Jamie Oliver was on TV. He’s starting a “revolution”, he says, and to his credit he’s trying it in Huntington, WV, not in California. And, even more to his credit, Alice Waters isn’t anywhere to be found.
Since the piece aired last night, I’ve had a lot more calls and SMSes than usual. Basically it’s what I’ve been saying for a while, just coming from a more handsome and better connected chef (with a really cute accent, no less). One that isn’t afraid to cry on TV. And one that treats people with respect. After all the hubbub I went and watched it myself.
Jamie Oliver is OK in my book. He believes strongly in better nutrition for children, he uses his fame to bring upon change, and he isn’t the kind of guy who would try to parlay this crusade into big bucks. And, unlike Waters or Pollan, he’s a chef. He really knows how it feels to spend time in the trenches.
But he got me thinking again. Do we really need “edible schoolyards” as our first step? Do we really need to open “Jamie’s Kitchen” in cities around the country (the place was renamed “Huntington’s Kitchen” after Oliver left, and I hearsay he’s not been seen there or heard of there since the crews packed up)?
Fixing our school lunches sounds hard. Even harder when seen through the editorial discretion of a producer like Ryan Seacrest who really hyped the animosity and angst in Huntington. Even the radio DJ notes in an interview that he was originally thought to be a quick side-line but then asked to be confrontational by the producers and edited to look even more of a jerk.
This is a topic insanely near and dear to my heart. A simple day at any school in your neighborhood will give even the most hard core junk food fan the heebie jeebies. But then, can we really blame the schools for taking the quick and easy route? Should we hold them accountable for following orders? Can we blame them for slowly killing our children?
Maybe.
Tomes have been written on this topic. Often by people much smarter than me, using editors to make them sound eloquent, and hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their message heard. Schools are, so sayeth the food cognoscenti, our first line of defense against obesity and childhood diabetes. Not to mention bad dental health, heart problems, and fat people taking up more than their space on the flight from Dallas to SJC.
I beg to differ. Schools, their superintendents, the people staffing the USDA which writes the guidelines for school lunches, all those exist and perish by the people and through the people. In other words, they’re elected or appointed by elected officials.
Huntington wasn’t just Oliver’s choice thanks to grumpy lunch ladies and angry superintendents, it was – and is – the country’s “unhealthiest city”. Yet, the same agency releasing the report on this issue, the CDC, also wrote a large part of the USDA’s school nutrition manual – which Huntington follows to the letter.
An emotional Jamie Oliver learns that Huntington, WV, isn't like London, UK.
School lunches are made to be convenient. Easy to produce, easy to ship (yes, Virginia (West), your food comes from pinko commie California), easy to re-heat, and easy to eat. So easy, in fact, most fourth-graders do not know how to use a fork and knife while eating. Reflect on that for a second. Ten year old children, eating self-directed for eight years, have never eaten anything that required anything but a spoon. Does that scare only me?
Can we change America’s school lunches via Jamie Oliver’s revolution? If nothing else, he opened a lot of hearts and minds to his cause. People think about school food, healthy children, healthy diets, much more than they did even a few months ago. It will be inevitable that some of the usual profiteers will stick their well-edited heads into this debate. There’s a buck to be made, after all.
But that shouldn’t deter us. Change doesn’t come from up high, and change doesn’t come from a TV show. But what Oliver did, and for this we must be grateful, is start this debate. Even the “foodie” crowd has found a few new slogans to cry whenever food is mentioned, thanks to TED. And that’s great.
But the work for us, the real experts in food, the true handlers of our nation’s dining and eating habits, work has just begun.
If we want to ride the wave of positive thinking, want to use Oliver’s kickstart to really create change, we have to do it now. We have to start in the community kitchens of this country. The PTA meetings. The town halls, the open mike nights, the blogs and newspapers.
So, please. Be my companion, critic, and tell me what you think in the following days and weeks. I will try to dump some brain every day, from sources of our school lunch to education, responsibility, and how we, as chefs, diners, foodies, people of all walks of life, can affect and change this rather bad situation.
If you know me, you know that this has been a focus of mine for quite some time now. But, as the great Yogi Berra once said, “when you come to a fork in the road, take it”. Thanks to Jamie Oliver we’re at this fork in the road. Try it, next time you meet someone new – chances are they have heard of it and have their own ideas. And I, for one, don’t intend to let this opportunity go to waste.
School food brain dump http://bit.ly/bFNvD4
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School food brain dump: Not to mention bad dental health, heart problems, and fat people taking up more than their… http://bit.ly/aYB152
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mirepoix.org – School food brain dump http://bit.ly/btd3OY a great read for anyone in the food industry. serving our children
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School food brain dump: Jamie Oliver was on TV. He’s starting a “revolution”, he says, and to his credit he’s tryi… http://bit.ly/aYB152
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
School food brain dump http://bit.ly/aYB152
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
School food brain dump http://bit.ly/cbPR4W
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
School food brain dump http://bit.ly/cbPR4W
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Jamie Oliver was on TV. He’s starting a “revolution”, he says, and to his credit he’s trying it in Huntington, WV,… http://bit.ly/aYB152
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Jamie Oliver was on TV. He’s starting a “revolution”, he says, and to his credit he’s trying it in Huntington, WV,… http://bit.ly/aYB152
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
A great and thoughtful reflection on Jamie Oliver’s show & school food reform. http://bit.ly/bOxNLc via @wildhunt #foodrevolution
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@wildhunt Great article. I like how you think… http://bit.ly/bOxNLc
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Just want to say thanks for the great article. There is lots of work to do to make change for school nutrition at all levels – local, state and national. We need more thoughtful reflections and more people rolling up their sleeves. Thanks for the great article.
A great read! RT @healthyschools: Jamie Oliver’s show & school food reform. http://bit.ly/bOxNLc via @wildhunt #foodrevolution
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Check out thoughts from Chef @wildhunt on the subject of @jamie_oliver’s Food Revolution: http://bit.ly/dr1v97 http://bit.ly/cNJbVd
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School Food Brain Dump: thoughts on Jamie Oliver http://bit.ly/dr1v97
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Let’s hope that Jamie O can get this revolution a kickstart in our communities.
Real change starts from the grassroots.
http://www.betterschoolfood.com/jamie-revolution-started/
easy steps to fixing school lunches:
1) Don’t trust the government to fix it. Remember, they gave us what we already have.
2) Relying on nutritionists to tell us how to eat healthfully is a bit like being blown about by the winds. Besides, they are either on the government payroll, or they are writing a book on nutrition. When I was a child, margarine was supposed to be ever so much better for you than butter. Now it seems that mainlining lard into your veins is superior to dabbing a bit of margarine on your toast.
3) Don’t trust government to fix it. Remember, they determined that ketchup and french fries are vegetables.
4) Fix the problem locally. First fix it at home by growing as much of your own food supply as you can. Buy locally when you can. Learn to cook real food. It isn’t really that hard. Do whatever you can to change your own eating habits and your family’s. Then go to the schools and tell them you want food produced locally, not from some centralized kitchen four States away. Let them know that you want real food, organic as much as possible, grass fed, pasture raised meats, foods not manufactured, but cooked. Expect the price to go up.
5) Don’t trust the government to fix it. Remember, they seem to bathe in unintended consequences.