I started watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. After 2 episodes, I’m hooked. Mainly because it’s a train wreck and I can’t stop watching. If you’ve not heard of it, this show is Jamie’s attempt to reinvent school lunches to reflect a diet of FRESH foods and veg rather than the processed crap that they serve in schools now. It’s disturbing what kids are fed at public schools. Chef Jamie has already revamped the schools in England and now he’s attempting it here. (Yup, good luck with that.)
Not only did poor Jamie get to try this in Virginia, he is also fighting uphill with a school system that thinks the processed crap is just fine and dandy. These people in Huntington VA are the fattest of the fat – the city is the unhealthiest and fattest in America, which is the fattest in the world. So, yah, despite this, the backwoods rednecks of this town excoriate Jamie for “trying to tell us what do to”. Hey, welcome to the USA! We’re #1! We’re #1! I swear to gods, Americans are the most arrogant fucking people on the planet. Here you are, the fattest of the fat, and yet you get all uppity and pissy when someone says, “Hey! You’re FAT! Let me help!”.
So, last bit on this (you can watch full episodes on the website) let me just say when Jamie went into an elementary classroom to talk about vegetables and not ONE child could name ANY of them…I was so upset I cried a little. I mean, really? WTF? They did not know what a tomato or potato was. They’d never SEEN a vegetable. Again, WTF? And NO ONE at this school thought a thing of it. They also thought nothing of having NO UTENSILS available for the children to use at lunch. Well, why should they when all they serve is pizza and chicken(ish) nuggets? I tell you, you’ll be stunned. Watch it.
[Of course, none of his efforts made a bit of difference. Nice try, tho. -A Dec 2015]