Jamie Oliver - News - jamie's ministry of food movement continues to grow

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jamie's ministry of food movement continues to grow

Wed 06 May 2009 @ 13:47
Camilla Cameron

To date, 16 UK councils have expressed interest in launching their own Ministry of Food Centres. It is very encouraging to hear that the positive effects of the television programme and book Jamie’s Ministry of Food are still being felt long after the camera’s stopped rolling. Jamie’s Ministry of Food was a four part series that aired on Channel 4 in the UK. The series documented Jamie’s fight to get the nation cooking again. The show documents Jamie’s challenges as he teaches basic cooking skills to a group of people in the town of Rotherham. The key to the movement was that Jamie than encouraged his students to pass on the recipe that they had mastered to friends, families and neighbours. To get to his message across Jamie set up a food centre in Rotherham that is now run by the local council.

The girls who work in the food centre have now built up strong relationships with many local schools, numerous local charities and interest groups and run classes with them all. At the moment they are holding around 20 classes during the week, and at weekends the centre also hosts large-scale public demonstrations, attracting between 60 -70 people at a time. In amongst all of this, they - and their team of wonderful volunteers - also find time to take part in larger local events such as National Farmers’ Breakfast Week where they can show hundreds of people how easy it can be to cook delicious and nutritious meals.

Various online initiatives including a Jamie’s Ministry of Food website played a key role in driving Jamie’s message forward and encouraging the nation to get back into the kitchen and learn how to cook. Nearly 1 million Jamie’s Ministry of Food recipes have been downloaded via I-Tunes and 21,500 have signed the petition on Jamie’s website asking for a food centre to be set up in their town. To date the site has received over 60,000 unique visitors every month.

More than just a campaign, Jamie’s Ministry of Food has become a major movement that has resulted in people transforming their lives through learning the basics of cooking at home. The world is a far different place than when Jamie shot the series and since then it has become increasingly evident that people are questioning the food that they eat and wanting to save money by learning to cook at home.

Jamie’s Ministry of Food (the book) is published in Canada in May, France in August, and the USA in October

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7 comments

1. christopher watkins Sun 21 Feb 2010 @ 09:56 You need to make contact with people, at grass roots level. I.E when they are purchesing there shopping at the super market. Here is a great place for cookery demonstrations. You may even decrease the amount of pre packed food these giants ram in front of people, at the same time you may help to solve the problem of packeging waste, especialy know the councils are collecting refuge fortnightly. As you are a great ambasidor for a super market giant it would not be to difficult to lean your voice toward this option?

2. stephen Thu 11 Feb 2010 @ 13:34 Is the pricing of your books down to the publishing contract that you have with the publisher?
I only ask as the Ministry of Food book, which is to spread recipes to all but especially, as i understand it, to underprivalged families etc and as such improve the health of the people not only now but for generations to come costs around £25.
Is their anyway that a paperback version could be developed. Maybe with sections for fish, meat etc sold separately but at a much reduced cost?

Just a thought, you may already be doing this or something like it and I don't know about it.
Anyway, at least your trying to do something.

3. Tracy Sat 19 Dec 2009 @ 05:20 Hello Jamie

I saw your show here in Australia and I thought about one aspect you might be missing as far as the struggling moms and those on a smaller incomes and learning to cook. You may need to compare the price of good food vs take away food and see if these mums can do your recipies on these smaller budgets, perhaps a community vegetable garden ?
Keep up the great work.

4. Emma Wed 25 Nov 2009 @ 20:22 Hello - Just watched the Ministry of Food series (I live over in Calgary, Canada) and I just wanted to ask if you had an update on Natasha. To see the change in her over the short months you filmed there was proof that you can overcome many difficulties and situations if you can be arsed to do something about it. As a Doncaster lass myself I could relate to alot of what was shown and the attitudes you faced but hats off to you for giving it a try and I see from your website that the Pass it on scheme is still alive and kicking. Nice one!

5. Andrea Whitehead Fri 20 Nov 2009 @ 14:47 Hi there,

I'd be really interested if you could let me know how we can set up a ministry of food in my area, would it need to be a shop frontage or could it be based in a church/community centre. There are countless government schemes, NHS targets etc, but I 100% believe that people need basic practical knowlege and skills to change for the better and for future generations. Great work keep going!

6. pamela fox Thu 12 Nov 2009 @ 16:31 Hi, I feel a ministery of food could be set up in my area to help the young mums, families to learn basic cooking skills and aid childrens health and wellbeing, can you help me. pamela.

7. Sean Tierney Fri 14 Aug 2009 @ 18:23 We are going to be opening a Community Centre within Hull Town Centre. We are very interested in help Ministry Of Food. We have had conversations with Hull City Council whom are also willing to support Ministry of food through our Community Centre. We are awaiting a reply from Jamie Olivers team regarding more information.

Regards
Sean Tierney