Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution

I watched the show and was totally shocked when Jamie was holding up veggies in front of the class and asking the students the names of the veggies and they didn't have a clue!
I bet a lot of the parents watching the show were doing the same thing the next day...quizzing their children! How sad. A good wake-up call for parents.

He doesn't sound working class to me, but then I'm from Salford

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I saw something nasty in the woodshed

How long before they understood you in the U.S.?

In the 1950's, I was one of the few students who qualified for the "reduced" cost of the school meals--I was given a job helping the cooks each morning by hauling the daily orders from the storeroom underneath the bleachers, on a little red wagon, down to the kitchen. I was also required to keep stock and move it around after the truck driver delivered it each day. Fascinating job, it was.... Actually, all of us farm kids qualified in those days, just, I was more severely qualified than most, hence the 'token' job in return for free meals....

The school lunch program was started as a way to use up the vast surplus of food after WWII that the government had created by the crop support programs. A lot of our food was made from scratch, some came out of No. 10cans(usually Early June Peas or Del Monte Whole Kernel Corn or McMahan-Leib private label green beans, or Frazier--now Red Gold, tomatos and tomato sauce from the local rat cannery, we called it...)--and a lot of stuff that came in huge ten pound tins(American Cheese) or burlap sacks, such as Kidney Beans or Pinto Beans, flour, potatoes, and cornmeal. We also got Grade A, whole, Vitamin D milk in pint bottles with the waxed cardboard tops that had little tabs to lift up for the straws. We also got Wonder Bread, all white, of course, in the popular waxed paper sacks that we begged for each day to sit on and ride down the slide, making it slicker with each trip down. And fresh, real creamery butter every day.

Two things: they were "cooks", not lunch ladies, then, and PIZZA had not yet been discovered in Indiana. Oh yes, we got our first taste of orange juice from frozen concentrate in about the sixth grade..... And "Bird's Eye" frozen TV dinners had to wait awhile until we all got televisions at home.....

Our cooks did a pretty good job of making some pretty good palatible food from all that surplus. We had standard farm fare--lots of stews with potatoes, ham and beans--lots of beans, Hungarian goulash, (to use up the Kidney beans, lots of real mashed or parsleyed, buttered boiled potatoes, cornbread, sheet cakes for desert, macaroni and cheese, with ham bits in it. Once in awhile chicken drumsticks--never nuggets---or pot pies filled with peas, carrots, and green beans, topped with thick biscuit crust. And always, bread & butter, celery and carrot sticks, and even an apple. Many times, a cookie or two in the afternoon with our second bottle of milk.

And even though we had only one Catholic family in our school, we had macaroni and cheese, or salmon patties, it seemed, every Friday.

What more could a hungry kid ask for? And it lasted right through the chores till supper time.

geo

DH and I have been watching the show online in the evenings. We've really enjoyed watching it.

My jaw dropped when those young children couldn't identify a potato or tomato. I can understand if some of them don't know what an eggplant or turnip is because they don't seem to be as common a vegetable as others, but potatoes (french fries) and tomatoes (salad or burger with tomato on it) are everywhere. You know that probably every child in that school has been fed french fries and burgers with tomatoes..they just don't think about what is getting put in their mouth. They eat automatically, without thought.

Our family ate the Standard American Diet of processed foods and fast food up until a year ago. I was surprised at how difficult it was to transition over to cooking with whole foods, no processed stuff. I didn't have a clue how to bake bread from scratch. Even something as simple as making oats on the stovetop was foreign to me. When all you've ever been exposed to is WonderBread and small envelopes of microwave oats, you lack the knowledge on how to do anything differently. At least I knew how to boil water and throw noodles in there for spaghetti. I don't think it's too much of an exaggeration to worry that young people today won't even know how to cook spaghetti noodles. If all they're exposed to is canned spaghettios or microwavable mac and cheese, then how will they even know how to do the basics of boiling noodles?

