A graph

"To be Frank". Are you, indeed? We have been wondering what had happened to him...

Maybe schools could do more, but to be frank, I can't believe the problem is lack of education.
Any adult in the UK who doesn't know that eating a diet high in sugar, fat and processed foods is bad for you must have been living on Mars for the last decade.
And as for how to budget, and how to produce nutritious healthy meals, well there is plenty of info and advice around. Newspapers, magazines, TV, internet, you name it, they all have lots of stuff about food and health.

When I was teaching Food Technology, one of our well equipped food rooms was used by an Evening Class group. Each cupboard and drawer was supposed to contain the correct equipment for each unit so the students could set up quickly for their practicals.

Everything had to be sorted out and put back in its correct place the morning after an Evening Class. When numbers fell and the classes were cancelled we heaved a sigh of relief.

People using school premises can cause all sots of damage (sadly) and the prime purpose is for the students so that does need to be the priority. If it is a big school & there are lots of lettings it might be possible to hire additional caretaking staff. Caretaker is on duty early in the day so needs to be ready for duty in the morning.

As a former member of a parent/ teacher association we had many problems using the school premises for fund raising events re insurance and caretaking fees, and even , would the caretakers do overtime as no=one else could substitute. This was some years ago but perhaps things don't change.

True thatbags the costs have to be covered as schools pay rates/electricity/gas etc like everyone else as well as the hourly rate for caretaking .

There is no room nowadays for local authorities to subsidise this..they used to. Private schools and academies may be able to do more because often they have some charitable status and may have specific funds available..though most funds are used for their pupils and not the community.

In DD's primary school where I was on the Parent Council, even we, as parents of children at the school, had to "do a let" via the council to get the use of rooms for meetings or events. If another group was already paying rent for using some space at the same time, we didn't have to pay. Otherwise we did (where would the money come from from non-profit-making events?) so we avoided using the school building unless we had to.

To be fair, I think many school buildings are used outside of school hours for various community events. There are insurance issues that have to be covered and someone has to be employed to 'caretake'. This costs councils money they don't have and that is one of the limiting factors.

Anno - schools are expensive assets which stand unused for about half the time - they could be used for classes for parents and children, as you suggest, and for many other community uses.

It needs to start in the schools. Children love to cook and often don't get the opportunity at home. Schools could open their facilities to mums and children after school so that they can learn to cook together.

Supposing instead of eating too many cheap calories and being obese, I eat half as many more expensive calories.

Will I be thinner and healthier, but no worse off financially ?

Think he is an Essex boy Elegran

Moved Some good ideas... contact Jamie and offer to help him. Or become a family mentor (if you not already) to a few families to support their housekeeping skills. There are projects with Surestart etc who are crying out for people to help.

He's an Essex boy.

It's a bit rich for a multi-millionaire to opine on the spending habits of the poor but he does, unfortunately, in many cases have a point.

Stansgran I agree but if you put a rice pudding in the bottom of the oven, a casserole with pulses in in the middle and a tart at the top you can make good use of having the oven on. Even better if you have a freezer and make more than you need and freeze some or alternatively have something 2 days running.

Is Jamie a London boy, who thinks that everyone lives in a clone city to London and is just down the road from Brixton market or equivalent?

PS agree that food markets tend to be 'trendy' and therefore pricier. In old markets (e.g Leeds,Brixton?) the long established stalls may be a bit cheaper but they are few and far between now!

My DD2s partner had a 'poor' family background and has been a rough sleeper. He always said that it was important to look good and not appear to be poor. He was horrified to learn that I, a middle class person (!), dressed my girls from charity shops and bought second hand things for them for birthdays and Christmas and still is annoyed when DD does this!! When you have little maybe you try to be like your image of people who have! Perhaps when you have a level of financial security you have less need to worry about what people think.

I wonder how many of Jamie's money saving meals will be Italian? He seems to have got stuck in a pasta and meatballs groove which is soooooo old hat now we are all going to be tapas converts

#hisheartsintherightplace

That's a very funny graph. Thanks, thatbags.

I see from the article that he is recommending that people go to their local market because produce will be cheaper there.
That's not my experience at all. At my local market (which is once a week, on a Sunday) stuff is probably fresher, and more of what's on sale is organic, but it is certainly not cheaper - quite the opposite in fact.

Good point stansgran.

I remember that, too, Grannylin. When we were children, my mum would get Providence cheques to buy us Whit Week clothes and sandals. She would say there was no way we were joining the Whit Walks looking like we hadn't two pennies to rub together. We didn't!

It is worth remembering that cooking from scratch costs money in the form of electricity or gas. It takes quit ea lot of time and skill to produce a meal that makes an oven on for an hour or so worthwhile. If you have a meter then its less likely to cut out over a microwave meal than a two hour slow cooked cheap cut

I remember someone on Desert Island Discs..Sir Stuart Rose? saying 'there is only one thing worse than being poor and that's looking poor'..hence maybe the need for symbols of affluence .....and looking really scruffy and living surrounded by heirlooms when you are stinking rich.

Sorry - I thought we were already there - just trying to lighten the mood!

Oh, please , don't take us back into that topic, Greatnan, not again!