Summary Of Teach Every Child About Food By Jamie Oliver

In this Ted Talk titled “Teach Every Child About Food,” Jamie Oliver describes his personal seven-year mission to inform Americans of his goal of starting a food revolution. He is motivated to see change in children’s lives involving their food choices. Oliver describes how widespread and serious this issue of children not being educated on healthy food choices. He states the reality that this country is the unhealthiest in the world and that diet related diseases, such as heart disease and stroke, are the number one killers in the United States. He informs the audience that, 2/3 of the people in the room are considered overweight or obese. These statistics show the reality of the food epidemic and how frightening it is.
Oliver depicts a triangle that consists of three main areas to show the landscape of food (home, school, main street). He insists in his talk that all changes start at home. Parents at home fail to teach their children how to eat properly and cook easy, healthy meals. The next area of the food triangle addressed is in schools. In
school, students eat school lunches twice a day and the food they consume is quite high in fats and is processed. Oliver explains that the reason for this is because the people who cook the food are not food experts and they simply do as they are told. He compared the cafeteria ladies’ job to an accountant’s job. They have guidelines and rules they must follow. This means the children that eat in school cafeterias basically consume unhealthy, inexpensive food. To explain this, Jamie Oliver shows a video visiting schools and asked many children to recognize certain fruits and vegetables. None of the students could identify the different types of food. The last area of the food triangle that needs improving is main street. This involves the discussion of fast food and how this business is taking over portion sizes. Labeling on food products is often inaccurate and needs to be improved by the food industry business.
After explaining these problems, Oliver begins to state what he believes needs to be done to implement changes.
Food ambassadors need to be in all supermarkets around the country. These ambassadors will teach customers how to shop healthily and cook at home. The education of young children in schools needs to be the heart of food education. Foods that children eat in schools should be grown locally. The government must also work with the fast food industry to eliminate hidden fats and sugars in their foods. He suggests that every child should learn ten easy recipes. Oliver declares that this is a life skill that children must learn and parents must be the educators Jamie Oliver operates his own business called Huntington’s Kitchen. He strongly affirms that change is possible with parents, schools, and food businesses all working together to positively help children at a young age so they will grow up healthy and
strong.