Jamie Oliver''s Food Revolution...have you seen it?

[ksinger]

Date: 4/11/2010 4:30:19 PM
Author: susimoo

Date: 4/11/2010 4:19:37 PM
Author: Zoe
Susi -- I thought Jamie Oliver began his show in the UK. No?


This is an interesting, and I enjoy reading everyone''s thoughts and perspectives. Octavia -- thank you for sharing your knowledge about the food industry.


If we asked the people who determine what gets sent to our schools if they would serve that food to their own children or if they''d eat it themselves, I bet most people''s answer would be ''no.'' Susi, I definitely agree with what you said. Teaching children about healthy eating should begin at home and then carried over into schools. I do know that many schools have adopted wellness policies, and they''ve gotten away from allowing teachers to have parties involving unhealthy food. Some schools say it''s okay to give cupcakes or something similar as a special treat once a month, and others only want fruits and veggies served. I do think some effort is being made, but not enough.

Sorry for the typo''s!! I was doing it whilst administering supper to a 4 year old! Which was porridge, by the way. Her choice!

Education MUST begin at home. Teachers do an amazing job but it should be complimentary to what is going on at home. I for one refuse to blame a school for any of the wrong doings in our society. Parents must be accountable to their children!! It is parents jobs to lay the ground rules not a school or a teacher. We must start this revolution, AT HOME!!

Ps Yes the programme idea started in the UK but I was replying to the original poster who I belive was refering to the US version which I have not yet watched.

I think I''m in love with you right now.

 

[ksinger]

Susimo - bravo to you. You hit the nail on the head. you are far more influenced by home than by school. And you are exactly right that there is no simple answer, though that certainly won''t stop our endless pie-in-the-sky search for one here across the pond. Americans love **SOLUTIONS**, and the promise of quick fixes, and it''s only gotten worse in the digital age. We want fixes NOW!!!!!! That magic bullet MUST exist!! IT MUST!!

Bella_mezzo - yes! Until America addresses in a very honest way the huge disparities between the haves and the have-nots, and acknowledges that POVERTY is driving the lion''s share of our educational problems, we won''t be able to fix the problems. And until we admit that the breakdown happened PRIOR to the child''s arrival at school, we will continue to treat (poorly and ineffectively) the symptom and NOT the illness. The problems must be addressed at all levels or we will simply continue to limp along or decline even more.

I truly hope some of you take the time to read the document I linked above. It is over 50 pages, but it is an excellent explantion of what my husband - as a highschool teacher in a tough urban highschool, deals with every day.

 

[galeteia]

Date: 4/11/2010 6:27:41 PM
Author: ksinger

Susimo - bravo to you. You hit the nail on the head. you are far more influenced by home than by school. And you are exactly right that there is no simple answer, though that certainly won''t stop our endless pie-in-the-sky search for one here across the pond. Americans love **SOLUTIONS**, and the promise of quick fixes, and it''s only gotten worse in the digital age. We want fixes NOW!!!!!! That magic bullet MUST exist!! IT MUST!!

Bella_mezzo - yes! Until America addresses in a very honest way the huge disparities between the haves and the have-nots, and acknowledges that POVERTY is driving the lion''s share of our educational problems, we won''t be able to fix the problems. And until we admit that the breakdown happened PRIOR to the child''s arrival at school, we will continue to treat (poorly and ineffectively) the symptom and NOT the illness. The problems must be addressed at all levels or we will simply continue to limp along or decline even more.

I truly hope some of you take the time to read the document I linked above. It is over 50 pages, but it is an excellent explantion of what my husband - as a highschool teacher in a tough urban highschool, deals with every day.

The magic bullet addiction is partly why the US is in the current obesity predicament. Why spend 20 minutes preparing a stir fry when you can throw something in the microwave for 5 minutes, or drive to a nearby fast-food joint and pick up food ready-made?

