Assignment 3: Persuasive Paper Part 1: A Problem Exists
name
ENG 215: Research & Writing
Professor
February 1, 2014
Introduction
In most public school cafeteria, you
will get chicken nuggets, chicken fingers and French fries. These are processed
food that is seen cheaper to serve, than fresh products. These are junk food
stuffs, which are supposed to keep our children healthy, and fight obesity.
Ironically, these food stuffs contain high sugar, salt, and fat (Schmitt,
2005). These are the main causes of obesity and overweight. It is not that
school administration does not know the effect of this food, but to them this
is an essential source of income. These food stuffs have gained popularity
among kids, to a point they are child’s favorite meal. To keep up with the
trend, teachers and parent use these junk foods as birthday presents, while
teachers give them as rewards. As the child grows, he/she will know pizza,
French fries, cakes, sodas, candy, and burgers as the recommended healthy food
by schools, teachers, and even the parents. This hinders the fight against
child obesity, and the need to achieve healthy diet (Haerens, 2012). There should be a strict regulation on food
served in public schools, to implement good and healthy lifestyle among kids.
Poor diet in public schools is as a
result of government failure. This is failure in funding, and failure in coming
up with control measures. The government has preached good health in Medias,
but on the other hand allows serving of unhealthy food in schools. Schools go
for these foods, since they are within their budget, and there is no money to
buy healthy food. The government should fund healthy programs, and put measures
to limit serving unhealthy food in schools (Landau, 2003).
The main cause of this challenge is lack
of enough funds to buy healthy diet in schools. This result from the poor
funding school gets from the government. To make income from food served,
schools opt to selling junk food. Schools may also get contracts from junk food
brands, which help them to keep the school running. When a school is under
financial pressure, it is more likely to sell junk food. The financial pressure
on parents too can cause poor diet. Parents may wish to make their children
happy, and they may not afford to get them a healthy diet. To solve the
challenge, they opt to buy them junk food, and promote this food in schools
(Royston, 2003).
The second cause of this challenge is
the presence of junk food brand names. These brand names have contributed to
increased junk food serving in public schools. This is through their target
advertising, which mostly target school students. These companies will set
their adverts near schools, or even in school cafeterias (Schmitt, 2005). This
attracts students, and teachers, who opt to respect the brand name, and forget
about their health. Some brand names will opt to run programs in schools, which
attract school directors (Sears, 2006). These programs may involve sport
competitions, or even scholarship programs. But in the end, these brand names
are targeting the food market niche in students.
Ignorance is the third problem. Teachers
and parents know the impact of unhealthy food diet in the future of their kids.
They have heard and witnessed some of the consequences of junk food. These
consequences include overweight, and obesity. These are conditions which are
present in most schools in United States. However, they ignore to acknowledge
the source of these problems, and continue advocating and promoting unhealthy diet
to their kids.
Ignorance on what kids are feeding on is
another challenge. This problem is fueled by teachers, students, and parents.
Parents leave the upbringing duty to schools, and they careless what their
children are doing or eating in school. Their main role is to look for income
to support their family. This creates a big gap between a parent and the
school, hence boosting serving of unhealthy diet. Teachers and school managers
on the other hand look at the financial gains from serving unhealthy diet, and
ignore the health of the kids. They are attracted to profit margins from junk
foods, and the time they will save. This puts the students at the risky end of
getting obese and suffering from other complications related to unhealthy diet
(Tartamella, Herscher, &Woolston, 2004).
The government should to take the issue
of obesity serious, and address it right from the schools. This is through
provision of enough funds, through government sponsored programs. They need to
investigate and come up with health and cheap diet to serve schools. Teachers
on the other hand should take the issue of unhealthy diet serious, and stop
falling to the temptation of brand names. This would be possible through
implementation of a healthy program within school, which educates kids on
healthy eating.
Brand companies should look for new and
healthy diet for kids; they should look beyond profits, and see the impact of
unhealthy diet on kids. Parents on the other hand should understand that the
health of their children is the most important thing in their life. This way
they should learn to give priority to the health of their kids. This is through
monitoring what kids eat at school and work hard to regulate, and promote a
healthy diet.
References
Haerens,
M. (2012). Obesity. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.
Landau,
E. (2003). A healthy diet. New York: F. Watts.
Royston,
A. (2003). Healthy food. Chicago, Ill.: Heinemann Library.
Schmitt,
B. D. (2005). Your child's health: the parents' one-stop reference guide to
symptoms, emergencies, common illnesses, behavior problems, healthy development
(Completely rev. & updated. ed.). New York: Bantam Books.
Sears,
W. (2006). The healthiest kid in the neighborhood: ten ways to get your
family on the right nutritional track. Boston: Little, Brown and Co..
Tartamella,
L., Herscher, E., &Woolston, C. (2004). Generation extra large: rescuing
our children from an epidemic of obesity. New York: Basic Books
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