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| Jamie's Schhool Dinners launches on Food Network Canada |
| Posted
on Sunday, May 15, 2005 - 12:00 AM |
Food Network Canada star Jamie Oliver has set himself the challenge of a lifetime – to take charge of 20,000 school lunches a day across one of London's most demanding areas as he campaigns to ban junk foods in schools and stop students from eating a quarter of a ton of French fries a week. If he succeeds in transforming the way kids eat, Jamie will use this experience to create a blueprint for school meals across the country.
The four-part Jamie’s School Dinners launches on Food Network Canada Saturday, June 4 at 10 p.m. ET/PT and airs weekly in that timeslot, with encore presentations Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
“Jamie's School Dinners is a riveting piece of reality television that touches on a range of social issues including children’s diet, obesity, behaviour, nutritional standards and food education. The school meals served are so dominated by junk food that many of the children can’t even identify the most common vegetables,” says Karen Gelbart, V.P. Programming, Food Network Canada, HGTV and FINE LIVING. “Jamie’s Kitchen broke audience records when it debuted on the Network in the fall of 2003 and we’re sure Canadian viewers will not want to miss watching Jamie in this new installment as he passionately tries to convince these students that healthy food can also be tasty.”
Jamie's School Dinners finds Oliver taking on the school meals service of a Council-run secondary school in Greenwich, a London borough with an ethnically diverse population and extremes of wealth and poverty, as well as spending a month working with primary kids in a severely deprived part of Durham. After finding out what young people are eating for lunch, how it's prepared, and how on earth you cook for hundreds of kids at a time, Oliver works with the students and catering staff in Greenwich to steer students away from burgers and fries towards healthier and more exciting choices such as wraps, Thai curries and fish pies. The processed, pre-prepared meals which dominate the school meals sector come off the menu and are replaced with fresh, tasty, nutritious dishes, which he prepares from scratch daily with fiery school dinner lady, Nora.
Having just completed its worldwide premiere on Britain’s Channel 4, Jamie's School Dinners drew huge ratings for the network. The forth and final episode, which aired on March 16, 2005 drew an average audience of 5 million viewers.* The excitement surrounding the series and Oliver’s “Feed Me Better” campaign has also prompted the British government, including Prime Minister Tony Blair and Education Minister Margaret Hodge, to publicly back Oliver, committing to improving the quality of school meals.
Jamie’s School Dinners Episodes include:
Sat., June 4 at 10 p.m. ET/PT – Episode 1
(Encore presentation Wed., June 8 at 9 p.m. ET/PT)
Jamie Oliver works at Kidbrooke School, Greenwich, London, under fiery head cook Nora, to learn about the mechanics of school catering and how the kids relate to his food. Can he cook nutritious food that the kids will eat, at the right price, which the dinner ladies can easily prepare? And will he be brave enough to ban French fries from the canteen?
Sat., June 11 at 10 p.m. ET/PT – Episode 2
(Encore presentation Wed., June 15 at 9 p.m. ET/PT)
Oliver heads to County Durham for better understanding of Britain’s dysfunctional food culture and younger kids’ relationship with food. Working with a primary school class of children, Oliver is amazed at their diet and lack of knowledge about food as he attempts to get them to try foods they’ve never eaten before by visiting local farms. Oliver also spends time with one of the pupil’s families – a family with seven children – to understand their home food habits and encourage healthier meals. After everything Oliver learns about school catering and kids’ tastes, he takes a bold step – he visits Britain’s largest school catering company to try to ban junk food from their menus.
Sat., June 18 at 10 p.m. ET/PT – Episode 3
(Encore presentation Wed., June 22 at 9 p.m. ET/PT)
Oliver returns to Greenwich, where he convinces Nora to become his right-hand woman in taking over the borough and to help promote his “Feed Me Better” campaign. He identifies local suppliers that can source his new produce and finalizes changes to the menus, but realizes his biggest challenge will be to retrain the cooks. Oliver and Nora organize a “Dinner Lady Camp” with the Army Catering Corporation – a workshop for all Head Cooks in the school’s district, where they will learn to cook school lunches the Jamie Oliver way.
Sat., June 25 at 10 p.m. ET/PT – Episode 4
(Encore presentation Wed., June 29 at 9 p.m. ET/PT)
It’s back to school after autumn half-term holidays and the dinner ladies in Greenwich are now trying to cook school dinners Jamie Oliver-style. Oliver meets with the Government to lobby them to support his “Feed Me Better” campaign and to ban junk food in schools. If he gets it right, he plans to devise a blueprint for school lunches that will empower schools and local authorities across the UK to change their school meals forever. Will the government listen or will Oliver have to go it alone?
For more information on Food Network Canada, Jamie Oliver or Jamie’s School Dinners, please visit www.footv.ca. For information on Jamie Oliver’s “Feed Me Better” Campaign, visit www.feedmebetter.com.
* Source: BARB/DGA Mar. 16, 2005
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