Food Revolution: Jamie Oliver vs. the USDA

The finale of "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" ended on a truthful, if not entirely positive, note. Jamie admitted that the school lunch program had begun to reintroduce processed foods back into the system and that brown bag lunches had increased because the kids didn't like the new food as much as the old food.

Three months after the show wrapped, the film crew returned for an update on the school lunch program and found that there were problems.

Brown bag lunches were up. In fact, a West Virginia University study said 77 percent of the kids reported being "very unhappy" with the new foods. Lunch participation dropped from 75 percent before the Food Revolution food to 66 percent after the new diet was implemented.

Flavored milk was back in the school system. The show was careful about placing blame, but made it clear that people outside the school system had demanded that flavored milk be returned to the school cafeteria where it had been removed. The kids were happily slurping the flavored milk over the white.

Processed food also snuck back in. Due to a backup of processed foods from orders that are placed literally a year in advance, the school was forced to bring processed foods back into the lunch program and implement a "Processed Food Fridays."

Jamie discovered two main problems. The parents that were allowing their kids to brown bag it were essentially feeding them junk. Jamie counted 40 brown bag lunches and only one had fruit. Several of the kids had prepackaged meals, like Lunchables, which are loaded with processed food products. "If a child is bringing in a brown paper lunch then it should meet our standards," said Principal Patrick O'Neal. "But if the parent packs their lunch, that's what they get." Nearby was a child whose lunch consisted of two bags of potato chips and a bag of jelly beans. Yes, really.

The other problem is the Byzantine system known as the USDA National School Lunch Program. It would take an encyclopedic level book to break down the history and the legacy of this institution. It has roots back in the turn of the 20th century, and got a big boost during the Great Depression as the federal government stepped in to help kids get healthy meals. Most of what our guidelines are now are based on legislation enacted in 1966. Those guidelines have been steadily warped by food lobbying interests looking to gain advantages and create loopholes.

It has left us with a USDA school lunch program where you need an "allowance" to be able to buy fresh food and not processed frozen junk.

A child in the public school system will eat between 2,400 and 2,800 meals through the USDA School Lunch Program. Jamie made it quite clear that he did his best to get the message out and there's been some successes, but it's time for individual Americans to get involved and take it to the next level.

According to Jamie Oliver's page on ABC, here's what you can do:

Observe your child's school lunch. If you're not sure it's healthy ...

Check the ingredient lists to see what they are actually eating. If it's mostly processed foods and you're not happy about it, then ...

Organize other parents to work together to persuade your school to serve better food.

Involve the cooks right from the start. As you saw with Alice Gue in Food Revolution, if the kitchen staff aren't on board they will throw roadblock after roadblock to thwart your efforts.

Speak to school management when you have plan. There needs to be buy in from the bottom to the top for a school lunch program overhaul to be successful. Everyone needs to be ready to work hard and spend some time. This will take months, if not years of work.

For a more in depth plan check out this guide from Jamie. Read our interview with Jamie to see where he started.