Good School Food Awards: Jamie Oliver aims to celebrate the ‘unsung heroes’ of Britain’s school food system

Jamie Oliver said he wants to show “big love” to the food educators, teachers and catering teams that work so hard to feed the country’s youngsters
Champion: Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver is again campaigning for children’s food (Paul Stuart/PA)
PA Media
Josh Barrie @joshbythesea23 February 2023

The celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has launched a new set of awards to celebrate the “unsung heroes” of the food world, all of whom work tirelessly to feed children in the UK.

Oliver announced the inaugural Good School Food Awards on the BBC’sThe One Show on February 22. The aim is to honour the catering teams, canteens, holiday programmes, and campaigners who “go the extra mile” to ensure young people are well nourished.

The chef and broadcaster has enlisted a 20-strong panel of celebrity judges to help him choose winners across eight categories, including “Catering Team Champions”, “Governor or School Leader Food Hero”, and “Rising Star”.

Among the judges is the Standard’s chief restaurant critic Jimi Famurewa, who alongside the likes of Mary Berry, Jessica-Ennis Hill, Loyle Carner, and Joe Wicks will identify the most deserving recipients in a workforce that serves almost five million meals every day.

Founded in 1906, Britain has the oldest school meal system in the world, and requires more staff than the Royal Navy and Air Force combined.

Oliver said the Good School Food Awards will recognise the “brilliance, ingenuity, determination and creativity” of people working in food in the education sector.

“We need to show big love to the food educators, teachers and catering teams that work so hard 190 days a year to feed our kids and teach them about the joy of food,” he said.

“I truly believe schools are our secret weapon. From the food they serve to the cooking skills they teach kids, they lay the foundation for children’s health and wellbeing, as well as their academic success and future productivity. These awards are all about celebrating what is brilliant in our school and wider food systems.”

Voting opens on February 22 via the Jamie Oliver website and nominees from across the UK will be shortlisted by the judges from April 23, when applications close.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in