It's Monday night and I'm picking Alex up at the airport in Durango at 11:32pm. Let's hope his flight doesn't get delayed. Since I'm on my own for this last evening, I went with one of my old (pre-marriage) standbys for dinner, macaroni tossed with butter and cheese (Gruyere tonight) broiled until crispy and brown. Just to make the entire experience super-healthy, I was eating my pasta in front of the television. Flipping channels I discovered Jamie's School Lunch Project on TLC. I stopped out of curiosity and got sucked right into the show.
The premise is a good one from what I've seen, although slightly far-fetched. It consists of Jamie Oliver setting out apparently single-handedly to revamp the school lunch program in London. His goal is to create a system where the children can enjoy healthy and delicious food in the lunchroom. It's a wonderful idea. The partial episode that I caught consisted of Jamie's boot camp for school lunch ladies and his attempt to teach them all how to cook his new style of food for the cafeterias. They weren't exactly embracing the new regime but there didn't seem to be any outright mutiny either. It's not easy to change the way that people cook, especially seasoned professionals who are set in their ways. I'll be curious to see how successful his project turns out to be. It would be wonderful if all of his work paid off for the children.
Whatever anyone thinks of Jamie Oliver as a chef, there's no denying his philosophy of giving back to the community. First there was Fifteen and now the school lunch project. It's a nice reminder that we can take what we do inside our kitchens and use it to make someone else's day a little bit brighter. With all of the obsessing that I've been doing about the future, it was a nice reality check. There is more to life than money and business. There's a whole world out there that needs nourishment and so few of us who are willing to take action on even a small scale. Thank goodness each new day is an opportunity to do better.
