Revolutionize your life! Become Educated, Get Active, Get Involved!

This is only the beginning. We are tired of settling for less than healthy. Fillers, fake sugars, and additives have invaded our lunch room, and every day we fight the battle against junk food in the lunch line and at the school store. For many years, people have labeled teenagers as being unhealthy and uninterested in health and nutrition. That is simply not the case, and we want to show the world that it's time for a change. A Food Revolution, if you will. It starts right now, with you.

It is extremely important for teenagers and young people to fuel up with healthy and nutritious foods in order to stay focused and have a clear and concentrated mindset while at school. Our cafeteria and school store currently offer some items that could be classified as healthy, but these are often overshadowed by the snacks, sodas and junk foods that are served in large quantities every day. Needless to say, there is plenty of room for growth in the field of nutritious snack options and meals!

Many items sold in our cafeteria are filled with artificial colors, preservatives, and unhealthy sugars and fillers, not to mention all of the additives and supplements in the foods that are not advertised in the signs at the snack store and in serving lines. You can guess that some of the meals you purchase at school are far from nutritious and do nothing to help you live a healthy and active lifestyle.

It starts with convenience. The convenience of the snack and serving lines in the lunch room offers up the option to purchase cookies, ice cream and other junk foods each and every day. We all enjoy these treats every once in a while, but is a school cafeteria really the place to be eating sugary and dessert-type foods all the time? The answer is no. Lunch is supposed to be a time to refuel your body with the energy it needs to think, work and play for the rest of the day. Save the snacks for spending time with friends and family on the weekends. While in school, we should all choose foods that will provide the nutrients needed to keep us alert and active through all of our daily activities until we get home, not the ones that give us a sugar rush for a class period. It is hard to step away from the sweets, but in order to contribute to the healthy lifestyle that we all desire, we must choose to drop the junk.

Some of you are probably dying to ask questions, like:
“Why can’t we just get rid of all of the “fake” foods and junk that we eat at lunch and replace them with fresh fruits and vegetables?”
“Where are the meals that are made with whole grain and lean meats?”
“Why can't the candy bars and chips be replaced with protein bars, actual granola bars, healthy yogurts and other high energy foods?”
“What if the burgers were real and the chicken was grilled?”
The answer is simple. As of now, what is served in the lunch and snack lines is all up to you. Think about it. We can bring true change to our cafeteria if we want to. It is all about one thing: Supply and Demand, which boils down to:

How you CHOOSE to spend your money. There are some “healthy” options already available – salads, yogurt and single serving fruit are in the crisper in the serving line, but they are often bypassed for the pizza, fried chicken sandwiches and fries. While some might look at meals such as Trix yogurt with soft pretzels and cheese sticks, or fried chicken salads with cheese sticks and honey mustard as being “on the fringe” of healthy eating, they are undeniably the better option when compared to the rest of the foods on the menu. In the snack line, there are cereal bars, fruit juices and bags of pretzels available, but they are often overlooked by many students when placed next to the ice cream cartons, milkshakes and spicy nacho chips. Why doesn’t the cafeteria replace these foods with healthy options? Why do they sell them to begin with? In an ideal world, Food and Nutrition Services would serve wholesome and nutritious snacks every day in place of junk food. Unfortunately, the current circumstances are very different. These foods are sold to create competition with the school store and vending machines, which offer an abundance of sodas, sugary drinks, icecream bars and candy to students every day. If the cafeteria chose to not sell these items anymore, the students would take their money and spend it where these sweets were sold, and Food and Nutrition Services (the cafeteria) would lose money.

This is where you come in. If you stopped buying these junk foods, the cafeteria, school store and vending company would have to offer different products in order to generate revenue; in our case, this would mean healthier meals and snacks. Going back to the “ideal world” scenario, if everyone stopped buying the bad stuff and demanded healthy options, our problem would be solved and there would be no need for this movement at all! Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy. We are required to take steps to bring about change. In order for a Food Revolution to succeed and for healthy and active lifestyles to be maintained in our school and community, steps must be taken across the board – this includes participation from the student body, the teachers, the administration, the parents and boosters and the local community.

Education: Many teenagers are uneducated about the foods they put into their bodies every day and how they are used and stored as energy. Many have never been taught how to choose foods that follow a nutritious and well-balanced diet; this causes them to be at a disadvantage when trying to live an active and healthy lifestyle that we as teens need to grow and mature as young adults. In school, we are no longer taught about health and nutrition – this has caused us to become a generation that, for the most part, doesn’t care about what we eat, when we eat it, or how our bodies use it. The lack of education on proper nutrition and health is a key contributor to the bad choices that are made in the cafeteria every day. In order to correct and change this problem, we aim to gain the support of our teachers, educators, parents and community to help us bridge this knowledge gap. We need to educate ourselves on the benefits of healthy eating and living so that we can educate our families and the future generations to come – this will happen with the support of the school and community.

Action and Activism: With proper education comes the knowledge needed to bring about change in the cafeteria. After we educate ourselves, our peers and our families on how to maintain a well balanced diet and lifestyle, we will be able to actively pursue healthy options at school and at home. As the movement progresses to this point, there will be enough knowledgeable consumers in the cafeteria to cause a demand for healthy meals and snacks. While everyone will not ultimately “buy in” to this movement, with the help of teachers, administrators, and nutrition-savvy students coupled with continuing education on nutrition and health, there will be a market that causes a constant demand for healthy foods in the serving lines at school. As students begin to make healthy choices for themselves, some will look to the community for help in bringing the movement home to their families.

Community Involvement: After we have educated teens on the benefits of eating healthy and staying active, and after they begin to make choices for themselves at school, some will begin to seek out healthy options in their own homes and lives away from school. This is where the local community will undoubtedly become a part of the movement. We need the support of local businesses, fresh markets, local farmer, coffee shops, grocery stores, skate parks – everyone – in our attempt to bring about true change in our generation. When it comes to healthy living, food and nutrition is simply the start. Healthy living employs nearly every aspect of life, and in order to keep teens healthy, we need to keep them interested! If you are a local business person, restaurateur, store owner, farmer or any other member of the community interested in supporting this movement, please contact us! We need your support, and we’ll gladly give you ours!

It’s time for a change, Mauldin. We have outlined the steps. We are beginning phase one now. The Revolution starts with you. Step up and take the challenge. Living a healthy and active lifestyle not only benefits you, it also directly impacts your family, your friends, and your community. Together, we can begin a Food Revolution, but it doesn’t stop there. After all, this is only the beginning.