Will Ferrell Playing a School Food Reformer? Why I'm Worried

The Huffington Post reported yesterday that the story of Jamie Oliver's fraught attempt to improve the school food in Los Angeles Union School District, documented on his Food Revolution show last summer, is going to be adapted into a feature-length movie.  Ryan Seacrest (producer of Food Revolution) will be a co-producer of the film, and the actors Will Ferrell and Sean William Scott are reportedly being considered to play the Jamie Oliver role.

The Hollywood Reporter sums up the movie's plot this way:

The story centers on a hot Los Angeles chef known for his popular gourmet food truck who gets into trouble and is sentenced to work at a school. The chef revamps the lunch program with a ragtag group of kids.

Now, I have mixed feelings about this.  On the one hand, anything that brings widespread media attention to improving school food is a net good in my book.  But at the same time, no one wants to shell out $9 on a movie ticket to see Will Ferrell deal with the real complexities of school food reform.  We're unlikely to see him poring over dense regulations, struggling to meet an underfunded budget, lamenting the lack of a real school kitchen in which to cook and store food, dealing with a cafeteria too small to accommodate his students, competing with fast food outlets because of an open school campus, or, most importantly, battling an unyielding Congress for more school food funding.

Instead I think we can fairly anticipate a "feel-good" ending to this film that's unlikely to bear any relation to reality.  And that's fine for entertainment purposes  -- yikes, even I don't want to see the real thing on screen -- but it's not fine if it leaves moviegoers with the impression that all it takes is "heart" and "pluck" (and, apparently, "a ragtag group of kids") to fix school food.

In fact, it was just that sort of nonsense that led me, normally an ally of Jamie Oliver, to strongly criticize Food Revolution last summer.  I was ticked off by Oliver's failure to tell viewers that the school he featured as a model for organic, scratch-cooked food actually receives significant outside funding, money which is not currently available to the vast majority of American schools.  In not sharing that relevant piece of information, by comparison every district not serving amazing school food looked poorly run -- or just plain uncaring.   And that unfair implication was only reinforced when Jamie asked a worker at this school about the stunning difference between its food and the usual processed junk we see in most districts.  Instead of mentioning the funding differential, she answered, "Well, it helps us to really enjoy our jobs."

In other words, if a school just has enough "heart" and "pluck," kids can eat organic lettuces and free-range chicken instead of canned peas and nuggets.

That notion does a real disservice to the thousands of school food directors in this country who are doing their best to serve decent school meals with the appallingly few resources they've been given.  And a film selling that false message will only compound their problems.

Still, though, when it comes to a movie about school food, who do you think is going to be first in line on opening night?  I'll save you a seat and a box of Junior Mints.

Hat tip to Dana Woldow of PEACHSF.org for tipping me off about the upcoming film.

 

Follow Bettina Elias Siegel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thelunchtray

Comments

[DrSuRu]

04:26 PM on 08/08/2012

Bettina, I share your frustration with Mr. Oliver on many levels. Way back in 2004-2005, when the Two Angry Moms film was in production, I wrote a letter and had it hand delivered to Mr. Oliver's people in London, inviting him to come to America and help us to transform school food. Thinking that Two Million Angry Moms and a Naked Chef (that was what he was known for at the time) would make a great combination. Never heard a peep out of him!

Years later when he and Mr. Seacrest's party came to town, their crew asked lots of questions of those of us who had already been hard at work in the field of school food reform. The big question they wanted to know about was money and how to get some. Collaboration with existing advocates was only available via the Food Revolution website.

I shudder to imagine what a fictional movie on school food would look like. Without some input from those of us who have been on the front lines for years and years, it will no doubt increase harmful stereotypes that won't help to move the issue in a forward direction.

Quite frankly, my last hope for school food reform is Anthony Bourdain. He has a toddler who will be off to school in a few short years, I doubt he'll put up with the insanity that currently passes for school food.

Susan Rubin
www.drsusanrubin.com
One of the Two Angry Moms

[Mary Ancona]

09:33 PM on 08/07/2012

Anything can be viewed from different angles and have different outcomes. Jamie may not have "disclosed" the additional funding but his true intent was and is to make a difference in children's lives. The movie in development will not capture as the writer stated the real issues of childhood obesity and diabetes. Making light of what he tried to accomplish is an insult to Jamie and everyone else that truly care about making a change for CHILDREN. What's next? Who else are we going to pick on because someone thinks it will be funny and make them some money? This is a serious problem and for once hollywood needs to grow up and stick some money where their big mouth is and help with this problem.

[Bettina Elias Siegel]

09:17 AM on 08/08/2012

Mary: I'm guessing, since Ryan Seacrest is the producer of this movie and also of the Food Rev show, that the movie won't make fun of Jamie, who's done such a good job bringing attention to the issues of school food, cooking illiteracy, the American diet, its effect on the health kids, etc. But whether the issue of "fixing" school food is portrayed with any accuracy remains to be seen.