Josie Gibson goes back to the school kitchen for This Morning

Part of the shows support of Jamie Oliver’s Good School Food Awards…

Today on This Morning, Josie Gibson headed back to her old school, North Road Community Primary School in Bristol, to become a kitchen assistant and lunch break supervisor for the day, learning about the importance and hard work that goes into feeding kids healthy meals in schools.

One of the celebrity judges for this year’s Jamie Oliver Good School Food Awards, Josie donned a hair net and apron as she joined school chefs Liz and Tracy in the kitchen, helping with vegetable preparation and bread rolls, ready to feed 70 students for lunch.

Amazed by how much work goes into preparing and making nutritious meals everyday by school chefs, Josie said: “Trying to get them [students] to eat new things and trying to get them to eat healthy things sometimes can be very, very tricky.

“I don’t think people realise the amount of work that goes [into] feeding all these kids and giving them the nutritional meals they need, they’re our future… It must feel precious to do the job you do.”

School chef Tracy replied: “It makes you feel proud everyday… A meal that we do provide gives them all the nutrients and everything that they need, so that they get their brain power to be able to study on an afternoon.”

Reminiscing about her school days and one of her favourite meals, chocolate crunch and mint custard, Josie explained how much she enjoyed her school dinners: “You’d put your hand up for seconds and my hand never went down, all lunchtime!” 

Serving the students a selection of nutritious meals from mac ‘n’ cheese to vegetable pasta, Josie asked the students if she would make a good school dinner lady to which they agreed: “Yeah! Good mac ‘n’ cheese! Yummy!”

Jamie Oliver’s Good School Food Awards celebrates the amazing unsung heroes who day in and day out, go the extra mile to make sure Britain’s school children are well nourished. This Morning is a supporter of this year’s Jamie Oliver Good School Food Awards and has its very own award, the ‘This Morning Lifetime Achievement Award’, which will be given to a nominated dinner lady or person, or heroic school chef who has dedicated their career to feeding kids day in and day out at school.

This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV, ITVX, STV and STV Player