SCHOOL dinners in Bolton are to undergo a Jamie Oliver-style healthy overhaul.

More than £500,000 is being made available to the local authority to improve the standard of meals by the end of the year.

The money is coming from a government pot which was set aside following top chef Jamie Oliver's much-publicised campaign for healthier meals in schools.

It will enable schools to spend 70p on the ingredients for each primary school meal, up from the current 48p.

The "Jamie Oliver" effect - the television chef started his Feed Me Better campaign in 2005 to improve the standard of school meals - is helping to combat the problem of obsesity among children.

In Bolton, just over 25 per cent of four and five-year-olds and nearly 30 per cent of 10 and 11-year-olds are overweight.

It is hoped that by introducing "home-made" meals as opposed to buying the majority of the food in from frozen, children will be able to lead healthier lifestyles.

The food could include sticky chicken, salmon and celery fishcake, lamb kofta, bagels, wraps and ciabattas, according to a report by Bolton's school meals service.

The local authority says it is so keen on boosting standards, that, subject to approval, it will be topping up the amount it receives from the government and spending an extra 2p on every primary school meal and 5p on every high school meal.

Education chiefs say it will put them on target to meet the Government's requirement to spend 70p per meal for primary schools two years ahead of the 2009 deadline, and 90p for secondary schools by that year.

Jane Barber, catering and training officer for the school meals service in Bolton, said: "We are looking forward to the changes as it is good for the staff to use the skills they have acquired over the years.

"We want to be even more innovative with the menus in the future and we need to get mums and dads on board to help us promote healthy eating for their children at home as well as at school."

Money is already being used to ensure school kitchen premises are well equipped and suitable for the preparation of fresh wholesome meals on site, as well as for the training of more catering staff and buying modern equipment.

Cash will also be spent informing parents of the changes in a bid to encourage them to sign their children up for school meals.

Figures released in November showed that fewer high school children were opting for school dinners than the year before but this was blamed on "falling roll numbers, variations in weather, school timetables and religious festivals".

The uptake of school dinners in primary schools, however, went up.

Some kitchen staff blamed the downturn on the "Jamie Oliver" effect, claiming children preferred junk food.

The council is also buying in less frozen food and has a test kitchen to develop more healthy and varied dishes.

A Bolton Council spokesman said: "It is a slow process to convert children's tastes to healthy homemade dishes and kitchen staff are patient and persevering.

"We ask parents to support the sterling efforts being made to improve dietary habits, by encouraging their children to try new flavours and foods.

"The improvement and progress being made is excellent and customers can be assured of real value-for-money, healthy and sustaining meals."