The Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH) was founded in 2003 by Michael Rich— a pediatrician, father, and ex Hollywood filmmaker. Located at Boston Children’s Hospital, CMCH is an academic research center with the mission “to educate and empower children and those who care for them to create and consume media in ways that optimize children’s health and development.” It is largely funded through grants and philanthropy and their projects fall into three categories: Continue reading “The Mediatrician Can Help”
Starting a Food [Education] Revolution
Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution aired on U.S. television between from March 2010 and June 2011. Its star was English celebrity chef and restaurateur Jamie Oliver and the show documented Oliver’s attempt to help Americans fight obesity. Oliver’s mantra was “start a revolution with real people and real change.” The first episode takes place in Huntington, West Virginia, one of the unhealthiest towns in the U.S. The show documents Oliver trying to improve the eating habits of the residents—but not without opposition.
In the second season of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, Oliver visits Los Angeles, California, on a mission to change school meals. Oliver clashes with cafeteria staff over the pizza served for breakfast and the chicken nuggets and flavored milk for lunch. The show depicts the difficulty in introducing change within one of the largest school systems in the U.S. Despite the show winning an Emmy Award in 2010, it was cancelled in 2011 and Oliver was ultimately barred from filming at any Los Angeles public school. The audience is reminded that the daily schedule, student motivation, and the bureaucracies of the school system cannot be separated from the wider social, political and economic contexts in which they exist. In other words, schools are complicated organisms.
You can watch Jamie’s inspirational TED Talk, “Teach Every Child About Food” [21:53] below: