robskatie

For those who read about Jamie Olivers push for better school lunches in the UK the series is being shown on TLC http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/ja...=netmain_feat1
first part was last week but is repeated tonight at 7pm and second part is at 8pm, anything that tries to better food for kids must be worth a look

Partystar

It'll never work here.

britvic

Thanks for the tip, I will be watching or rather taping, no adverts spoiling my viewing

robskatie

Unfortunately

AmerLisa

Maybe not, but I'm a Jamie Oliver fan, can't wait to watch it.

Partystar

Yeah, it's sad. I feel that a lot of parents need to back this sort of thing, but as they are the main problem in the first place, I just don't see it happening. Plus a lot of kids here are allowed to leave campus at lunchtime, which makes it very easy to get crap food, that won't help matters either.

Partystar

I'll bet you $10! It's an impossible task, Jamie is lovely, but he's not a miracle worker!

robskatie

He did a show that I watched thanks to uknova recently, he was in Italy and visited a school there, the kids had a fresh pasta dish with salad or veggies and fresh bread every day for the same amount per head as the UK schools, all the kids in the pre-k class knew the names of all the vegetables, artichoke, aubergine, asparagus etc, bet the kids in my daughters pre-k wouldn't have a clue what they were, let alone what they tasted like

AmerLisa

Did the pre-k kids in the UK know all the names?

robskatie

No, as far as I understood, but he was in inner city London in one of the poorest districts....

Jan Alaska

watched it last week, wont spoil your viewing but i thought it was pretty entertaining.

woodsey

absolutely not..I find it to be the complete opposite here and maybe its because California isn't as bad as other places in the US but kids here know the names of fruit and vegetables that I've never heard of before..
Jamie Oliver deserves some respect for what he''s trying to acheive but on the other hand how can he put his name to the so called healthy kids meals that Sainsbury's sell..fat and salt loaded junk.

AmerLisa

My daughter is pre-K and I think well fed. We don't do fast food, except on rare occasions, we always pack lunches, make dinners, etc. She's always been a big veggie eater, we encourage that. But, we mainly stick with the veg that we know she likes, as she gets older we'll introduce her to more (right now its a struggle to get her to eat a mushroom ) Certainly she knows, peas, carrots, broccoli, cucumber, lettuce and cauliflower. But, I would imagine a lot of kids would know what most of those are. I can't imagine too many would know an aubergine or artichoke. We have made asparagus, but I don't think very many would make that as it can be a bit expensive.

What I don't like about school lunches is that they offer so many carbs and nothing fresh (with a rare exception of apples, broccoli and carrots - the latter offered up with a drenching of ranch dressing! ) You'd think in a public school you'd get some sort of a nutritious lunch, especially the children that are in a lower income setting. Certainly those children might not get a balanced meal at home. But, in saying that, after watching some of these programs with parents settling on fast food for dinner, I wonder about all kids in general. Anyone watch "Honey We're Killing The Kids" ?

BigDavyG

Rushman wil be happy about this - he models himself on Jamie Oliver by all accounts

Sally

The lunches in middle school in this district are either nachos, pizza or "Pick up Stix" (chicken and rice I believe) on a Thursday. When we were being shown around the school the assistant Pricipal said how great it was that the children got "food they liked". Mums exchanged horrified looks. It's annoying because I have to dream up healthy packed lunches for the kids.