'Feed Me Better' is the name of the campaign run by TV chef, Jamie Oliver, to improve eating habits in British schools. Jamie is popular with young people all over Britain because of his cookery programmes. His ingredients are fresh, his recipes are simple, and his meals are absolutely delicious. So when he found out what Britain's schoolchildren were eating at school, he went on the warpath. He discovered that school dinners centred around processed food, chips and burgers, and that children were incapable of recognising basic vegetables. So Jamie resolved to do something about it. He decided to make a TV series called Jamie's School Dinners which showed the successes and failures of his attempt to improve the dinner menu of a school in Greenwich, London. He was assisted by the school dinner lady, Nora Sands, who was keen to learn how to give the children a more balanced meal while not exceeding her budget. At the same time as the programmes were being filmed, Jamie ran a national campaign called 'Feed Me Better' to bring the state of the nation's school dinners to the attention of the government. As a result of the 300,000-signature petition that Jamie presented to Prime Minister Tony Blair in the spring of 2005, new legislation was brought in to control school dinners. Now children are promised two pieces of fruit with their meal, and fizzy drinks, sweets, chocolate and crisps are banned. Jamie Oliver has shown that it is possible to do something positive for Britain's schoolchildren instead of just using them to make money.
