Kids swearing off junky food? Yes! November boycott designed to make fast food uncool
Students are saying “No!” to fast food with a provocative – and smart – new campaign. Named Stick It to Fast Food, the effort by the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association (OSTA) aims to make people think and it calls for a fast food boycott through the month of November. This manifesto is the campaign’s rallying cry:
Fast Food Isn’t Real Food.
It was designed by food chemists in white lab coats. Sure, sometimes it tastes good, but that is their trick. If you put enough salt, sugar and fat in anything it will taste good. Fast food companies are getting rich feeding us garbage. And it’s making us fat and sick. This November, let’s go fast food free and stick it to fast food.
We Deserve Better.
“This movement has attitude and will speak to students, unlike other healthy eating campaigns,” says Hirad Zafari, high school senior and President of OSTA-AECO. “We want to make fast food [uncool].” The OSTA-AECO represents over 2.4 million students in Ontario.
Stick It to Fast Food is the grassroots student response to a nutrition-related health crises. A third of kids in Ontario are overweight or obese and chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and many cancers are associated with obesity.
Kent Van Dyk, a chef and culinary arts teacher in Ottawa, thinks this boycott is a great idea. “We need to do everything we can to turn kids off fast food and get them thinking about eating better and cooking for themselves,” he says. “We need to stigmatize fast food and what better way than having young people lead the charge.”
As part of the campaign, Stick It to Fast Food will be releasing videos, memes and images, and will provide recipes and recommended readings on its website for students to learn more. Check it out, show it to your kids and talk about it at home. The campaign offers a great opportunity for the whole family to get cooking nutritious stuff that will fuel good health.