It's sad the amount of research and trial and error that I've gone through just to learn simple cooking tasks that used to be common knowledge for women in past generations. Just like candle-making, soap-making, and sewing used to be common everyday skills that are now virtually unheard of, "from scratch" cooking is already on its way to being a lost art.

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www.SAHMville.blogspot.com

Lol..years

My DH still has a hard time understanding my Dad on the phone

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I saw something nasty in the woodshed

Huntington, WV is only 45 minutes from me, a place we visit often. So these are pretty much "our people". The radio station guy, is OUR radio station guy...so it's really hitting home for me. I'm glued to the tv when it's on. My kids are not allowed to buy school lunches. They are disgusting. I graduated only 7 years ago, and surely not much has changed. The food didn't change my entire 13 years in school!

My feelings are that proper eating habits should start at home. Kids should be used to having proper nutrition. Schools should ONLY offer healthy food. As for the kids throwing away the food, did you hear what Jamie said? In England, he would have sent the kids back to the table to finish their food. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN HERE.

I understand the time and budget thing. Literally a week before this show aired, I was researching nutrition on my own. I'm now thinking twice about everything I'm giving my kids. When I go to the grocery store this week, there will be many different things that will go into my buggy! I KNOW my grocery bill is going to go up, but I think it's worth it. So, obviously the food budget for public schools need to be increased. And you know what else? Schools could raise their own food. How educational would it be for kids to have part of science class outside tending to a veggie garden? They could also raise chickens and other smaller animals (high schoolers). They learn where food comes from, learn how to tend garden/animals, keep their minds clean by getting their hands dirty, have more nutritious food and cut down food costs. But again, IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN.

I also know that especially in this area, there are many, many kids that only get fed while at school. Offering only healthy options, they would eat it. It follows the philosophy of "eat what you are offered or be hungry". Most would rather eat it.

I hate to contribute to thread drift, but I just had to reply to this one. I remember the mimeograph machines from when I was in elementary school. The purple print, and the smell. Do any of you remember the smell the fresh copies had?

Kendallj,
yes I remember those lovely machines. I had to run them for awhile before the school had the budget to get a commercial xerox machine. I can still remember the sound of it turning, ba bum, ba bum. I rather liked the smell, but then I like the smell of gasoline!

One other note,
most schools now have thier food trucked in from a main kitchen. It is cooked early in the morning, put into electric hot carts at 8 am and then hits the road. They arrive at the school an hour before serving time and plugged back in. Even in our small town, which has a kitchen to cook from, the main course is trucked in. It's all about the budget.

Mimeograph machines used BLUE STENCILS that you typed on and printed with black ink. DUPLICATOR machines used PURPLE STENCILS and alcohol and printed in purple.

I know!!! No idea what a tomato or a potato were?!!?? Hard to believe.

One day last summer when my nephew from California was here visiting, we all went out to harvest potatoes. He stood on the bare ground looking all around confused (for potato bushes?) because he didn't know they were underground. But at least he knew what they looked like!

Rose,
I think you hit the nail on the head. I work at a school that does a bit better than the WV school, however, children are limited to about 20 minutes for their meal-they like to socialize too-so they may or may not have the time or the setting to try diffrent foods.

Also-Jamie said he would send them back to the table in England-with the American philosphy of individual rights I'm sure our school systems would say "OH no we can't send them back! It's their CHOICE to eat or not to eat".
Sending them back until they try something is a great idea! I'm sure there are other ways to encourage students to eat diffrent-that wouldn't be allowed, because we couldn't step on toes!

Another thought-school systems are so geared to testing and meeting specific standards today that there is little room for things such as what vetgetables look like, how to use a knife and fork. Hurray for the classroom teacher that took the time to work veggies into her classroom. She probably had to document how it meet a specific standard. Hopefully soon she will work tasting the veggies into the lesson plan too. My daughter loves kiwis because her school took the time to apply for a grant that brought a fresh fruit and veggie snack to their school room everyday for a whole school year.