I really liked the segment where he brought the parents to the school to show them what the school was feeding them. The school isn''t at fault, but I imagine the parents will think twice about giving the kids more junk for dinner, knowing that they''ve likely eaten what SHOULD be ''treat'' food for breakfast AND lunch already! Remember the kids who had eaten chicken nuggets for dinner the night before? Imagine a child eating pizza and chicken nuggets for all 3 meals in a day. No wonder their health is a mess!

Parents cannot rely on schools to raise their kids for them. I can see that it''s more efficient for Jaime to tackle the schools as the fastest way to attack the problem from one angle at least, and it worked in the UK; but I''m glad that the show has shifted now to the town as a whole, because that''s where the change has to be made.

Also, observing the favourite dishes down here in the South, which has the worst obesity rates, is that people are still cooking the dishes you''d make if you were going out to work in the fields all day, except they''re sitting at a desk in front of a computer. Those meals make sense if you''re going to be doing back-breaking hard labour all day, but they''re a deathwish if you''re sedentary.

 

[PumpkinPie]

We don''t have cable so I haven''t seen the show, but I love the concepts and think it''s a fabulous idea for many country''s school systems including here in Canada

 

[deegee]

I just had to share -

I was in the produce section at the grocery store (in Huntington) tonight, and I saw so many parents picking out fresh fruits and veggies with their children. It was awesome! Someone even asked me how to tell if something was ripe. Even hubby noticed that the produce section seemed to be busier than usual. As I walked around the aisles, I saw lots of people reading food labels. Maybe people are watching the show around here, and it may be making a difference.

 

[galeteia]

Date: 4/11/2010 11:19:44 PM
Author: deegee
I just had to share -


I was in the produce section at the grocery store (in Huntington) tonight, and I saw so many parents picking out fresh fruits and veggies with their children. It was awesome! Someone even asked me how to tell if something was ripe. Even hubby noticed that the produce section seemed to be busier than usual. As I walked around the aisles, I saw lots of people reading food labels. Maybe people are watching the show around here, and it may be making a difference.

Wonderful! I am so happy to hear that you''re seeing a change!

We bought most of our salad stuff earlier in the week, and got the rest this morning. While the clerk was scanning our usual haul, minus the salad stuff that was already in our fridge, she asked "Are you making a special salad or you just like it?" it took me a couple of seconds to realize she was asking about and was amazed at the number of vegetables in our cart! I was confused because none of the stuff was particularly salad-y (zucchini, yellow squash, fresh snap peas, bok choy, mushrooms, artichokes- if none of you have tried steamed artichokes with garlic lemon butter dipping sauce, you are missing out!

) and we didn''t even have lettuce! It was sad that produce being 40+% of someone''s cart was so rare that it warranted a comment.

She was really sweet and seemed genuinely curious. I explained that some of them were for a stir fry, and some for side dishes. Maybe she saw the show and was interested in how to use them?

But! Your story gives me hope that in Huntington, the percentage of produce in people''s carts is on the rise!

 

[JulieN]

I love this show. Jamie''s living the dream. I''ve had the exact idea of Jamie''s Kitchen before: a community place where you could hang out, learn to cook basic, cheap food.

 

[Diamond Explorer]

I really like the show. Jamie Oliver is bringing attention to a litany of very serious issues affecting our and the planet''s health. Cooking and eating healthy food is definitely a way of life; Some people "get it", and some people don''t.

I believe very strongly in local, organic, and sustainable food. So much so, that together with my partner we have founded New Traditions Farm, an organic and sustainable farm about 75 miles south of Chicago.

I think the time is right for a lot of progress to be made in food education and health. Public policy needs to reinforce healthier eating habits, especially true with the new health care law. Its a lot cheaper to teach people how to cook and eat healthily, than to pay for medical complications from obesity. I like to call it the "Minestrone Soup" health care plan.

I know this plan has its limits, and the fact is, that sometimes you just cant teach people if they are too set in their ways, and dont want to learn. You can''t save people, they have to want to save themselves. But we have to try and help the world in whatever way we can.

