Written by Hannah Hughes (Februay 2006)

Introduction

Many people have taken an active role in society and campaigned to change the views of either their local or national government.
In this essay I plan to look at chef Jamie Oliver who campaigned for the government to make changes to school dinners so that children have a better chance of growing up to be health human beings.
I shall explain Jamie's campaign, what steps he took to make changes to the school menus and how the government has reacted to this latest issue.

The Problem with school meals
The Oxford English Dictionary defines junk food as, 'Food with little nutritional value.'
Many know that junk food isn't particularly harmful when eaten in moderation, however this has become the main feature of school menu's throughout the whole country giving pupils the opportunity to eat the low value foods five days a week.
A school meal consisting of refined sugars, fat, salt, colourings, preservatives, artificial flavourings and artificial sweeteners does not only lead to obesity, it also creates low levels of concentration in children and as a consequence impairs their ability to learn.
As mentioned obesity has also become a major issue where children are concerned as 15% of children under 11 years of age are obese and are likely to stay obese into adulthood, according to scientists this is the first generation expected to die before their parents.
It is because of this issue that Jamie Oliver decided to take an active role in society and so set up the 'feed me better' campaign to try and revolutionise children's attitude towards food.

The Feed Me Better Campaign

The main aim of the campaign is to make radical changes to the school meals system and aims to challenge a society obsessed with junk food by showing schools that they can serve healthy and nutritious meals that are cheap and the pupils will eat.
Mood, behaviour, health, growth and even the ability to concentrate is affected by the foods we eat. Therefore it is vital that school meals provide a child with a third of their daily nutritional intake, however many school meals don't.

Jamie Oliver started his campaign after realising how little children knew about food, how things taste and what certain vegetables look like.
Jamie believed this could be mainly due to the fact that food is not learned about at schools and many children snack and eat convenience foods and are unlikely to have ever seen a meal freshly prepared.
Manifesto for change
In order to start the campaign Jamie needed a manifesto stating what he was going to set out to do and what he hoped to achieve. Jamie Oliver decided to set up a simple five step manifesto outlining what he hoped to achieve and how he would win over England's school children.

'The meals the Day'
A school meal should provide children with a third of their daily nutritional intake. It's because of this that Jamie Oliver wants to introduce meals that contain fresh produce and provides children with proteins, minerals and vitamins that are needed for health and growth.

'Ban The Junk'
Suppliers to Scottish schools had to reinvent their food products because it did not meet their new basic standards. Therefore it as to be asked, what are school children in England eating?
Jamie hopes to set new standards for school meals which as a result would wipe a lot of junk food off of the school menu's and include catering in Ofsted school inspections.

'Big Love to Dinner Ladies'
Considering these are the people that are responsible for feeding our children we should invest in them.
This could be achieved by investing money in training so that every new cook has a basic level of cooking and food preparation skills. The training will also keep them motivated and up to date with the latest nutritional advice and kitchen management skills.
As a result they will feel proud of their work, feel like making a difference and make the job of a dinner lady a 'true vocation.'

'Teach Kids about food'
This involves introducing food education back into schools as many children do not know what a vegetable looks like let alone how to cook it.
This could be achieved by linking lessons across the curriculum to the school dinner menu and teach children that food does not simply come from a packet.

'Double the Money'
On average dinner ladies have between 35p and 45p (the cost of a packet of crisps) to spend on each meal. In reality dinners ladies need at least double that (70p per child) to provide a nutritional meal. therefore Jamie Oliver aims to get the government to provide extra funding for school meals, overtime for dinner ladies, money for extra staff training and better kitchen facilities.
How It took off
In order to achieve his aims, Chef Jamie Oliver decided to make a four part TV series called "Jamie's School Dinners" as it was hoped that the show would grab the attention of the media and in return put pressure on the government to make a change.
Jamie Oliver started off the campaign by signing himself up as a dinner lady with Kidbrooke School, Greenwich, to revitalise the meals that were currently being offered to the pupils by using a budget of just 37p per child.

Jamie soon realised that this was going to be his toughest challenge yet. The head dinner lady, Nora, was less than impressed with Jamie's attitude towards her work, the pupils were crying and their parents resorted to sneaking burgers between the school gates.
However by the end of the series Jamie Oliver had won over the local council, the caterers and unbelievably the pupils.
He showed that it is possible to replace junk food with a healthy nutritious meal using a budget of just 37p per child.
However a lack of funding from the government was a serious problem.

Therefore the feed me better website was created where anyone could log on and show their support for the campaign. The aim was to get at least 10,000 people to sign an online petition that Jamie would then take to Downing Street.

After a week, the petition received 25,000 signatures and soon went on to receive a massive total of 200,000 signatures. The computers hosting the website was unable to cope with the demand and at one point over 200 people were signing per minute. Over 5 million people visited the site while the TV show was on air and parents, teachers and dinner ladies logged onto the forums with stories and suggestions on how to make a difference.

Jamie's campaign was on the front pages of all the papers and appeared on the likes of Parkinson. Celebrities such as Kenzie from Blazin' Squad, McFly, Ellen McArthur and Chelsea's Frank Lampard all publicly showed their support for the campaign.

The campaign had even hit the newspapers in the US and the Lancet backed the campaign by stating, "Jamie Oliver has done more for the public health of our children than a corduroy army of health promotion workers or a £100m Saatchi & Saatchi campaign,"

Four days after the broadcast of the last episode, and just over a month after the campaign launched, Jamie delivered one of the biggest ever web petitions to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street. All these people had signed up their support for Jamie's motion to ban the junk and get healthy food back on the menu. Tony Blair thanked Jamie for his "remarkable work" and announced that the government would take immediate action over school meals.

There were plans to rebuild school kitchens and train dinner ladies.£280 million was pledged to raise the average cost per child per meal from 37p to 50p for primary schools and 60p for secondary schools across the country.

Since the program, Greenwich council has distributed Jamie Oliver's menu to all its 56 schools in the borough and the Mayor of London, Ken Livingston, has bought a Feed Me Better starter pack for every school in London which provides guidelines for schools to follow.

As a result of the campaign schools will be required to offer nutritious hot meals to pupils under proposals by Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, to "transform" the quality of lunches.
This occurred as Ms Kelly stated that an extra £220 million would be spent on funding school meals raising the amount spent per pupil to 50p for primary school children and 60p for secondary schools. In addition £60 million will go towards creating School Food Trusts to help advise parents and schools on how to create healthy nutritious meals.

Conclusion
Chef Jamie Oliver has shown a true act of Active Citizenship and has made a dramatic impact on the types of meals served to children in England.
He cleverly used the media and the public as a pressure group to pressurise the government into making changes to school meals so that the next generation will not be expected to die before their parents.
Not only will the health of the children dramatically improve, the nutritional information will control the behaviour of the pupils, stop hyperactivity and increase the concentration in class, thus, helping them learn more effectively. Surely this can only be a good change.