Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is hoping to start a food revolution, with a little help from his friends.
For years, Oliver's Food Revolution Foundation has been encouraging supporters to think more about bringing fresh, wholesome foods to the table. This year, he wants to bring that food to schools.
For this year's Food Revolution Day, Oliver has launched a global campaign and petition to urge school boards around the world to make practical food education compulsory in their curriculums.
Adding to his appeal, Oliver has put down his kitchen utensils to take up a microphone and join in on an original song he commissioned from pop star Ed Sheeran. That video has already had 22 million views on Facebook in less than two days.
Oliver says he hopes the video leads to more people taking notice of the cause and signing the petition.
"We've always made a lot of noise, and we've always raised the food conversation but we wanted to push it toward a petition this year," he told CTV's Canada AM from England Friday.
"And I knew that to do that, we needed an anthem. The most relevant person in Britain to do that with was Ed Sheeran."
After he signed Sir Paul McCartney on to the project, the number of celebrities and musicians joining in mushroomed, with actor Hugh Jackman, British rapper Professor Green, and YouTube star Carissa Alvarado among those who got on board.
"I asked Paul McCartney, he said ‘Yes,’ he put bass down, sang on it and then I kept asking people, and we sort of built this beautiful tune," Oliver said.
"Home economics" classes were once compulsory in many schools, but many have dropped such programs to focus on core subjects of reading, math and science. But with 42 million children under the age of five now either overweight or obese around the world, Oliver says it's high time that food education return to schools.
He believes that by teaching kids, in a fun way, how to grow and cook fresh food, schools can help equip the next generation with basic skills they need to lead healthier lives.
In Canada, several schools are taking part in an online cooking class led by Oliver for Food Revolution Day. The students will be learning how to prepare sandwiches with fresh ingredients and Oliver himself will make a special live video appearance.
Oliver says he's hoping Canadians will sign his petition as well.
"The petition is actually quite relevant to Canada and Canadians and your public health, because it's about a child's human right to food education at school," he said.
"The reason it's relevant is because they biggest killer in your country is diet-related disease. The cost to the health care system because of diet-related disease is extraordinary."
If we can teach kids early about how delicious whole, fresh food is, it will give them the foundation they need to lead healthier lives into adulthood.
"We must teach our kids how to grow, how to plant, how to cook, and how to eat together and make them street-wiser about food."
