Locals review "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution"
"Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" focuses on Oliver's efforts in Huntington in 2009 to promote healthier eating habits by encouraging food preparation from fresh ingredients. Those efforts were focused on local schools, families and a kitchen to teach people how to cook. Each week, we will have local residents weigh in on the episodes.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Forrest McGuire, 17, is a senior and student body president at Huntington High School, where part of "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" was filmed. He is captain of the Huntington High men's soccer team and a member of the Huntington High swim team. He is an active member in the HHS Young Republicans, Key Club and Student Council. He plans on attending Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in the fall and majoring in business.

What do you expect to see in this series?
To see Jamie Oliver find a target group of people in the community and set a goal for them to eat healthier and teach them how to cook healthier meals.

After seeing the first episode, what are you expecting from the rest of series?
I'm expecting to see a lot more change, he started out pretty shallow in the Central City Elementary school and didn't get too far being in there but i expect that he will expand his view to other schools and have more success there. Also it seems there will be a lot more drama being put into the series, with more people being aggitated and seeing Jamie cry more it looks like it will be a mix of a drama reality show tied in with a message of healthy eating.
How do you think Huntington/ the school system was portrayed?
Very poorly, it seems that they are basically calling everyone hillbillies and showing the kids having pure ignorance. I can see that it will be needed to create drama, especially between him and the cooks and i can see why it's needed to capture the viewers attention, but truthfully they are shedding a bad light on the Central City Elementary staff and kids. This will turn around hopefully to show that with such adversity in his way that Jamie can turn these kids who eat terrible food into healthy eating children through the program and eating styles he is endorsing.
Was your initial response to the episode positive or negative? Why?
Definitely negative. In this episode they piled in all the negative aspects of Huntington from going to the radio station, to the cafeteria at Central City Elementary and then to looking into the food qualifications down at his restaurant. This should as I mentioned earlier, build the drama that will then unfold into bringing Jamie into the spotlight later on in the series to glorify his work.
Does Oliver make it clear why he came here?
Yes, he explained well why he was here and what he planned on doing. He hasn't yet uncovered all of his plans on how to revolutionize an entire city, but he has started by "planting the seed" into the elementary school and then he will move on from there to "plant" more "seeds" for the revolution to fully take place.