When celebrity chef Jamie Oliver famously took on the school lunch programs of the UK in 2005 he quickly found himself up against a number of formidable obstacles. Despite having the moral high ground and that always important ingredient of good intentions, he was attempting to make healthy meals for children that refused to eat them, kitchen workers that refused to prepare them, and a school board that refused to pay for them.
Unhealthy food, as it turns out, is easy to make, extremely cheap – with a large profit margin, and kids can’t seems to get enough of it. When Mr. Oliver deconstructed one of the more popular menu items as normally unusable pieces of meat that are blended, bleached, dipped in corn starch and syrup and friend in trans fat, few students seemed to care as they continued dipping their chicken nuggets into a plum-free plum sauce and a tomato-free ketchup.
