British prime minister Tony Blair has unveiled a £280 million initiative to improve the nation's school dinners, in direct response to a campaign by Jamie Oliver, the celebrity chef.
Blair and his education secretary Ruth Kelly produced the money as Oliver arrived at Downing Street with a 271,000-signature petition demanding better meals.
Spending per pupil at schools in England will rise to at least 50 pence for each primary schoolkid and 60 pence per secondary school pupil.
One of the key facts that emerged in Oliver's well-publicised Jamie's School Dinners television series, filmed in south east London, was that schools typically spend just 37 pence per pupil on meals.
Under the new government commitment, a School Fund Trust will be set up to dispense advice to schools and parents, while minimum nutrition standards will be introduced from September. Oliver, the self-styled "voice of the dinner lady", welcomed the initiative, though he described it as "20 years too late" in addressing the "scandal" of English school dinners.
"I am very excited. It's what I've spent the last year-and-half working towards," said the celebrity chef, who also used a variety of four-letter words to describe the poor quality of school dinners.
Oliver has previously blamed both Tory and Labour governments for neglecting the quality of school food, and said that as a non-political animal, he did not care if he was being used by Labour.
He was due to meet Michael Howard, the Tory leader, today (Thursday). Tim Collins, the Conservatives' education spokesman accused Mr Blair of being "breathtakingly cynical" in being in government for eight years but only acting after "a celebrity chef makes a TV programme about it".
Some £45m of the £60m for the School Trust Fund was coming from the Big Lottery Fund.
Not fazed by the size of the financial stakes, Oliver still voiced concerns that £280m will not be enough to bring school kitchens up to scratch, some of which he said deserved to be condemned.
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