I have this friend. His name is Jamie. Jamie Oliver. Well, I like to think that I know him. It’s that six degrees of separation thing. You see, my friend has eaten at two of his restaurants.

There would have been some sort of waiter-chef-manager-Jamie or waiter-manager-bigger manager-Jamie communication situation happening in there somewhere. Surely. I’m claiming it anyway.

Jamie has my heart. He is using his celebrity status for the greater good. He is advocating the importance of learning and adopting healthy habits in the home, such as going back to the whole paddock to plate thing. It seems our brains are thinking the same thing, and maybe that’s why he has my heart. If only he wasn’t married.

Anyway, my love life aside, according to Jamie, ‘today’s children will be the first generation ever to live shorter lives than their parents’ – now that’s sad.

But, when you see children at bus stops at 8am holding a half drunken 2L bottle of coca cola, when the aroma of freshly fried potato cakes are wafting across the platforms at Flinders Street Station at 8am on a Tuesday morning, or you walk around the supermarket and observe trolleys packed to the brim with packets of chips, soft drink, frozen processed foods, and the closest thing to a vegetable is the bag of potatoes squashed in the corner, you understand.

I was lucky to have been taught healthy food practices at home, and I know that as a dietitian, my future children will have access to practical food education as well.

But we know this isn’t the case for every child, and that’s why Jamie is fighting the good food fight and calling for our help with his mission.

Jamie believes ‘it is every child’s human right to be taught to grow, and cook fresh, nutritious right at school’, and back in April he launched a petition calling on all G20 countries to make practical food education a compulsory part of every school curriculum across the world. 

And he definitely has my support.

So in seven sleeps time, on Friday 15^th May 2015, it is Food Revolution day. Jamie will be hosting an online cooking lesson for schools, so tune in and get involved. He’s making his Squash it Sandwich, and it looks delicious. For more information, recipes and how to become involved, go to www.foodrevolutionday.com

What will I be doing on Food Revolution Day?

Well I’m actually really lucky to be involved in a year nine professional development program at one of Melbourne’s top private schools . The boys are being taught nutrition education, and I’m doing some healthy meal and snack cooking demonstrations. It’s going to be a pretty cool few weeks, and it makes my dietitian heart sing knowing that schools are recognising the importance of educating their students on good nutrition.

If this sings to your heart as well, sign the petition and join the movement. And then share it on your social media channels. At the time of writing this post, he only needed 230,543 more signatures to reach his target of one million, and you could be one of them.

Let’s do it for our kids.

Emma xo

P.s. Yes Courtney, you got another mention. Don’t let it go to your head. 😉