BB FANS

The chips are down

By GRAHAM KEAL :The SUN

DINERS in his top restaurants demand the best from Jamie Oliver, but preparing the lunches at a London school introduced the star chef to his most critical customers yet!

In four-part series Jamie’s School Dinners, he tries to replace junk food with healthy options. But getting the pupils at Kidbrooke Comprehensive in Greenwich onside is no cakewalk.

They don’t want Jamie’s fresh pasta, Thai curry or chickpea soup, preferring burgers, chips and pizza.

“I met kids who didn’t know what a potato looked like because they ate chips every day!” says Jamie. “I’ve spent a year on this. It’s been tough, but it’s the most important thing I’ve ever done.”

There are tantrums as Jamie and head dinner lady Nora Sands wean pupils off the junk and on to meals that do them good.

“Cheap burgers and sausages are made from rubbish you really don’t want to eat,” says Jamie, 29. “But we’re still surprised when kids grow up with allergies, heart problems and diabetes.”

Later in the series, Jamie tries to change the eating habits of younger children at a primary school in Peterlee, Co Durham.

Caring for daughters Poppy Honey, two, and Daisy Boo, one, made Jamie want to transform school grub.

“I now appreciate how important it is to feed kids well while their bones, skin and immune systems are developing,” says Jamie, who lives with wife Jools and the girls in north London.

Though health issues are important, Jamie is on a tight budget and his spending soon earns him a trip to the head’s office at Kidbrooke.

Each meal’s ingredients must cost no more than 37p, but Jamie’s Thai curry, for example, costs £1.10 a head. Jamie remains determined, though.

“Politicians won’t spend money on good food for kids,” he fumes. “Yet they happily pour fortunes into the NHS to repair the damage bad food causes. It’s a scandal.”

Jamie's School Dinners starts on Wednesday at 9pm.

I think Jamie Oliver is wonderful - what he did with his '15' project was very generous, and the School Dinners idea is another example of how he cares about people, as well as the quality of the food they eat.

But naming your kid Daisy Boo?

Feb 20 2005 :Sunday Mirror
By Tim Rider And Danielle Lawler

JAMIE Oliver's plans to revolutionise school dinners are a non-starter...because they take too long to make.

Even if he does get the extra funding - his meals cost 10p more than the current allowance of 37p per pupil - dinner ladies say they do not have enough hours in the day to scrape and peel the mountains of fresh fruit and veg his recipes need.

Jamie spent nearly a year working at Kidbrooke Comprehensive School in Greenwich, South London, and other schools across the borough for his new Channel 4 programme Jamie's School Dinners.

He replaced processed meats, frozen pizzas, potato smiley faces and more than a quarter of a ton of chips a week with freshly-prepared dishes like herb-crusted fish, roast loin of pork, cous cous and home-made bread.

Now he wants to roll out his scheme nationwide, replacing processed, frozen food with fresh produce. But his ideas have sent budgets through the roof - the 10p rise would cost an extra £128,000 at Kidbrooke alone - and dinner ladies say kitchen resources are already stretched near to breaking point.

Nora Sands, head chef at Kidbrooke School, said: "We simply do not have enough time to prepare the meals.

"We desperately need more hours and more money to make it work." Essex-born Jamie is now calling on Greenwich council - and others around the country - to increase funding for school meals.

He said: "I'm not asking for a lot of money but it could change the whole foundation of how we do food in schools.

"Councils have spent millions on road safety measures like sleeping policemen to save children's lives - and that's great - but they could spend far less money on healthy school meals with the same aim."

But Jamie could face embarrassment when Greenwich councillors vote on Wednesday - the night his new show goes out - on whether to spend more money on school meals. Council spokesman Andrew Stern said: "It's a straight political choice - more money for school meals means less money for something else...like books. Either that, or council tax would have to rise."

One councillor said: "There is no way this is going to get through - we simply can't afford it.

"OLD MENU"
-Fish feet with smiley faces & processed peas
-Pizza & chips
-Burger, chips & beans
-Deep-fried sausage with chips & gravy
-Processed fish fingers with waffles
"JAMIE'S MENU"
-Mediterranean chicken & cous cous
-Roast loin of pork with thyme and red onion gravy & mash
-Fish in curried coconut sauce
-Herb-crusted fillet of fish & green salad
-Courgette foccacia