 

[TooPatient]

My grandmother was the head baker for her school district. She prepared ALL of the baked goods for the entire school district. I spent a fair number of days in that kitchen helping prepare the food for the high school and more -- so I have a pretty good idea what they were serving and what was in it.

menu options included:

veggie stir fry
pasta salad with fresh veggies
egg rolls (fresh made full of veggies)
brown rice
fresh fruit
steamed veggies
grilled chicken breast
cinnamon rolls (baked from scratch -- far less sugar than anything you''re likely to make at home and CERTAINLY better than the stuff you buy at the store without giving 2nd thought to)

Pizza was limited to one day per week and was in addition to the regular items.


Yes there were other items available in the hot food line, but the majority of students CHOSE the healthier stuff (or mostly healthy with a cookie to the side) because they liked it.


Food IS NOT the business of the federal government. Period. Individual states and school districts already have the ability to put requirements in place and do have standards that have to be met (the one I went to for example).

 

[LAJennifer]

From one of my friends in Huntington:

"Hey all you "Huntingtonians"! 2-5pm TOMORROW (Tuesday) at First Baptist Church of Kenova (1120 Poplar Street, Kenova, 25530) Jamie will be hosting a community Instructional Bootcamp! Learn how to make healthy choices and taste the new school food. Anyone can come - just show up! Join in the Food Revolution!"

 

[LaurenThePartier]

Date: 4/12/2010 12:51:12 PM
Author: JulieN
I love this show. Jamie''s living the dream. I''ve had the exact idea of Jamie''s Kitchen before: a community place where you could hang out, learn to cook basic, cheap food.

Agreed. Although Jamie has a tendency to get a bit preachy at times, he genuinely believes in the changes he wants to make, and that enthusiasm just bubbles over.

I have his Food Revolution cookbook, and while a lot of the recipes seem fairly basic, they do get the point across that cooking shouldn''t be necessarily from a book or a recipe, but something that you can innately put together with fresh ingredients without directions.

 

[zoebartlett]

Date: 4/11/2010 11:19:44 PM
Author: deegee
I just had to share -


I was in the produce section at the grocery store (in Huntington) tonight, and I saw so many parents picking out fresh fruits and veggies with their children. It was awesome! Someone even asked me how to tell if something was ripe. Even hubby noticed that the produce section seemed to be busier than usual. As I walked around the aisles, I saw lots of people reading food labels. Maybe people are watching the show around here, and it may be making a difference.

That''s great!

 

[ksinger]

Well, out of curiosity, I checked out the menus from my hubs school. They didn't sound too awfully bad, but I could see where they could be pretty awful. While OK, only one day per week did the menu indicate that "this menu conforms to the federal blah blah..", while the others did not indicate that, so you have to wonder at the fat content of the other days. They certainly sounded completely uninspired to me. And there IS pizza available ALL the time, and I suspect that's what gets chosen most often, especially if the other food is ill-prepared or low quality. He did say the most revolting thing he sees kids eating is like 1 or even 2 bags of hot cheetos, nuked with some form of cheez whiz or Velveeta. Not sure where they're getting the cheese glop. He just shakes his head. When he was teaching middle school, he had one kid who was worn out all the time, so they sat down and he asked this girl what she ate/drank. She admitted that she actually drank over 2 liters of sugared soda per day. He gave her a long peptalk about why that was a bad idea, and some suggestions about what she should drink/eat instead. But while he knows a bit in general and from his forays into athletic nutrition, he's a history teacher, not a health teacher or nutritionist, so that's not his area to be giving lots of advice. He helps where he can though.

He did say that he recalls (but can't remember when or where) that there was some mandate (state?fed?) to provide high calorie meals since so many of their kids qualify for free lunches (90%). I've been trying to find out more about that, but with no success. I'm not sure how empty calories at school is supposed to be such a great supplement to the empty calories they get at home, but implementing mandates poorly is a long and time-honored tradition....

