Out To Lunch

ANYONE know what Jamie Oliver’s children eat at their Hampstead school?

And if they do take in packed lunches, how much polenta and halloumi salad you need to buy one stick of KitKat chocolate-coated wafer? And if, indeed, such a playground trade is ever fair on the KitKat owner?

Whatever the rate of exchange at Jamie’s nippers’ school, the Mail tells us that thanks to the cook the take up of KitKats among schoolchildren is on the up.

A survey by the BBC shows that because schools dinners have been so roundly panned by the celebrity cook, school meal take-up has fallen by as much as 30 per cent in some areas.

Instead of baked potatoes, baked beans and tinned fruit salad, children are bringing in packed launches…full of high-fat snack foods.

And many believe Jamie’s crusade to shame school cooks into grating parmesan cheese and freshly milled black pepper atop Armani’s organic lasagne has triggered the trend.

But not all is bad. As the Mail notes, from this term schools are no longer allowed to offer their charges sweets, chocolate and fizzy drinks. Chips can be served only twice a week.

So the children are shunning the school dinners and bringing in treats.

As Tory MP Boris Johnson, who was criticised for saying he wanted to “get rid of Jamie Oliver”, says: “What do you do when kids go off and get crisps and KitKats when you’re offering them these delicious healthy Jamie Oliver meals?”

It’s a tough call. But one thing might be to let them get on with it. If anyone can eat confectionary and get away with it, it’s children.

Posted: 7th, November 2006 | In: Tabloids Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink