Study Claims Jamie Oliver’s School Lunches Improve Test Scores
Eating Jamie Oliver’s school dinners improves children’s performance in tests, according to researchers who claim that the celebrity chef’s campaign to improve school food has had more impact than government literacy programmes.
The findings of the two-year study indicate that scores in national curriculum tests at 11 rose in English and science at schools where Oliver’s menus were introduced.
Control schools, where junk food was still available, showed smaller or negligible improvements, researchers said.
Here's an interesting tidbit;
The academics failed to find evidence that the campaign specifically helped children on free school meals — a measure of social deprivation.
“On the contrary the campaign seemed to have affected most the children from richer socio-economic backgrounds,” the study said.
Oliver is trying to innovate some of the same changes he helped start in England in the U.S. with his TV show Food Revolution. Check out the video clip above for a scene from one of the first episodes. If you're interested in the future of school lunches in the U.S. you'll be interested to read up on some legislation working it's way through congress called The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.
