(no subject)

[pearwaldorf]

So I've got a bit of a strange recommendation for you. It's got Jamie Oliver in it, and it's about school lunches. But it's really good.

First, a bit of history. About twenty years ago, probably in Margaret Thatcher's mad privatization phase, the British government abdicated all responsiblity for ensuring that schoolchildren got nutritious meals. Consequently, the quality of school meals has declined until it's about, well, you've all likely been through a public school system. You know what cafeteria food is like. Apparently in England they have things called Smileys, which is basically a tater tot shaped like a happy face. They're really kinda scary, and emblematic of what the kids eat day in and day out. Apparently they also serve something called Turkey Twizzlers. Eep.

Bring in Jamie Oliver and his grand plan to reform the British school lunch system, all documented in a Channel 4 miniseries, conveniently accessible to all through the wonder of Bittorrent. The series is quite interesting, and it's also one of those exercises in cross-pond standards. He curses so fucking much, it's amusing, because he's so bubbly and cute in his stateside shows. Whatever you may say about his celebrity chef status and the tweeness of some of his shows, he is a genuinely good-hearted person who is using that celebrity power for some sort of good. And he's going to need it, because the allotted budget per pupil for a British school lunch is 37p. (According to the current exchange rates, that is 71 cents.) Apparently that is about half of what is allotted per person in the British prison system. Think about that. In Britain, they allot more money to feed convicts than to feed schoolchildren. Lest the Americans among us start feeling superior, do realize that school cafeterias are basically dumping grounds for meat that cannot be sold anywhere else because it is of such poor quality or infested with so much bacteria it cannot be sold in grocery stores. There is a great deal of information in Eric Schlosser's excellent (and exhaustively documented) book Fast Food Nation, which should be required reading for anybody who eats. So I highly urge you to download the TV show, if you can. If not, I can send you some CDs. Really, it's that interesting.

See also: Metafilter thread | The difference between a French and American school lunch menu

Comments

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

I've just seen a snippet about this show on the Beeb, where they interviewed the teachers in one of the schools Jamie'd gone to. Not only did he manage to make those kids proper meals for no more money than the fast food junk they got before (and they still get the proper food now), but the teachers were amazed at the change in the kids. Some of them had progressed a year in reading age in just one month of having proper lunches. And a lot of the parents took their cue from the school lunches and started serving healthier food at home, as well.

It's ... eye-opening, for sure.