Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Faces Mass Opposition from LAUSD

HI All,


I wanted to post this in the political forum because the source of the problems in Jamie's campaign were political opposition.

I dont understand it in so many ways!

For a start in Australia we have a very different structure to school lunches, whether it be grade, primary, high school or college.

We are encouraged to bring our own lunch to school and unless you have money to goto the school ''canteen'' then you have to bring your own lunch and thus the responsibility is on students parents to ensure their children's nutritional needs are meet during school hours. I have always grown up with this and to me it is works well.



However looking at many US schools, it seems the school provides the majority of lunches and in some states has even banned children from bringing their own lunch

So what it is!! Government contracts with food suppliers?


To the topic:




Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c730bf806aa7.jpg[/atsimg]

Oliver, a celebrity chef and health campaigner in the UK, uses a grassroots campaign in the US to curb obesity. In the first season, his efforts are focused in Huntington, West Virginia, statistically one of the unhealthiest cities in the country.[1] In an early trailer for the show, Oliver challenges a group of 1st graders to identify fruits and vegetables, and they are unable to do so.[2] The show appears to roll together the concepts from at least two of his previous TV series' campaigns in the UK: Jamie's Ministry of Food and Jamie's School Dinners.

In the second season, Oliver takes his food revolution to Los Angeles, California. However, the school district there has not allowed him to film in their schools.

Wiki

Jamie Oliver Food Foundation

Jamie Oliver Food Revolution



[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/660cc3a4e735.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7bf1a3490150.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2d17e78eceea.jpg[/atsimg]


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/10990c04c91d.jpg[/atsimg]




















So really the point of this post is to ask the question why is it that American politians, whether it be local, state or fed govts seem so stuborn when it comes to healthy food revolutions, especially those tasked with providing food to our children in school... They seem to prefer serving up mass produced, high fat frozen foods instead of healthier alternatives.


It seems they prefer high fat, high sugar and fast food diets in many cases...



[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4f4b3aa177bc.jpg[/atsimg]



With obesity and diabetes on the rise, wouldnt you want a healthier option???



I have always been a fan of Jamie Oliver as he has done some amazing things in regard to moving people in the right direction for healthy eating but also many of his cooking shows that air in Australia are amazing!

I think a lot of the opposition is being told what to do by a British guy, I have to say I have a lot of respect for JO, he does genuinely care about what kids are eating and after seeing the first episode, I was amazed at how unhealthy American school meals were, Pizza for breakfast, I mean come on, what do you expect your kids to turn out like if you are feeding them pizza for breakfast.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


Yeah i was amazed as well at alot of the food being served up Yeah he is awesome and at some points he is in tears about the state of the food problems and the lack of support from government. In this school in LA they would not let him film in the cafeteria or go anywhere near it.

He wasnt allowed to talk to students about the cafe food or influence them to not eat it....

[color=dodgerblue]Why on earth would anyone oppose this movement? The only reason that I can come up with is that it probably costs more? Which shouldn't be an issue. These are our future police, nurses, teachers, doctors, political leaders and it is our responsibility to take care of them. With percentages of childhood obesity and juvenile diabetes on the rise, our future isn't looking too bright.

I watched the prog the other night. Felt genuinely sorry for Jamie. He got a little resistance here but overall I think people have taken what he's trying to portray on board. Boy oh boy the US aren't up for it are they? Talk about being secretive. What they putting in the kids food? Soilent green or what?

S+F Havick

Am watching this on tv while i am writing this,I have seen a few of these series and they
are very eye opening,I hope that good things come to all who are involved.

reply to post by daryllyn


That is what i couldn't understand The LAUSD were so opposed to this it truly amazed me.

The only thing i could think of was that the state government has some type of contract in place with mass food suppliers and could not risk the contract for political reasons...

Otherwise they just dont give a crap about the health of the children in schools. In the second clip i posted, Jamie talks to a high school student in a cooking class he was allowed to run in school, and all of her family had developed type 2 diabetes and she talked about it like she was destined to get it sooner or later... That even after this in her family, none of them had changed diets and that fast food was always more convienient.



