LET'S face it, school dinners have never been popular with children.

I can still remember with a shudder the wafer-thin slices of reclaimed meat product drizzled with a watery gruel that I was served at school.

And I never once recall eating decent vegetables.

But, thanks to the single-minded zeal and determination of Jeanette Orrey the tide is beginning to change for a new generation of school children.

In conversation with Swindon poet Marcus Moore at the Arts Centre, the pioneering mother of three charted her culinary crusade from its humble beginnings at St Peter's C of E Primary School in East Bridgeford, Nottingham.

It seems that the rot set in when legislation was bought in during the '80s which opened the way for private firms to bid to provide meals in a drive dubbed "best value,"sounding the death knell for freshly-prepared food.

The no-nonsense Ms Orrey, who had risen through the ranks to become the school's catering manager, despaired at the changes which reduced skilled dinner ladies to nothing more than re-heaters of food and pretty dismal food at that.

"Many of the people I worked with decided to quit. They had been stripped of their dignity. The only tool you needed as a school cook now was a pair of scissors" she said.

"And then the shapes came in turkey twizzlers, cheese feet, chicken teddies and even pork hippos. I remember opening the oven doors and the stench was awful. I felt something had to change."

When, in 2000 the Govern-ment gave primary schools freedom from the local authority over the meals they provided, Ms Orrey jumped at the chance, sourcing real food from local farms.

The processed meat shapes and chips were replaced by menu items such as spaghetti bolognaise made with organic pasta and local lamb.

"The experiment soon took off," she said

"We started with 88 children having school dinners and now, 200 out of 220 pupils at our school take school dinners."

The success of the project gathered a momentum of its own and soon Ms Orrey was being asked to speak at schools and conferences all over the country.

And schools called on her expertise to help them reform their own meals Swindon's Lethbridge Primary School, which has radically overhauled its lunch menu, among them.

Her example also inspired celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who visited St Peter's School, to launch a television series in which he highlighted the dismal state of food served to youngsters.

"Although there is no scientific evidence available, I get told all the time by teachers that pupils who eat properly can concentrate on their work better. I think that we have lost two generations. You have children now who don't know how to use a knife and fork properly and never sit down to eat their dinner," she said.

"Eating proper food has social and educational benefits. It is going to take a lot of hard work to repair the damage.

"It just seems like common sense to me, it just needed someone to begin to make a change.

Jeanette Orrey's book The Dinner Lady is available from Bantam Press priced at £16.99.

Ben Fitzgerald