UK school lunch program a tentative success

Two years ago celebrity chef Jamie Oliver made a big effort to improve the nutritional value of school lunches in the UK. In fact, I remember seeing a TV show where he visited schools and worked with cafeteria workers to help them change their menus. He helped them include healthier options that could easily be made for a large number of people and still kept costs down.

Two years later, his efforts are either a failure or a relative success... it just depends who you talk to. With only 37% of secondary students and 43.6% of primary students eating school food, the healthier menu is falling quite short of government goals to have at least 50% of all students eating at school. Secondary students in particular just aren't proving to be fans of the healthier fare.

But the younger students are slowly but surely coming around. The number of students who buy school lunch has recently risen 2.3% -- the first increase since junk food was banned in 2006. Oliver states that he thought it would take 10 years to really see results and he says that a "corner has been turned."

I tend to agree with Oliver. If kids had chicken nuggets, pizza, chips, soda, and other junk food for all their years in school, they aren't going to be quick to come around to healthier options. But as new students enter the school system, they won't know differently. In time, the kids will come around.

When I was in grade school, I went to a parochial school where there was a bigger budget for cafeteria workers and food. Every day we had a main course -- sometimes it was simple (like spaghetti) but more often than not we had baked chicken or something of that nature. There were always steamed veggies and salad. And, if we didn't like the main course, we could choose from a variety of cold sandwiches. Sixth graders got to choose between a study hall or helping in the cafeteria. I chose to help out, so I can vouch for the fact that the food was fresh. In fact, they made the marinara sauce from scratch.

When I went to the public high school, I was shocked. They served pizza that kids routinely pressed napkins on in order to soak up the excess grease. Instant potatoes with lumpy gravy was as close to a vegetable as the school ever got. It was gross. I quickly switched to cold lunch.

Last year I adopted a 10-year-old boy, and I wasn't thrilled with the lunches his school serves. The have the same greasy pizza, chicken nuggets, and lumpy mashed potatoes my high school had. The only difference is that his school sometimes serves heated up green beans from a can or serves pineapple from a can for dessert. Needless to say, I pack my son's lunch for him every day.

Even though the results in the UK are slow and not quite what the government hoped to see, I hope they stick with it. And maybe Jamie Oliver will hop over to this side of the pond and initiate some change in our school system.