School diners saved me… they are vital for kids’ brains says Josie Gibson as she backs The Sun’s best school cook award
JOSIE GIBSON’s bubbly personality and willingness to poke fun at herself has made her a much-loved telly star.
But the This Morning host has opened up about how her childhood was far from plain-sailing.
One of seven siblings growing up in Bristol, Josie, 40, told how she relied on free school meals as there often wasn’t a hot meal for her when she got home from school.
Speaking to The Sun to support Jamie Oliver’s third annual School Food Awards, Josie reveals how school dinners saved her.
She said: “I didn’t come from a home where there were many cooked dinners on the table, so my only proper cooked dinner was at school, and we had free school meals.
“I just really used to look forward to a proper dinner.
Read More on Fabulous
“I realised at school that if you put your hand up for seconds [second helpings], they had to keep giving you seconds until your hand went down.
“So my hand was firmly up because I didn’t know where my next meal was coming from. I would have seconds of everything.”
“I remember the turkey burgers, and you wouldn’t have proper mash, it was Smash back then, with garden peas, sweetcorn and then semolina pudding. We’d also have cottage pie, lasagne, pasta and iced buns!”
In the past Josie’s mum Mandy, who has traveller roots, took Josie and her three brothers and three sisters on caravan trips for entire summers, often living with no electricity, gas or running water.
Most read in Fabulous
She said: “We’d be gone for eight weeks at a time, we’re old-fashioned people and that’s how we live.”
At age 14, Josie, who won Big Brother in 2010, went to live in a cabin on her aunt’s farm where she had her own horse and cart.
Backing TV chef Jamie Oliver’s crusade to find Britain’s best school dinners, Josie reminisced about how she loved the stability and routine of her tiny village school as a child.
She said: “I went to a lovely little village school, so everybody knew everybody, and I still know my friends from school now.
“I still bump into people who were in my class.”
The Sun is teaming up with Jamie for the third year running to search for Britain’s best school cook, with our School Chef Champion award.
The award aims to shine a light on school chefs who go above and beyond for pupils.
Last year the gong was won by Hugo Alho at Reach Academy Trust, Feltham, West London.
Hiding veg in meals
Hugo, who has been the chef at the school for seven years, makes everything from scratch and would hide veggies in meals.
As well as The Sun’s award, there are six other categories including Food Educator in the Good School Awards, which launched last week on This Morning.
Josie, who is mum to six-year-old Reggie, said: “Getting good food inside our kids at such an important time in their life is vital. When they’ve got to have their brains in working order, they’ve got to have their bodies in working order.
“I’d love to be able to shine a light on school chefs because it is a huge task that they are given!”
Josie says she also has fond memories of her school dinner ladies. She added: “Dinner times at school were a really special time for me, those dinner ladies made such an impact on my life.”
Josie revealed that she is very conscious of her own young son eating healthy meals.
She revealed that Reggie suffered digestive problems as a baby and had to follow the high protein, low-carb “paleo” diet.
She said: “When Reggie was younger he had a fermented gut and he was sick for about two and a half years, until he was diagnosed. I had to put him on a paleo diet to clean up his gut and he’s been as right as rain since.”
The School Food Awards are open to nurseries, pre-schools and non-fee-paying primary and secondary schools in the UK.
Celebrity chef Jamie was inspired to launch the awards three years ago as part of his more than 20-year crusade to improve school dinners.
He said: “Over the years I have pointed out what had gone wrong with school dinners. But with the awards, I wanted to celebrate those people getting it right.
“You can either make a documentary about how bad things are or celebrate what’s good.”
School meals a lifeline
The dad-of-five added: “Twenty years on I am still passionate about kids’ nutrition. It is finding those real people who are doing really great things for kids that keeps me going.”
“It’s not a luxury feeding kids well at school. It’s a necessity. It is a fact that Britain has never eaten less veg or cooked less than now.
“We need to change that. In today’s world it can feel like we can’t control very much, but we can control what we shove in our gobs!”
Fitness expert Joe Wicks is also a celebrity judge on the awards.
Like Josie, he too said school dinners were a lifeline for him as a kid as there often weren’t meals at home in the evening.
He said: “I was a free school meals kid all through school, so I have lots of great memories of the classic school dinners.
“The midweek Sunday roast with a thin slice of butterscotch cake and a dollop of cream on top will always be my fave.
“I was good at sweet-talking the dinner ladies into giving me an extra serving at lunch. I always loved the dinner ladies.”
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Praising school chefs, Joe said: “It’s so important to me and I am so passionate about helping other parents with their kids, too. I have four kids and I know how challenging it can be.
“School chefs are the heart and soul of the dining hall! They don’t always get the credit they deserve, so I love that these awards are shining a light on them and acknowledging all the hard work they put in all year round to feed millions of children.”