Here's hoping that shows like JOFR and Biggest Looser beging to get widespread attention for the information that Michale Pollen and others have been writing a preaching about for the last 5 years.

Let's all take babysteps toward chaning how America eats. I know I'll be rethinking the way I approach students in the lunch room. I'll be rethinking my own kitchen too-which is pretty darn good at fresh food, but always can use the encouragement to freshen up even more.

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Gardening in the high plains of Cheyenne
www.christinemccreedy.blogspot.com

I went to a meeting with school cooks yesterday. As of this morning's email, I'm picking up a fourth school. I'll be growing for four elementary and one high school. We're starting this spring. One of the cooks has been at this for a long time. She's going to try to get the kids to eat Brussels sprouts. She's also going to make roasted root vegetables for them in the winter. She got the youngest kids to eat red cabbage by putting it in coleslaw and telling the kids it was Easter slaw.

Some of the requirements from the cooks: salad has to be ready to be opened and put on the salad bar or serving bowl; all vegetables have to be clean and ready to cook because they don't have time to scrub; delivery has to be on a specific day at a specific time with a little wiggle room as long as I don't delivery while they're cooking or serving.

I can't compete with some prices. They're getting commodity carrots for $4.50/20 lbs. I'd be better off turning them under than selling them at that price. I don't have the price on potatoes but I probably can't come close to that either out here in potato country.

During the meeting a kindergartner came in to get her snack milk. The conversation stopped and we watched her. She had a choice of strawberry, chocolate, whole, 2% and skim. Yellow label - she took skim.

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Robin

You know, it's really funny to me to see kids that don't eat veggies or don't even know what they are.

There's a simple rule at my house - you eat what is in front of you, or you go hungry. The second rule is that before you say "yuck" you have to try two bites.

As a result, I got brussels sprouts out of the freezer yesterday and the kids were VERY excited. They love them.

We went to Subway the other day (something we don't often do, but we were in a hurry) and my youngest, who is 8, asked for onions on his sub. The gal behind the counter didn't believe he wanted them, commented on it, then proceeded to put just a few on the sub. DS8 looked at me with this "what is wrong with this lady" look on his face and said - "I'm sorry, may I have some more onions please?" and I think she just about keeled over where she stood.

All of my children love salad and other veggies. I think part of it is also our attitudes towards the foods. I ALSO love salad and other veggies and don't feel like it's a chore to eat them, so I don't transmit that to my kids. I really think that has a lot to do with it.

But the school lunch thing is just gross. Our school is trying to do better, but here are some of the choices in April (and we have "choices")

April 12, Stuffed Baked Potato or Egg Roll or Chicken Nuggets or Chef Salad
April 13, Italian dunkers (huh?) or Berry Kix & Yogurt, or Hot Dog or Chef Salad
April 14, Golden baked chicken or Berry Kix & Yogurt, or Pizza or Chef Salad
April 15, Maple Pancakes or Berry Kix & Yogurt or Chicken Patty or Chef Salad
April 16, Mac N Cheese or Berry Kix & Yogurt or Pizza or Grilled Chicken Salad

So, I know there are salads...but...really? Berry Kix & Yogurt? For lunch?

Where's the link? I watched a bit on Youtube, but it only went part way through...very interesting though!

Here's the link from hulu (which I found to be slightly faster than abc's original link) http://www.hulu.com/jamie-olivers-food-revolution

25 years ago, approximately, our otherwise excellent school district in Alaska wanted to call ketchup a vegetable. All the parents had a fit, and they backed off.
Now I have a 6-year-old grandson who gets bribed to eat his meat. If he does, what does he get? A 3rd helping of broccoli!
I've always grown or caught most of our food and we all work together to plant, weed, harvest, prepare and eat our veggies. Also our meat, starches and deserts!
Unfortunately, just because we eat "properly" and well doesn't mean we're sveldt. Most of the adults in my family are big (both tall and wide), and spend a lot of time physically active, so I guess we can claim heredity - parents and grandparents were, also.
Kit