Looking for the answers

I want parents on my side if we’re going to make change happen. But, in a lot of cases, it needs to be a question of educating the parents as much as the kids, otherwise we’ll have a generation growing up eating crisp sandwiches and fizzy drinks every day because the parents haven’t thought about their kids’ nutrition.

What was the key argument the Government used against your proposals to improve school dinners? Was it financial inadequacy? Saki Baba, London

The Government has been very responsive and it has never once said: “Oh, we haven’t got the money.” In that respect, there’s no problem. But it does do funny things such as making announcements about changes in school meals and providing extra millions but, when it filters down to grass-roots level at the councils, the money or the changes or whatever don’t really help much. I went to Lincolnshire for the new programme and the council has enough money to give each school a couple of grand. But most schools in that county have no kitchen so £2,000 isn’t going to help them.

We are a Parent Teacher Association that would like to sell healthier things at school discos. Unfortunately, this is not going down well with the pupils, who expect sugar-filled goods. Do you have ideas for anything that we can purchase in large quantities? Please don’t suggest fruit unless we can keep it for long periods. Julie Battson, Lincolnshire

It’s difficult to say because I don’t know the age group, but in Greenwich I found that paninis and quality burgers with salad worked a treat. You can also try pizzas. And what about smoothies that you can freeze? Nora Sands, the head cook of Kidbrooke School in Greenwich, who appeared in Jamie’s School Dinners, makes a popular popcorn with a tiny bit of sugar.

Isn’t part of the problem the fact that we do not have the cookery lessons in schools that we had 20 years ago. Many mothers today are only able to produce convenience-food meals, and, consequently, this is all their children will eat. Gill Grace, Bucks

That’s exactly part of the problem and I’d like to see compulsory cooking lessons from primary school. (Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, said this week that cookery lessons would be available to every young person who wanted to take them as part of a new package.) The Government thinks that after 24 hours of classes and a certificate kids will be able to cook. It isn’t good enough.

We at the “chalk face” struggle to combat the ongoing resistance from many children and some parents to healthy eating. Having raised public awareness, will you now campaign for the Government to provide an education programme to change national attitude? Paul Jarman, head of Hanover Primary School, North London

Well, I am raising awareness of this but it needs the parents to buy into it as well. I appreciate that everyone’s busy and that most people haven’t got much money and it’s easier to give the kids some old crap that you know they will eat rather than spend £5 on some ingredients and cook something nutritious. But if you can just try, once a week, to do a roast chicken or a curry made from scratch, it’s a good start for getting kids interested in food.

And very often it’s cheaper to get an organic chicken for five people and some veg than it is to get a fast-food family box. There’s more effort involved but the benefits are enormous.

1. Why is my brother so healthy when he has never eaten any fruit or veg other than the odd carrot since he was a baby? 2. Do you seriously think school dinners can be healthier than a good packed lunch? Hannah Winn, Cheshire

1. No idea because I don’t know whether he’s 4 or 44, but I suspect that even if he appears “healthy”, he’s storing up problems for himself in a few years. Remember that kid in School Dinners who was as thin as a rake and just ate chocolate? He wasn’t healthy!

2. It entirely depends on the school dinner and the packed lunch but, basically, yes. This is because if you have ten school meals rotated through two weeks with all the nutritional balance of vitamins, minerals, proteins, essential fats, etc, all worked out, it’s going to be a lot better for you than a packed lunch in the overwhelming majority of cases.

My children are used to good wholesome home cooking and never liked school dinners. However, when “Jamie’s dinners” were introduced we thought we’d give them a try. At first they loved the food but, gradually, they began to complain and I noticed they came home ravenous. They told me the food had become horrible again and begged for packed lunches. The school still claimed to be cooking “Jamie’s dinners” but from my children’s description of the food I thought there must be some mistake. I was paying more than £35 a week for junk food. I’m now back to giving them healthy packed lunches. Anne Ince-Vize, London

This is why part of what I’ve been asking for is money to set up training schools for dinner ladies. There is absolutely no point in a school converting to “new” menus if what comes out the other end tastes like rubbish because the poor folk who are cooking it don’t know what they’re doing or because they aren’t given enough time to cook a meal from scratch. Are you able to go to try a school meal for yourself? Or, better still, why not take your local MP along to try them with you.

