Jane Clarke, The Times Nutritionist, advised Jamie Oliver on his Channel 4 series Jamie's School Dinners. But Ms Clarke says that today's decision by the Government to channel an extra £280 million into school meals is not the end of the issue: there needs to be a total ban on junk food in schools.

What's your reaction to this announcement by Ruth Kelly - is it going to improve the quality of school meals?

Ask me in six months' time when I've seen the money going into schools and if this Government has got back in. And the money is going to be spread over three years, so there's no great, sudden injection of cash.

Besides, it's not just about the money. It's what sort of ambassadors, or champions, that the Government will be sending out from the School Food Trust, the people who will have to do the same thing that Jamie did in Greenwich.

So, what needs to be done?

We need to see junk food banned, it's simple. I'm not happy with the Government's answers at all. We make categorical decisions over child safety, so why not ban junk food, because junk food is bad.

We should also ban all high-sugar drinks from schools, too, and, of course, work with school staff, kitchen staff, training and empowering them. It's not about coming into schools criticising, it's about showing them different ways of cooking food. They used to recruit people who could cook but a lot of training needs to be done. It's atrocious that it's ever got to this stage.

And those schools that have lengthy contracts with suppliers?

They need to get out of those contracts

Is 50p enough to provide a healthy meal?

It is still a lot lower than our European counterparts, but it would still give us a better meal than we are having now. We've shown in Jamie's project that we can cook a proper meal for 50p.

For parents with school-age children, aren't packed lunches still the healthier option?

It all depends what you put in the packed lunch, and I think children having packed lunches has wide social implications. They don't always sit down and enjoy that communal act of sitting down and eating together. Certainly, many of the packed lunches we saw in Greenwich were just as healthy - or unhealthy - as burger and chips.

But we managed to make progress. Slowly and surely, school lunches went up and packed lunches went down again. We had a phenomenal success, which is why it's so mortally embarrassing for any government.

You've worked with Jamie Oliver. Are you surprised by the success of his campaign?

No not at all. He, like many parents, is just passionate that this has got to change. Through his personality, skill and motivation, he has driven home that message.

But you're not claiming victory yet?

Absolutely not - and it's not about a personal victory. Through the Feed Me Better campaign and the resource packs, we're hoping to get through to show schools one way to tackle this problem, but Jamie and I are well behind anyone else who continues this movement.

What's your advice to parents?

Get onto the Feed Me Better site, get ideas, get recipes - lobby the school to break any contacts with suppliers providing junk. Parent power is not to be underestimated.

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