 

[ksinger]

Date: 4/12/2010 3:11:23 PM
Author: TooPatient
My grandmother was the head baker for her school district. She prepared ALL of the baked goods for the entire school district. I spent a fair number of days in that kitchen helping prepare the food for the high school and more -- so I have a pretty good idea what they were serving and what was in it.

menu options included:

veggie stir fry
pasta salad with fresh veggies
egg rolls (fresh made full of veggies)
brown rice
fresh fruit
steamed veggies
grilled chicken breast
cinnamon rolls (baked from scratch -- far less sugar than anything you''re likely to make at home and CERTAINLY better than the stuff you buy at the store without giving 2nd thought to)

Pizza was limited to one day per week and was in addition to the regular items.


Yes there were other items available in the hot food line, but the majority of students CHOSE the healthier stuff (or mostly healthy with a cookie to the side) because they liked it.


Food IS NOT the business of the federal government. Period. Individual states and school districts already have the ability to put requirements in place and do have standards that have to be met (the one I went to for example).

That''s back to the skill of the cook issue. Sounds like your grandmother and the rest of the staff were skilled. I can tell you I never had a homemade cinnamon roll when I was in school. Sounds fabulous.

 

[galeteia]

Yay! The teacher who encouraged her kids to drink the plain milk because the Strawberry and Chocolate had more sugar than a can of soda deserves a medal. Teachers care SO much for their kids and are so taken advantage of by the education system. It''s so heartwarming to see evidence about how one person can make such a difference.

 

[étoile]

Date: 4/10/2010 5:05:29 PM
Author: ksinger

The food issues are controlled locally by the districts, not at the federal levels, and I don''t even think it''s a state function, at least not here. So any outside contracts for food service - and some schools actually have fast food FRANCHISES in them - the regular school food fare plus a Taco Bell line, or a Pizza Hut line - are made at the district level.

And if you understand how easy and cheap it is to eat unhealthily versus healthily and YOU know better, then you begin to understand why people in poverty - and their children - are so obese at such an early age. I recently went to a Jr. ROTC banquet from my husband''s school, and I was just staggered by the girls I saw there. I''m not exaggerating when I say that some of those poor girls were truly hippopotamic, severely obsese at 16, 17 years old. It''s heartbreaking. I wish the schools in impoverished states could do better too, but they''re not unlike impoverished parents in that regard - tasked with feeding their students for virtually free, and they too are looking to save a buck. I don''t think they actually DO, and that there is much waste in this area as there is in most programs that grow from bureaucracies, but the stupidity and short-sightedness of robbing Peter to pay Paul is endemic in our society, and hardly unique. Why we constantly demand that the schools do better than the society from which they flow is beyond me sometimes. Maybe I''m the only one who thinks it''s wrong to expect the schools to teach Johnny how to hold a fork. That sort of thing is ''basic human'' skills that rightly should be taught at home. I guess someone has to do it when mom or dad won''t or can''t, but you shouldn''t expect much reading to get done while they teach fork holding and how to chew with your mouth shut.

Yup, My highschool had these. It''s not something I ate but tons of other kids did. I can''t say anything bad about someone trying to help people who will ultimately die from their choices in diet. It''s shockingly sad how so many realize too late the damage they have done to their bodies. Now, we are contending with children being morbidly obese and it''s just heartbreaking. I''m glad that there is a spotlight being shined on this issue and Jaimie is interacting with all ages of people in WVA.

 

[zoebartlett]

I''m surprised (but I shouldn''t be) that high schools have fast food restaurant items in their cafeterias. I''m all for a burger and fries now and then but to have it readily available every day doesn''t seem right.

 

[étoile]

Date: 4/17/2010 2:30:52 PM
Author: Zoe
I''m surprised (but I shouldn''t be) that high schools have fast food restaurant items in their cafeterias. I''m all for a burger and fries now and then but to have it readily available every day doesn''t seem right.

I completely agree. Especially in this economy, there are some kids that only get a good full meal at school. It should definitely be one that is healthy and not doesn''t consist of chicken nuggets with 20 mystery ingredients in them.