How+does+poverty+present+itself+in+the+issue+of+school+nutrition?

Faith Hoffman

1) Drenowski A. & Specter, S.E. (2004). Poverty and obesity: the role of energy density and energy costs. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 79, 6-16. Retrieved from http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/79/1/6.full.pdf+html.

In this article, Drenowski and Specter make a clear connection between obesity and poverty using a simple series of cause and effect relationships. First, energy dense foods which are high in refined grains, added sugars, or fats represent the lowest cost to the consumer. If a family is struggling to make ends meet, these poor quality foods are more likely to be purchased because they take up a smaller portion of the budget and because in many cases, they taste good. In their difficult economic position, poor families end up consuming low quality diets lacking fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins and as a result, their eating habits end up increasing their risk to be overweight or obese. As a result, the highest rates of obesity occur among the population with the highest poverty rates and the least education. Drenowski and Specter argue that these statistics result from an unequal access to a healthy diet: healthier diets cost more money and are therefore beyond the reach of many poor families. Instead, a family's limited budget forces them toward energy dense foods that provide the maximum calories for the minimum monetary cost, while at the same time posing the greatest cost to their family's health.

Establishing a strong connection between poverty and obesity was important to my research because it provides a basis for the claim that poorly funded schools face the greatest challenge when it comes to school nutrition. If a school is located in a poor area, whether urban or rural, it is more likely that a large percentage of its student body will be obese or overweight. Additionally, many of those students may suffer from food insecurity to the point where the meals they eat at school are the only meals that they know they will have that day. The food provided to these children needs to be the healthiest, most nutritious food possible and yet in reality, the food they get in the school lunch line is more likely to be the same low cost, low quality, energy dense food that they would be offered at the local fast food restaurants and corner stores. Although this emphasis of poor schools getting the short end of the stick may seem overused, it is nonetheless an important point to make in our group's project because poor nutrition does not just affect a student's education, it affects their overall health. To turn the other cheek and abandon these children to the nutritional waste lands in which they live is a terrible mistake because it will result in a generation of unhealthy, overweight or even obese Americans trapped in the bodies that their environments created for them.

2) Cullen, L.T. (2004, June 7). America's Obesity Crisis: Economics: Not Too Rich or Too Thin. Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,994387,00.html.

Lisa Cullen's report from //Time// magazine provides further support for the idea that the children of the poor face greater odds in the fight against obesity. In her article she provides a useful definition for a food desert and explains why people living in these places are unable to afford healthy, nutritious foods because rather than buying their weekly groceries from a supermarket, families living in food deserts are forced to shop at convenience stores and gas stations. Cullen also makes an interesting point about the kinds of neighborhoods that qualify as food deserts. She argues that parents would rather have their kids stay indoors than play outside in unsafe streets, and it is logical that this lack of exercise only compounds the health problems associated with the improper diets poor children would be exposed to.

I liked Cullen's article for two reasons. The first was her definition of a food desert as a "place where big supermarkets are least 10 miles or a 20 minute drive away." I also liked the argument she made about poor children facing the greatest odds in fighting obesity. This idea became the centerpiece of my research and therefore I found Cullen's ideas helpful in making my part of the presentation. In addition to her ideas about unsafe streets discouraging exercise, Cullen also says that cash-strapped schools are more likely to cut physical education classes and strike franchise deals with snack-food and beverage makers. Ideas like these support my assertion that poor children, who are morel likely to be overweight to begin with, are surrounded by poor nutrition options just as often in school as out of it.

3) Walsh, B. (2008, June 12). It's Not Just Genetics. Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1813984,00.html.

A line near the middle of Walsh's article provides a relatively easy summary for his entire seven page discussion. Walsh claims that "the geography of childhood obesity is largely the geography of poverty." Walsh also explains that obesity is more prevalent among racial minorities. Walso goes on to mention food deserts in his article and also adds an interesting statistic saying that supermarkets are three times as common in neighborhoods in the highest quintile of income as they are in communities in the lowest quintile. Walsh also mentions the safety issue that Cullen touched upon in her article. He discusses the walkability of urban neighborhoods, which could potentially serve as an exercising advantage for children living there, ends up going to waste because parents do not feel it is safe for their children to walk the streets alone. Although his entire article was focused on how the American environment has become "obesogenic" he brings schools into the discussion near the end of the article. According to Walsh, schools are where children ingest up to 50% of their daily calories and as such he argues that schools are a good place to start to transform the obesity supporting environment that America has become.

Walsh's article was important to my research for several reasons. First, it provided statistics about overweight and obese children according to their race and financial status. It also added to my knowledge of food deserts that began in Cullen's article. The third reason I needed Walsh's article is because when he began discussing potential solutions for America's obesity epidemic, he pointed a large finger at America's schools. Improving food in our schools would only serve to improve the lives of the children in those schools and as the rest of his article explained, schools in poor areas have perhaps the greatest amount of work ahead of them if they are to truly help their students to live healthier lives.

4) Poppendieck, J. (2010, December 19). 5 Myths About School Food. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/818580192?accountid=28991.

According to Poppendieck, many Americans who think that they are informed about school food policy are actually in the dark about the true situations in America's schools. The five myths Poppendieck tackles are the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs, the issue of the brown bag lunch, the idea that kids won't eat anything green, junk food sales, and Congressional mandated nutritional standards. In regards to the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs, Poppendieck makes an interesting point about children being denied the free or reduced priced meals that they deserve as a result of registration difficulties. He also discusses the stigma that students face amongst their peers which might discourage them from taking the meals that they qualify for. In regards to brown bag lunches, