Saturday, April 17, 2010

Coffee Cake for Breakfast



A week or so ago I asked a lunch lady what she thought about Jamie Oliver's school lunch initiative. She didn't speak too positively of him. That was after I had spent my morning duty overseeing kids eating coffee cake and sugar-ladened chocolate milk for breakfast in our school cafeteria. I have been a fan of Jamie Oliver since the Naked Chef days... Several years ago he started a restaurant, Fifteen, in London, which "employs" young people trying to make a difference in their lives. Some time later, I watched a show chronicling how he was trying to transform the London school lunch program. What a brave soul...but he was successful. Now, he is in Huntington, West Virginia (supposedly the fattest city in the fattest state in the fattest country), revolutionizing the school lunch program. You have to give him credit for his enormous and contagious passion and concern about the health of children. It's not all passion, he is certainly trying to make money (check out his website where he sells kitchen and bathroom items) but I fully support his agenda in the schools... and bless him for trying to make a change....so many fight him even though you know they know he's right....

Jaimie Oliver's website

2 comments:

  1. I'm so on board with Jamie. But if your lunch lady didn't have anything nice to say and watching the show, I think it boils down to these people DON'T want to WORK! It's so easy to just pop chicken nuggets in the toaster oven. I remember all the women cooking when I was a kid in school, they worked hard, they new how to cook.

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  2. I think what's harder than just cooking is changing culture. People get stuck in what they do and don't easily change....that's what stops Jamie, from what I can see. They know he's right but they just can't come around. It takes a big person, I think, to embrace change. I so support him.

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