A CAFE owner who makes healthy home-cooked meals for pupils has urged more schools to follow Jamie Oliver's 'lunchtime revolution'.

Karen Haworth, who owns The Cobbled Corner, Chipping, took over catering at two village schools long before the celebrity chef's hit Channel 4 series highlighted the issue of unhealthy school dinners.

And the mother-of-four, of Broad Meadow, Chipping, has said her success in transforming the diet of children at St Mary's RC Primary and Brabin's Endowed School can be repeated across East Lancashire.

The Cobbled Corner took over dinners at St Mary's three years ago, with dinnerladies collecting around 15 homemade meals every day.

Brabin's Endowed brought the cafe on board last September and the cafe now rents its kitchens and cooks 40 meals every day.

Out went the dreaded turkey twizzlers and in came homemade fish fingers, feta and red onion parcels and veggie burgers.

Lancashire County Commercial Services, which provides outside catering for the county council, provides meals for 560 schools across the county but any school can opt out and bring in their own caterers.

Mrs Haworth, who bought the cafe with her husband Mike five years ago, said: "There's no reason why other schools can't do this. What has happened in Chipping proves it is possible.

"Schools need to speak to parents and get their encouragement before changing anything. When we were approached to do the catering for Brabin's we had taster sessions for parents, which proved a success.

"Everything we provided was homemade but we didn't try to do anything too fancy. If I had one criticism of Jamie Oliver's programme, it was that he tried to change things too quickly, from one extreme to the other.

"Our meals costs between 45p and 55p -- I believe Jamie Oliver told the Government it should aim to pay around 50p per meal -- so we are a little more expensive than the national average of 37p."

Margaret Gradwell, dietetic manager at Blackburn Royal Infirmary, said: "Studies have shown a healthy eating pattern can improve concentration levels, problem-solving skills and creative thinking."

Brabin's Endowed schools is closed for Easter break this week so was unable to comment, while St Mary's school declined to comment.