A recipe for success

Pizza for breakfast. That's what America's children are eating at school, as witnessed by renowned (and super cute) British chef, Jaime Oliver. He has embarked on a mission in the States, one that he has spent the past 7 years conducting in England--improving school food. He says enough is enough--this is the first generation of children who are expected to have a shorter life-span than their parents because of their poor diet. Diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol--these are the things that are going to kill your kids 10, 15, 20 years early--and they are largely preventable through eating a good diet and exercising.

Jaime Oliver's mission, chronicled on his show "Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution," is to completely re-vamp the way we think about school food. He's starting this food revolution in Huntington, West Virginia, the "unhealthiest town in America." He wants to throw out the processed life-shortening garbage we've been feeding our kids for so many years and give them wholesome, homemade food that sustains life! Seems like a simple task, right? Just stop buying the processed crap and bring in fresh ingredients into the school kitchens. But you have to stay on budget, meet the USDA's nutritional guidelines, make sure the kitchen staff are properly trained, that the kitchen has the right equipment, and oh yeah....that the kids will eat the food!

This last part proved much more difficult than Jaime had anticipated. When given the option between pizza and delicious homemade chicken, the pizza won. Fresh salad with homemade dressing wasn't a huge hit, either. And even after witnessing how that thing called mechanically separated chicken meat is made, and knowing how unhealthy it is for them, the kids still wanted to eat it once it was formed into the familiar chicken nugget shape, breaded, and fried. That little experiment had NEVER failed Jaime in all the times he had conducted it...except when it came to American kids.

There is certainly a mountain of challenges ahead, but nothing as disgusting as the mountain of fat consumed by the students in one school year Jaime showed to the parents--yeah, the parents weren't too excited about that! It'll be VERY interesting how this story unfolds. I see great things in Jaime's future, and so do the folks who awarded him with the TED prize. What's Jaime's wish? "My wish is for you to help a strong, sustainable movement, to educate every child about food. To inspire families to cook again, and to empower people everywhere to fight obesity."

We're all asked to donate whatever resources we have to make this dream a reality--I am planning to use my expertise in food and nutrition to give nutrition and cooking lessons, and I urge all of my fellow classmates and friends to do the same. Jaime's passion and dedication is so genuine, but there's only so much one person can do. It's up to us to join him in this revolution. Let's take this "yes, we can" attitude and put it to good use--improve the health of this nation, one school cafeteria and home kitchen at a time.

So here's what's cookin': Take one emboldened Brit on a mission, toss in a few million skilled Americans, and sprinkle in some blood, sweat, and tears. Turn up the passion to HIGH and that, my friends, is a recipe for success!