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How can we raise kids' awareness of the benefits of fresh food so they can make better choices? Read the challenge brief

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Jamie's High School Vegetable Competition Show!

With Jamie Oliver as the host, harness team spirit and have high schools compete against each other on this TV show to research and then make the best dish using the featured vegetable.
Use the visibility of Jamie's Food Revolution to engage high school kids to get excited and get involved. Each show will pit teams from different high schools to compete against each other to prepare the best dish using a featured vegetable. The show could be interspersed with Jamie giving background information on the vegetable, where it grows best, what country's cooking traditions use it the most, typical dishes made with it, etc. The two schools picked for the episode will put together two teams to represent them. Before the show is taped the teams could do research projects in school about that vegetable, learning it's history, health benefits and how best to prepare it. The entire school could get involved in the recipe development and then support the teams as they compete on the show. Jamie would guide the teams as they worked and then MC a panel of judges to pick a winner. This show would greatly increase kids awareness, interest in and excitement about vegetables and healthy eating.

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Food Knowledge - To what extent is this concept teaching people about food knowledge?

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It's teaching people a little about food knowledge
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Cooking - Is this concept focused on getting people to cook?

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Food Knowledge - To what extent is this concept teaching people about food knowledge?

2

Cooking - Is this concept focused on getting people to cook?

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Demian Repucci

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October 14, 2010, 02:51PM
Thanks for the comment Aaron! My thinking is that kids are going to watch TV anyway. And they usually watch pretty ridiculously vacuous stuff. So to produce a TV show that is actually trying to present knowledge about healthy food and encourage healthy eating choices I think is a good thing. And, as you mention, to do so in a fun competitive format could really attract kid's attention.
Also, I think this show would be the catalyst for a large amount of educational opportunities. The schools that participate in the competition could generate a huge amount of curriculae as they prepare in the months before the show. History lessons to research the origins of the selected vegetables, farm visits to learn about agriculture and proper cultivation, recipe development and writing lessons, in-school cooking class pre-competitions to select the final team to compete, etc. There is a lot of potential there for building knowledge about vegetables. And, considering that the last time Jamie took a camera into an American classroom and the kids didn't know what a tomato was... we have a lot of work to do.
I think a competition based reality show would be a great way to hget kids excited about cooking and eating healthy food. And educate them in the process. So a little time in front of the TV to help build knowledge of, and interest in healthy food I think is a good trade-off.
Thanks again Aaron! Good stuff!
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Aaron Daniels

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October 14, 2010, 09:17AM
Although I agree, its not great to encourage children to sit infront of a TV, on the larger scale, I have always liked the relationship competition has with knowledge and awareness.

The show should try to become something schools really value being on which could increase their reputation. Teaming up in a competition will always open opportunities for collaborative learning and sharing of ideas, which is never a bad thing.

Food competition formatted shows are very popular right now - I can see the programme writers and production companies quickly adapting to the format described or one similar without a great deal of difficulty.

It would be interesting to try and pitch it in the middle for example, shows like ‘The Simpsons’ have the ability to cross the boundary and work on a child and adult level (I know this brief is primarily for children)
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Demian Repucci

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September 07, 2010, 10:26PM
Jonathan, thanks for the comment! Sitting in front of the TV... I totally agree, not the most vigorous calorie burning activity that kids could be doing. I guess, I am thinking that kids are going to sit in front of the TV no matter what, so there might as well be something on that educates them about vegetables and gets them interested in cooking and eating healthy food. Instead of them just watching some vacuous reality show about punks living at the beach :). But I do like your ideas. It could definitely be incorporated into the concept somehow. Maybe a major portion of the cooking competition happens, as you say, on an inter-school level, just as varsity sports does. Schools compete with other participating schools in their area with winners going on to state level championships. Winners of large region or state competitions would then compete against other winners on Jamie's show. This might enable school enthusiasm to build and vegetables and healthy eating to stay in the student's conversation for a longer period of time. Heck it could even get worked into the school curriculum somehow.
Thanks for the comment!
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Jonathan Sauder

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September 01, 2010, 05:37AM
I like the idea, but was wondering about the fact that it is encouraging kids to sit in front of the TV. Would a Comedy Sportz High School League take off work better ( http://www.comedysportzla.com/education/high-school-league.html )? It would basically be a scholastic bowl style event, that would be run on a per high school basis. There would even be the possibility of selling tickets, to raise money for the school. Also, having multiple small events at many different high schools, would get a larger number of children involved. Additionally, any food cooked (or left overs) during the event could be given away to local families.
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Demian Repucci

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August 31, 2010, 08:51PM
Meena, Ha! That would be a lot of fun to produce a Jamie Oliver show. Great idea to have people share their attempts at the show's featured recipes or other dishes featuring the episode's highlighted ingredient. It would be super important to build a robust online home for this show to build a community, share ideas and to keep kids attention. Maybe there could be a 'Vegipedia' section where people can contribute information about the featured vegetables, posting growing tips, history facts, science experiments, etc. And to make it fun for kids maybe there could be a section where kids could upload photos and descriptions of their failed attempts at cooking the featured recipe or the yuckiest tasting thing they ate with the featured ingredients. Jamie has never been afraid to gross out kids from time to time:) Then encourage kids to suggest fixes or different techniques to each other to improve their cooking attempts or make a dish taste as good as it possibly can.
Another thing to figure out would be a way to translate some of the show and website content to a texting situation. If we can tie kids obsession with texting on their phones to a new excitement about food, (and a dose of competition and school spirit couldn't hurt) we will be on our way to much more healthy eating. Thanks again for the comment!
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Meena Kadri

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August 31, 2010, 06:11AM
Hey Demian... clearly they should have you on board as a producer of the show! Now that you focus us back on "getting kids interested and excited about healthy ingredients they might not normally eat" perhaps folks at home could be encouraged to upload images of their own dishes cooked with the featured ingredient to the show's website after each episode. They could show a couple of interesting ones on air the following week.
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Demian Repucci

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August 31, 2010, 04:50AM
Great idea Meena! A good way to engage not just the teams but the entire audience. There are lots of features that could be developed to enrich this concept. There could be video clips of each team, their high schools and the research projects that they conducted in preparation for the competition. There could be a segment in which Jamie leads both teams through an experiment using the featured vegetable that might show the fun that can be had while learning the science behind good eating. There could be special guest visits from celebrities kids enjoy like sports figures, pop stars or TV personalities. There could even be a segment that somehow incorporates a video game tie-in. The possibilities are many. All, of course, to aid in building excitement for the main cooking competition between the high school teams. A show like this has great potential for getting kids interested and excited about healthy ingredients they might not normally eat. Thanks for your comment!
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Demian Repucci

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August 31, 2010, 04:50AM
Great idea Meena! A good way to engage not just the teams but the entire audience. There are lots of features that could be developed to enrich this concept. There could be video clips of each team, their high schools and the research projects that they conducted in preparation for the competition. There could be a segment in which Jamie leads both teams through an experiment using the featured vegetable that might show the fun that can be had while learning the science behind good eating. There could be special guest visits from celebrities kids enjoy like sports figures, pop stars or TV personalities. There could even be a segment that somehow incorporates a video game tie-in. The possibilities are many. All, of course, to aid in building excitement for the main cooking competition between the high school teams. A show like this has great potential for getting kids interested and excited about healthy ingredients they might not normally eat. Thanks for your comment!
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Meena Kadri

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August 31, 2010, 03:16AM
And maybe people could SMS in their votes as well – could enhance ratings and sense of audience involvement?
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