Andrew Muir Pledges Support for Compulsory Food Education

The Good Guys, founding partner of Ministry of Food Australia, has pledged its support for Jamie Oliver’s global petition to make practical food education compulsory in Australian schools in an effort to help protect our future generations.

A passionate advocate for good food and nutrition The Good Guys Chairman, Andrew Muir, stated that the education system had been derelict in its duty and current education on nutrition was at best token.

“We must stop poor nutrition at the root cause. Importantly and urgently, we need to begin a completely new nutrition curriculum and standards in primary schools,” said Mr Muir. “It does cost money and it does take time and effort to run these types of programs, but the cost and strain on our health care system in the future, and the health of individuals in general, is of far greater importance.”

Over the next month, in the lead up to Food Revolution Day on 15 May, The Good Guys will place petitions in each of its 99 stores, with the aim of garnering the support of more than 200,000 Australians to put food education back on the school curriculum. Customers can also sign the petition by visiting www.change.org.

“Jamie’s petition is an important first step in getting the topic of food education seriously onto the agenda,” said Mr Muir. “As a country, we should want to be the best in the world at nutrition education and we need to make a stand and ‘inoculate’ future generations against diet-related disease.”

Instrumental in introducing Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food program to Australia in 2010, Muir believes that grass roots programs like Jamie’s Ministry of Food, Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Program and Jamie Oliver’s recently announced Learn Your Fruit and Veg program are good models because they help to empower and encourage positive lifelong change for better nutrition.

“These kinds of hands-on educations programs work and have proven to make a difference. This is a nation-wide issue and needs to be tackled head-on if we are going to achieve positive change.

“I call on all Australian businesses, communities and parents to get behind Jamie’s petition and show their support for compulsory food education as one united voice,” said Muir.

In March, The Good Guys celebrated five years as Founding Partner of Jamie’s Ministry of Food Australia. Since its inception, Jamie’s Ministry of Food Australia has taught over 19,000 people the health and happiness benefits of cooking from scratch.