Force-Fed Teens Find a Better Way to Scarf

You can lead a horse to the school cafeteria, but you can't make it drink V8 juice.

In New Brunswick, Canada,

Schools in District 18 banned junk food this fall to make room for more nutritious options. That means school cafeterias are serving up fruit and vegetables instead of burgers and fries. Unfortunately for the company that runs the cafeteria, it also means when the lunch bell rings, teens pile out of their middle and high schools looking for student specials at local fast-food restaurants. 

Wow. I'm shocked. Shocked. Who could have seen that coming?

Caitlyn Daigle, a student at Fredericton High School, says she won't spend money on food she doesn't want to eat. "I think that our cafeteria is just like, losing business now because students are just going to go to other places and get what they want there."

They just "get what they want." Oh my. Mustn't allow that.

Carol Morgan is a nutritionist with the Chartwells, the company that runs the cafeteria at Fredericton High School. She admits the new menu is hurting the bottom line. "We have seen a drop in sales due to the policy. It could be impacting our labour, staffing hours, so although we have seen that change, we're committed to making this work." 

Dream on, sister. And a pat on the back to the students, who, by voting with their wallets, score a one-two punch: they eat the food they want, and they're getting rid of the health nannies in the process.

Comments

[topal]

I love it! Some people need to learn the hard way ...

[Tlaloc]

While I have no problem with the teens voting with their wallet as I see it this is a victory for the schools, afterall if kids want to eat crap they can but that doesn't mean the schools have to serve it. Now the kids have healthy food on campus or at least maybe get some exercise on their way to get a quarter-heart attack with cheese.

[Grace]

The food served by Chartwells is appalling. I went to both George Street Middle School and FHS. At George street, at the age of 12 we weren't yet allowed in town for lunches, giving us one whole year to become addicted to the junk they went on to sell us for the rest of our school years.

When I was there (1999) there wasn't even an option for anything remotely healthy, and even at that age I remember having a problem with it. I couldn't find anything to eat that wouldn't leave me lethargic for the rest of the day.

Students may be "voting with their wallets" but they are voting for the (poorer) options they were conditioned to make.

Schools have done the right thing by sending a message that they don't condone eating fries, pizza and garlic fingers for lunch and it's a damn good thing they have.