Prince Charles Backs New Awards Scheme For Healthy School Food

December 2, 2008 4:46 p.m. EST

London, England (BANG) - Britain's Prince Charles has backed a new awards scheme for healthy school food. Charles paid tribute to the Food For Life partnership, which aims to take chef Jamie Oliver's Healthy School Dinners campaign a step further, saying it was attempting to "rescue over-industrialized" youngsters who know little about where the food they eat comes from.

The prince - a keen gardener - spoke at the first awards ceremony in London, saying: "Over the last 40 years it would appear we have created a whole generation, the parents of the children you teach, whose understanding of where food comes from and how it is produced is severely limited. And it is causing real harm."

"The over-reliance on packaged, processed food is not just damaging our own health, but damaging our bio-diversity, our soil to agro-chemicals and our water table to pesticides."

The prince went on to praise celebrity chef Jamie Oliver who he described as a "remarkable man" for his efforts to improve the quality of school dinners in his TV campaign launched in 2005.

Charles then spoke about a scheme where hospital trusts across the country are sourcing their food from local farmers in order to improve quality and cut costs, before talking about the "important task" ahead of awards organizers.

He added: "It is about rescuing today's generation of over-industrialized children, about instilling in them a life-long appreciation of food and the way it is produced and reconnecting them with nature."

The awards encourage schools to improve their "food culture" and give people the opportunity to plant, grow and cook their own produce and eat healthier meat and fish.

The Food For Life Partnership is made up of a number of bodies and led by the Soil Association.