Endorsements from within Education

Jeanette Orrey

Jeanette Orrey  is the school dinner lady who is on a mission to improve the food Britain's children eat. She is the woman who originally introduced Jamie Oliver to the horrors of turkey twizzlers, "fishysaurus" shapes and endless chips; as featured on the TV series, Jamie's School Dinners.

She has been catering manager at St. Peter's Primary School, East Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, since 1991. In 2000, rebelling against the poor quality of centrally supplied ingredients, she chose to bring catering back in-house, sourcing as much local, organic and Fairtrade produce as possible - and all on a very tight budget. In five years, she has transformed her school. The pupils are now fed healthy, organic food and they fight over the salad bar.

In her role as school meals policy adviser to the Soil Association, Jeanette has visited more than 500 schools to spread her message. She is also setting up a cooking school for dinner ladies. "We don't need to call them anything fancy like food technicians," she says.

Jeanette has won numerous awards, including the Observer

Food Award for 'Person who has done the most for the food

and drink industry' in 2003.

In April 2005 her book, The Dinner Lady was published.

Jamie Oliver has written the foreword. The book couples

a diary of her success in reintroducing "proper food" at

St Peter's Primary School, with 100 recipes for anything

from 4 to 96 children and demonstrating the kinds of healthy

options tried, tested and wolfed down in the school's dinner hall.

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