Naked lunch for schools
Chef Oliver helps improve meals in U.K.
Prompted by the groundswell of popular opinion ignited by Channel 4's reality TV show "Jamie's School Dinners," which saw Oliver toil away in a school kitchen, education secretary Ruth Kelly has pledged £280 million ($520 million) of government coin to improve the nation's school meals.
Kelly announced the package shortly before Oliver delivered his arm-twisting 271,000-signature petition for the Feed Me Better campaign to Downing Street on March 30.
The cash injection will mean at least 93¢ a day is spent on ingredients for each child at primary school. At the London school Oliver did a stint at for the cameras, only 68¢ was allocated for ingredients.
The four-episode show twice peaked at 5.3 million viewers -- 22% of the audience share -- which is double what Channel 4 usually commands at 10 p.m.
But the ramifications of the series are not being felt only in political circles. It also has presented a fresh direction for the tired reality TV genre.
Daisy Goodwin, editorial director of Talkback-Thames, who worked with Oliver on his last show, "Jamie's Kitchen," credits the show with "taking the medium of political reality show forward. This is the best kind of public service TV."