Anothe part of the season is when he approaches an independent fast food outlet in LA and the guy is so stubborn!!!! Even after his customers tell him that he likes Jamie's food and healthier burgers.

They guy was using 30% fat patties and Jamie found a patty that was 10% fat, tasted better and was almost the same price but the guy didnt care

reply to post by Suspiria


yeah i understand his fustration and i do feel sorry for him as well.

They treat him like some enemy when all he cares about is helping people to eat smarter and healthier.

what jamie oliver is doing in america now, he did that in the uk many years ago and caused a complete overhaul in all british schools.. now they eat a healthy lunch daily.. there was opposition here at the time, but now everything has been implemented i think everyone will agree it is a good thing, and has worked quite well..
he has also started restaurants that are charity's for underprivilaged children, teaching them how to become top chefs..
i predict he will recieve a knighthood in the near future..

i do think though in america, he is going to have a real challenge to try and change things. i think the system works completely different there.
i wish him well and hope he is successful.. i mean pizza for breakfast!! among other terrible eating habits, is ridiculous, these kids are not even given a chance in life.. its up to you parents to take note of what this guy is highlighting and stop feeding your kids this poisonous crap..
in the last series of this show, the children couldnt even name the most commonly used fruit and vegetables.. things that every child in the uk can identify..

reply to post by Havick007


Its the same old same old. Shady men making shady deals.

Thats it, the profit these people make will ALWAYS be more important than you & your kids. ALWAYS. And thats all it is, healthy people dont need continuous drugs and healthcare and back treatments etc, etc, etc.

Healthy people dont spend all day & night watching a pointless shiny box, they dont sit infront of a computer all day & night shooting at flashing baddies or posting constant updates to internet forums all the while stuffing their faces with stuff they have been told is food!

The world they have built (that we have let them build!) does not work when populated by active happy people, it only works if we're all fat, miserable and dying!!

reply to post by BlackViolet


Yeah so am i, he also has a series on ch10 on sunday afternoons;

Jamie's 30min meals and he cooks some awesome stuff yum im getting hungry just thinking about it.









Those are just a couple part 1's of some great episodes he has done...

I think the reason some people don't like it, is the fact that it takes a person from another country(A Englishman too! it could only be worse if he was french) to tell them hey your kids are fat. and its because of the schools and YOU the parents would rather feed the kids Cheap, Unhealthy and most importantly EASY food.
Seriously what wrong with some parents. What do they think? Billy is getting chubby! i wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that he plays video games all day and eats junk food. No that can't be it....
Its your kid take responsibility.
And its down right horrifying to see the food being served to kids by the school and they think theres nothing wrong with it?!

Originally posted by Suspiria
I watched the prog the other night. Felt genuinely sorry for Jamie. He got a little resistance here but overall I think people have taken what he's trying to portray on board. Boy oh boy the US aren't up for it are they? Talk about being secretive. What they putting in the kids food? Soilent green or what?

i wouldnt be surprised i grew up close to LA and and if soilent green was in pizza we would have eaten it [

I've been following him a while now. Not many people seem to take him seriously and I find it hard to understand why not. Obesity IS a massive problem today and marketing fries or "chips" as brits call them as VEGETABLE is just so faaaar from wrong.

Anyone who opposes him is clearly against health in general. Eating healthy does not need to cost more if you really think about what you're doing. Jamie Oliver I believe knows what he's doing, not some beaurocrat sitting in an office deciding to put fries into the vegetable section. COME ON.

I'm glad people are picking up on it though. I remember seeing the first time he took the idea to America and he hit quite a bit of opposition.

GO Jame Oliver, do your thing!

I think quite a bit of Americans are simply clueless when it comes to nutrition.

I mean, let's face it, there are a good majority that seriously believe that a french fry is a vegetable. I read an article that stated that it's the number one "veggie" that toddler's eat.

