Is Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Doomed in Los Angeles?

Celeb chef Jamie Oliver just can't catch a break with the L.A. school district. The country's second-largest school system recently put the kibosh on the filming of any reality shows on campus while school is in session. Oliver, host of the Emmy Award-winning show Food Revolution, moved to L.A. to film his second season. The reality show aims to improve the nutritionally devoid American diet, particularly honing in on school lunches. Los Angeles schools were pushing their plates away from the very beginning, with the school board refusing to let the chef film. Oliver tried holding a rally, asked parents to write in to the board, and even procured a roofless school bus and filled it with white sand to represent the shocking amount of sugar Los Angeles students imbibe in their school lunches' flavored milk each week. More than 1,900 Change.org members petitioned the L.A. school board to let Oliver film inside schools — no dice.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Oliver managed to get some filming in at West Adams Preparatory High School before the L.A. Unified School District (LAUSD) pulled the plug. The central L.A. high school is operated by MLA Partner Schools under a contract with the LAUSD. Oliver was planning to film at Manual Arts Senior High School in South L.A., which is operated in the same way, when the district said not a chance.

What exactly has motivated the district to put up so many road blocks? After all, Oliver helped a school system in West Virginia while filming his first season, eventually transitioning the city's cafeterias to make most meals from scratch. Why would L.A., a town consumed by the entertainment business, refuse this kind of help?

Officials have expressed fear over how the district will be portrayed on TV. An LAUSD spokesman said that the district's guidelines for school lunches were above the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines, but it's unclear if he was referring to the old recommendations or the new USDA school lunch guidelines that were recently released.

A spokesman for the non-profit group that handles film permits for LAUSD schools voiced the district's concern over filming of unscripted TV shows while classes were still in session. That's understandable; the filming of a TV show might certainly keep kids from paying attention in class, but so can a nutritionally poor lunch of frozen pizza and tater tots. In this case, the filming could in fact be a learning experience. Plus, let's be honest, many L.A. schools have been looking to get money from film shoots. As the Los Angeles Times article states, schools get extra cash by leasing out their facilities. The district charges more than three grand a day to film, and filming at L.A. schools has gone up by 40 percent in the last two years. Since when did L.A. schools become so camera-shy?

It looks like LAUSD is afraid of letting the world see what its public school kids eat, and frankly, it looks like cafeterias could use the help that Jamie Oliver is offering. Tell the school board to let Jamie Oliver in. Sign our petition to get Food Revolution in L.A. cafeterias.

Photo credit: MC Quinn via Flickr