By Widget Finn (Telegraph.co.uk)

Jamie Oliver's campaign for healthy eating in schools was an amazing piece of timing says Dr. Jennie Cockcroft. "It was just when we were setting up PhunkyFoods and his message tied in perfectly with what we were doing."

PhunkyFoods, founded by nutritionist Dr. Cockcroft and marketing entrepreneur Sorrell Fearnall is a programme of healthy eating which is delivered by teaching assistants in primary schools. It started when Fearnall had a friend whose overweight son was prescribed anti-depressants by a GP. She says "What they needed was help with a diet, which gave me the idea going into schools to teach children about eating."

She wrote a business plan, then advertised on the website Dieticians Unlimited for a nutritionist experienced in working with children based in the north of England.

Cockcroft responded - "I loved my academic career but was married to an RAF pilot so moved every three years, and wanted to do freelance work" and they discovered that they lived in the same road in Harrogate.

Cockcroft had set up a lending library on healthy eating in schools but found that the materials weren't being used. "Schools hadn't the time or knowledge to deliver them, so we decided to produce a package, writing the curriculum and lesson plans then training the teachers to give them the confidence to deliver, which is the key to the programme working."

The business partners started in an after school club at the local primary school, dressed up as a banana and pumpkin and singing the 'Five-a-day rap.' But they weren't getting to their target audience explains Fearnall. "The children in the club had parents who could afford to send them, and knew about healthy eating. We wanted to get in front of the children from deprived backgrounds."

PhunkyFoods took off when the government brought in the Preparation Planning and Assessment Time scheme. Teachers had to spend 10pc of their time outside the classroom doing preparation and assessment, which gave the schools the problem of what to do with the children for those two hours a week. Cockcroft found that in Harrogate schools they were stuck in front of a video. "We decided to design a programme using an hour on healthy eating and an hour on physical activity. Every detail was planned for delivery by teaching assistants."