I also believe that parents think the school system has the kids' best interests at heart. You can see the shock on some of their faces when Jamie confronts them with the amount of sugar and fat the kids are consuming on a weekly/yearly basis. The tragic thing is that there really isn't a huge difference in most of their homes. People don't have time to cook in a two career home. It's easier to pop something from a box into the microwave or head to a fast food restaurant.

I also think some of the opposition comes because healthy eating is viewed as more expensive...and in some cases, this is the truth. Where I live it's a lot cheaper to buy a candy bar than an apple. "Organic" is seen as "hippy" and "vegan" here. I get a lot of grief because I am very picky about my food and the fact that I want to know where it comes from.

I'm a stay-at-home mom of a three year old. We aren't wealthy by any means. Everything I buy is fresh (I refuse to buy processed foods), and we don't have a lot of snack foods. Would it be easier and cheaper to buy boxes and cans? Heck yes! I spend a lot of my day in the kitchen. I'm seen as a monster by my boyfriend's family because I won't let our little one have soda or chocolate milk. I object to high fructose corn syrup and fast food "burgers". It's "weird" that he prefers broccoli over candy, and that he reacts in the produce aisle the way some kids do in the candy aisle. I fear the day he goes to school and all I have taught him unravels because of peer pressure.

reply to post by Bixxi3


What i got from the series, when he was talking to students and even parents. They seemed to love the idea and a change to healthier food options.
Even the teachers in the school in LA liked the idea but it was always the LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) that stopped him and wouldnt let him do anything in the school to go near the school lunches.

He was basically censored from talking to students about the cafe lunches.... there was one day he and about 10 students coooked up a healthy lunch for 150 students and at the last minute the LAUSD stopped him being allowed to serve to the majority and moved the service to furtest end of the school near the dumpsters...

They wanted him nowhere nowhere near the cafe or students during the lunch hour..

Here you are:

Work needs to be done to help parents build good eating habits for their growing children.

The recent Nestlé Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study shows that on a given day many toddlers and preschoolers aren’t eating a single serving of vegetables or fruit.

The Nestlé study is a dietary intake survey of a large, cross-sectional sample of parents and caregivers that provides a snapshot of the eating patterns and nutrient intakes on a given day of infants, toddlers and preschoolers living in the U.S. Data were collected for a sample of 3,378 children age 4 and younger.

Study highlights:

• Seventeen percent of infants age six-to-eight months consumed a dessert, sweet or sweetened beverage on a given day.

• About 25 percent of older infants, toddlers and preschoolers don’t eat a single serving of fruit on a given day, and 30 percent don’t eat a single serving of vegetables.

• French fries are the most popular vegetable among toddlers and preschoolers.

• Seventy-one percent of toddlers and 84 percent of preschoolers consume more sodium than recommended on a given day.

• The number of months children breastfeed is increasing, which builds the child’s immunity, aids a growing baby’s brain and eye development, and may help to lower the child’s risk of developing allergies and infections.

click

reply to post by Havick007


It's not very often that someone uses their position to do the right thing and to help. I have the utmost respect for Jamie Oliver for doing things like this.

At the same time I'm absolutely disgusted that he comes across so much resistance. IMHO there can only be one reason for that resistance and that's money. The argument of which food is best is a no brainer. What else is there to stop the uptake of his ideas?
Out of interest, how are school meals paid for in the US? Do the students pay or are they fully funded?

I had to laugh when he stood up in the presentation about flavoured milk!

reply to post by antithetic


haha yeah... i am partial to choc Big M every now and then but in some elementary schools these children are having flavoured milk everyday we already know how sugar and preservatives can affect people yet they still keep feeding it to growing children day after day!

reply to post by Havick007


The thing that go me about it is that the guy giving the presentation seemed to be insinuating that it might have worked with kids from the UK but that it wouldn't work in the US.

Sorry Pal, it worked in Huntington a short while ago.

Until people are willing to stand up en masse and force the Government to do the right thing nothing will change. Even then I suspect it wouldn't be easy given the money involved.