Prince Charles and Jamie Oliver have called on schools, hospitals and private businesses around the country to roll out healthy eating schemes both to combat obesity and improve concentration levels.
The high-profile pair visited Carshalton Boys Sports College in south London this week to see a Food for Life Partnership-backed scheme promoting healthy eating and understanding of food provenance. The school’s initiatives have included serving over 1,100 hot meals a day, including before and after school, raising chickens, growing fruit and vegetables on 16 raised beds and bringing home the food they produce.
“Having tried to encourage this kind of approach it is wonderful to see the difference it can make to children’s lives, health, attention span and concentration levels at school,” Prince Charles said at the event. “And also the effect it has on families and encouraging people to take a real interest in where their food comes from.”
The Prince, who is patron of Garden Organic, said the Food Growing in Schools Task Force had established a clear link between the time spent gardening and academic achievement. However he added it was a “tragedy” how many school farm projects had been shut down over the last 30 years despite the “remarkable difference” they made to a child’s performance in a wide range of subjects including economics, maths and biology.
Prince Charles, who stressed there was clear scientific evidence that children who had links to farm animals also suffered fewer allergies, also paid tribute to Jamie Oliver’s work in trying to improve the standard of school meals. “What Jamie Oliver has done is remarkable,” he said. “It is extraordinary the energy and determination he has.”
For his part Oliver said: “If you have smart health you have great learners and teachers, and we can extend this to any business in Britain. This is what we need to get out of where we are [with the state of the nation]. It comes from the top. The headmaster has given his team the permission to do what they need to do. We are still the most unhealthy country in Europe which is why [Carshalton] is so brilliant.”
Carshalton Boys Sports College has seen a remarkable turnaround since headmaster Simon Barber arrived and transformed its approach to healthy eating and farming. A decade ago the school had an abysmal examination record, with only three per cent of children achieving a good GCSE. That figure is now 100 per cent, though Barber stressed food was not the sole answer and that better teaching had been central to the improvement.
Garden Organic chief executive Myles Bremner added: “Carshalton offers great inspiration for any school out there that feels encouraging its pupils to eat healthy food is an impossible challenge. This school has really proved that with strong leadership and a huge team effort on the part of pupils, staff, the community and charities like ourselves, we can offer our children healthy school dinners that they will be queuing up to be first in line for.”
