Jamie Oliver

Apologies if this makes you feel old, but Jamie Oliver’s School Dinners campaign was 10 years ago. Sheila Dillon investigated how far we have come since on School Dinners - A Progress Report (Radio 4, 3.30pm, 20 April). And unlike the food at my school, the answer came as a pleasant surprise.

“All of the processed products have gone, it’s virtually all freshly prepared,” said children’s food campaigner and former dinner lady Jeanette Orrey, who starred in the show alongside Jamie. Most impressively of all, she said other European countries are flocking to the UK to see how it’s done, including that culinary titan Italy.

Henry Dimbleby, who founded healthy fast food joint Leon, also took part. His son’s school has just hired a chef to serve the kids meals like chicken with soy and pumpkin and a pomegranate salad. Blimey. She’s also got the cost per plate down from 93p down to 78p by slashing waste.

That’s impressive, but not every school can hire a professional. The rock bottom wages on offer for dinner ladies and increasingly pressured working conditions show that while things are improving on the plate, things in the kitchen are tougher than ever.

The show also touched on the issue of children and their food education. “It’s the biggest challenge we have,” said Dimbleby. “When everyone can cook five savoury dishes by the age of 16, that is when we will have really solved the problem of food-related diseases.”

Like much of this intelligently chaired debate, he was absolutely spot on.