One
weekend night I was in my dorm room with nothing to do; so, I decided to hop on
to my Amazon Prime account and watch something. I scrolled through Amazon’s library
of media, until I found the documentary Super Size Me, a film that follows a
man who embarks on a 30-day McDonald, fast-food only diet. It aimed to bring
attention to the obesity and malnutrition problems faced across the U.S. The
film, especially it’s section on children and how they are leading unhealthy
lifestyles, reminded me of two things: the nutritional problems faced by
children in the Broome County area outlined by the needs assessment we read for
class and my own experience with childhood obesity. Thus, I was inspired to
find a nonprofit that would combat the less than ideal eating behaviors of
children in the U.S. and found the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.
The
Alliance for a Healthier Generation is a nonprofit that is dedicated to helping
the children of America live healthier lives by improving their eating habits
and encouraging them to be more active individuals. They accomplish this goal
by targeting the environment of the children of America. The organization
implements programs such as recess, improved physical education curricula in
schools, and making fruits plus vegetables readily available to children. They
meet with other nonprofits and groups with high child participation in various different
communities to discuss as well as create ways that can improve child health. And
finally, they seek to steer the behaviors of companies (e.g. fast food restaurants)
that can influence children into making poor dietary decisions towards encouraging
and facilitating a healthy lifestyle.
The
childhood obesity problem in the U.S. is a fierce one that needs to be
combatted. As mentioned earlier, I went through childhood obesity. I went
through having doctors scare me constantly about how my weight would negatively
impact my health, being afraid for my future, and dealing with having to accept
hard to swallow facts, such as I could develop diabetes before I could even
drive. This organization has already helped thousands of communities improve
the health of their children. They are transparent in their dealings, as they
submit yearly impact plus fiscal reports, and have been active for over a decade.
If I had to trust anyone with helping children suffering through obesity it
would be them. I can look at this organization and think that if they were in
my community when I was a kid, they would have had an impact on me.
Hi Anthony!
ReplyDeleteI found your pitch incredibly relatable as I have seen the long term effects of obesity on my greater and immediate family. Around the ages of 10-13 most members of my family go through a "fat phase" that they will often outgrow with puberty. When I was going through this myself I refused to let time pass and took matters into my own hands by going vegetarian and watching what I ate. My mother supported me in this, but I wish I had something like this organization in my community to eliminate some of the shaming and poor body image factors that surrounded it.
As we have spoke about in class, food deserts are a very real and very serious problem in the United States. I appreciate your note about Broome County, as I have noticed simply by doing my own occasional shopping off campus how difficult it is to find good, fresh produce. Luckily, I am on a meal plan here at Bing unlike many Broome County citizens who are looking to find healthier options for their children.
After looking over the Alliance's website, I was surprised to find out that they are supported by both the American Heart Foundation and the Clinton Foundation. You stated above their transparency with funds, but after clicking on their financials page I question how strongly they need donations. In their 2018 financial report, I noticed they have also teamed up with larger organizations to provide healthier, less sugary drinks for kids. While I think that this is an amazing cause that I personally relate to, would our class' donation make a difference to them? Thank you and I'm excited to hear you present more on this!
“Your daughter needs to cut down on junk food" is all my mom needed to hear from the doctor to strip away anything unhealthy and replace it with high nutrition, fiber, or antioxidant foods. I was overweight and had high cholesterol at a young age. My parents were never strict when it came to what we ate prior to the doctor visit. In fact, they believed that as I got older I would grow taller and lose my baby fat. But I never grew very tall and the baby fat stayed, so the day my doctor told my mom I needed to lose weight immediately, she opened up the kitchen cabinets and without a word dumped out everything that was unhealthy. She replaced the snacks with carrots, broccoli, and cut up fruit. I was forced to eat lean meat, banned from fast food restaurants, and made to join a variety of sports clubs. It took a year for my high cholesterol to be at a stable level and my weight to be average. At the time it was all a painful experience, but I was lucky to have parents who were that involved in my life. As you said, not all kids have that support. Some have parents who don’t know what actions to take or simply don’t have the money to take those actions.
ReplyDeleteMuch like the documentary “Supersize Me, ” the documentary “Food, Inc.” discusses the obesity epidemic. However, it focuses on obesity in families that are in poverty. The documentary presents a family who suffers from diabetes and obesity because they don’t have the money to change their eating habits. The family is aware that they need to eat healthier, but face a difficult situation when they can only afford to buy burgers from fast food chains. Fast and processed foods are often less expensive than healthier foods like fruits and vegetables because many of the ingredients come from crops subsidized by the federal government. So when people with lower incomes have to choose whether they buy healthy food for a week or use that money for rent or hot water, they are forced to choose the latter. Even at our own Binghamton University dining halls, the price of two pizzas, fries, and a soda cost less than a typical salad. This is the appeal to the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s plan to “[make] fruits plus vegetables readily available.”
The Broome County needs assessment says 18.6% of children and adolescents in the Broome County area are obese and 30.4% of adults are obese. In addition, the poverty level has increased in Broome County from 12.8% in 2000 to 17.4% in 2013. There are many places in the United States that are in this same position, which is why I agree that if we give Alliance for a Healthier Generation our donation, it will go to a great cause. Like Mahatma Gandhi believed, “it is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.”