We live in West Sussex, where the council shut all the primary school kitchens. Only a few schools in fairly well-off areas managed to keep theirs open. The result is that the children most in need of a hot meal go without one, possibly never having a cooked meal all day.

I was a school secretary when this came into force and I was appalled by the contents of the lunchboxes shipped in by the contract caterers. Various county councillors claim to have tried the packed lunches and found them very good. All I can say is that their idea of good is vastly different from most people’s. I wish that you could bring this sort of arrogant decision-making to the attention of more people. Pauline Devey, Crawley

Funny you should mention it but I found exactly the same problem in Lincolnshire when I was filming the new television programme and we found a way to solve it by using local pubs. Have a look at what happened when the programme airs this month and see if it works for West Sussex.

Why don’t you get a group of parents together to see whether you can get some sort of quality-control panel so that you have a voice on your council?

Why is there not a greater choice of vegetarian lunches provided in school? Lotty Crook, Maidenhead

Excellent question. In the menus that I put together in Greenwich last year there was always a vegetarian option, every day. The school has a lot of vegetarians and some kids who don’t eat pork on faith grounds, so we catered for them, too. I’d go to your school and ask why they can’t provide a suitable option for you and other vegetarians who aren’t happy.

Do you think that healthier versions of popular foods, such as oven chips, have a role in making sure that kids stay in school to eat the healthier meals that the new government standards should deliver? Ainura Bertram, Middlesex

Not really, no. I’m not saying that we should ban chips but, the fact is that all chips contain “empty” calories and loads of fat. This goes back to the question of how to educate kids and parents about what different foods do to us. In the new programme, we use chips and fizzy drinks to really hit home to parents in Greenwich what is going into their kids. It’s not pretty. I worry when you get statistics like one million obese kids by 2010 and more than 12 million obese adults. That’s shocking.

I’m the editor of a website for parents, trying to make family life happier. About 25 per cent of our traffic is requests for advice on fussy eating. It is not enough just to offer children healthy alternatives; what would you say to parents who have children who refuse point blank to try new foods? Karen Gardner, Wiltshire (www.parentingcafe.co.uk)

We showed in School Dinners that there were a number of ways to get kids to try new things: get them to help with the food preparation; keep trying when they first turn their noses up; bribe them; and if all else fails, show them what really goes into their chicken nuggets. I’m not saying it’s easy because it’s not. But if you start early and get kids interested in food and taste and where food comes from, that’s a start. And try to get them involved in the cooking as this makes a big difference. Sometimes you have to be prepared to stand your ground with kids; after all, you know best.

As many kids, especially city kids, are unaware of, or don’t care about, the provenance of the food they are eating, could you do more to encourage schools to add market gardens and trips to city farms to their extracurricula activities? Name and address withheld

I’d fully support that idea and it should probably form part of an overall movement towards compulsory cooking/food lessons.

The Government provides free fruit for children up to the age of 7. Then it stops. It seems crazy to start a good habit then stop it. How can we make sure kids get free fruit right through primary school? Sally Naish, Warwickshire

As with all these things, lobby your local council. We had 271,000 signatures to the petition we took to Downing Street. We got something done. That was parents, teachers, kids all working together. If enough parents kick up a fuss, you can change things.

I use many of your cookery ideas and appreciate you taking the science out of recipes. Your encouragement to explore is refreshing. My question is: do you still have your scooter and what model is it? Colin Holmes, Thailand

I sold it on eBay about three years ago to make a bit of money for the Fifteen Foundation charity. It was an Aprilla Habana 125.

Here’s the challenge

We are a new company of parents, governors and business people called Whole School Meals, contracted to produce food for 21 schools who are our shareholders. Our first meals went on the plates this week. Our food is fresh and local, our cooks have retrained and paperwork is removed from our kitchens with our revolutionary procurement system. We started a year ago with no money and we’ve made it with what we think is a fantastic blueprint for others to follow to change the face of school meals. Anyone can do this; you just need the passion and conviction to improve children’s health. See our website for the full story: www.wholeschoolmeals.co.uk.

Help us to share our blueprint with others and make a difference. We’re up for the challenge, Jamie, are you? Jane Langstaff, Kent

Jamie says: Your website looks fantastic and if this publicity has given others the incentive to do the same thing, that’s brilliant.

Thanks to everyone who sent in questions; sadly, we didn’t have the space for them all. For more information on Jamie’s Return to School Dinners, which airs on Channel 4, on September 18, 9pm, visit www.channel4.com