and moaned.

Personally I feel school meals are only part of the problem- the real issue is why those children knew so little about food. Is it lack of "domestic science" in school, lazy/ ignorant parents who can't/ won't cook, the fast food McD culture????

The guides in the unit I run [age 10-14] have been discussing this programme over the last few weeks. The general consensus is that; how can any one not know what an onion looks like? and they hate turkey twizzlers!

Cooking is one of their most popular activities this terms recipes [chosen and designed by the girls] have included low fat broccoli and cheese pasta bake, mixed veg pasta salad with tuna, fruit smoothies and home made pizzas.Why this differance? Is it because they have found out for themselves how much fun good foog is? I don't know but at least it shows not all British kids live off junk.

Sarah 

[Boghound]

[quote]As soon as someone does something positive and worthwhile - someone else slags him off... What a lovely frame of mind.[/quote]

What's the "J-Arther" done that's positive...except for self puplicity....don't forget he got paid to make the programe...you certainly look well off school dinners Dick...or were you one of the "few" teachers that didn't eat them.

[BJSLIV]

I accept that any improvements in the standard of school meals must be welcome. However a few thoughts cross my mind.

1 Despite all the uproar, the food that is so criticised by JO is virtually identical to the stuff that many families eat, by choice in their own homes.

2 Has JO ever claimed to be anything other than a paid figurehead. All these programmes go through so many production companies etc etc; It would be interesting to know who really had the original idea.

3 Despite all the comments from Michael H, the biggest single cause of the decline in the quality of school meals, was the drive to contract out the service into the hands of outside caterers. Oh and while they were doing it they also abolished the standardised nutritional requirements. All this by Mrs T’s government of which he was a part. Incidentally the same privatisation that destroyed in-house cleaning of hospitals.

[benson]

back in the UK I paid £1.90 per day per child for fish fingers and chips and such like the idea of healthy option food was a couple of slices of fruit as an optional extra.  often most of the food was gone before all the children had eaten reducing the choice even further.

Here in France my kids love dinner time 3 courses  masses of choice and healthy too all for 1.75€ but they are forced to eat at least one bite of all the foods offered even if they say they don't like it.  Cruel??  The plus side to this is my fussy eater son has tried many foods he previuosly refused to eat or even try and now likes virtually everything.

Both my children of school age have been weighed, measured poked and proded for the last 2 years at school and I find it reassuring that possible problems that may have gone un-noticed will be picked up on.  It is of course then left to the parents to decide wether or how to act on the findings.

Yes exercise plays a big part in being healthy and now we live here with more 'garden' space and it being much more safe for my children to play outside thats what they do. No more computers and T.V!!! well almost!!!

[Miki]

BJ said ".. Despite all the uproar, the food that is so criticised by JO is virtually identical to the stuff that many families eat, by choice in their own homes...".

But JO can do nothing about that can he, unless a miracle happens and he can eventually get through to the parents who do serve such awful fare to their kids, day in and day out. But surely it does make an awful lot of sense to try and change as many as possible, no one can ever claim a 100% success rate when it come to choice of eating but he obviously felt he might be able do something about the disgusting menu in many schools.

BJ said "..... Has JO ever claimed to be anything other than a paid figurehead. All these programmes go through so many production companies etc etc; It would be interesting to know who really had the original idea.

"

And if what was him ? Don't forget he has family and friends with kids at school and his own kids will be enjoying the culinary delights one day, so he was probably quite aware of the state of meals at school !

Paid figure head is to demean his quite obvious annoyance at the muck often served up at school and his intention to TRY and do something about it. Those chicken twizzels or whatever they were and the nuggets ! Come on, what kind of awful crap is that, would you eat it and if not, should the people in Britain expect their kids to suffer it ? ?

We mustn't forget, this lad can earn a lot more money for doing far less than campaigning for better food for the kids, that's for sure. I personally feel he really believes in this. I don't think he will stand for any political postulating from any party, he wants the job done and doesn't give a monkeys which party is in power.

BJ said "..... Despite all the comments from Michael H, the biggest single cause of the decline in the quality of school meals, was the drive to contract out the service into the hands of outside caterers. Oh and while they were doing it they also abolished the standardised nutritional requirements. All this by Mrs T’s government of which he was a part. Incidentally the same privatisation that destroyed in-house cleaning of hospitals.... "

Couldn't agree more BJ, absolutely corrrect.

[Dick Smith]

"What's the "J-Arther" done that's positive...except for self puplicity....don't forget he got paid to make the programe...you certainly look well off school dinners Dick...or were you one of the "few" teachers that didn't eat them"

First of all the whole thing is positive, as was '15' - and on both deals he first lost money. Whether or not he'll make it back I don't know. Either way, the effect has been good.

What does the second and third part mean? Yes, Boggy, I'm overweight. Have a dig, there's a good school bully. I wear glasses as well...

At least you know my name, where I am, what I look like and do for a living. I don't hide behind anonymity to make puerile remarks.

What do you mean - one of the few teachers that didn't eat them? Like a lot of your posts that makes no sense at all, except that it is negative and insulting.

Who's the 'J. Arthur' (note spelling) around here?