From junk food to kitchen gardens

Who says that a TV chef can't make waves outside the kitchens and dining rooms of viewers? After Jamie Oliver's high-profile television campaign to improve the quality and nutrition of the meals provided to children in English schools, England's Department of Education has finally announced it will ban junk food in school meals in schools.

Besides banning fizzy drinks and other 'junk' foods, they're going to limit fried foods to only two meals a week. Radical. There goes the potatoe crop... I wonder how the British farm lobby will handle it. Maybe they can get their farmers to grow other vegetables as well.

I wonder if Australian chefs, TV ones or otherwise, will take heart and push similar campaigns here. But then again, there are no government funded meals in Australian schools, are there? Just the few breakfast programs for really hungry and poor kids...

As an idea of what small things are being done here, celebrity cookbook author Stephanie Alexander has been working with the children of a primary school in the low socio-economic suburb of Collingwood through and kitchen garden and regular lessons in gardening, cooking and trying good food.

I've visited the kitchen garden and heard about the work, and I reckon there should be a kitchen garden in all primary schools. With a rainwater tank attached, of course.