Dear Present and Future Teachers,
I am writing this letter to help educate you about the dire state of our national school lunch program. Childhood obesity statistics are on the rise and have caught the attention of the American public. Since the 1980’s obesity among children and adolescence has nearly tripled. There are many factors that contribute to childhood obesity such as: schools serving sugary drinks and highly processed foods, lack of physical activity, increased portion size, and children spending more time in front of televisions and computers. Improving school lunches and breakfasts is one way we can help fight obesity.
Schools often serve highly processed foods that are filled with additives, high fructose corn syrup and artificial ingredients. Together we need to start a food revolution. We owe it to our children to be serving them fresh, local, and organic food. Everyone needs to be engaged in this issue because we all have a responsibility to educate students on healthy eating choices. Whether you are a student, teacher, parent, nurse, food service director, principal or school administrator, our communities need your help. Collectively we can make a difference by helping to replace junk food with salad bars, fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grain breads.
The Obama administration has launched several initiatives to improve school meals and help educate kids, teachers, and nutrition professionals about food and nutrition. We must educate and reconnect children to gardening, lunch prep, and cooking. This includes teaching children where food comes from, so that they can make informed choices for their lifetime. It is our duty to put an end to alarming statistics of childhood and adolescent obesity. I hope you will do your part to help support school lunch reform.The school food situation is complex, but changes can be made one step at a time. As Jamie Oliver said, “it is our responsibility to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook, and to empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”
Kind regards,
Annie Fulmer
Annie- I appreciate your passion about this topic. As teachers, I feel that we get so wrapped up in the scholastic issues around students that we often forget about the "whole student." What our students put into their bodies, especially while in school, is so important.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the thoughtful presentation of this topic and your motivational letter.
Again, it's an issue with funding in education. We need to fund our schools, so they have an opportunity to get foods that are not mass produced for efficiency and profit. However, a good idea is to make sure our schools have gardens and we are using the food we produce.
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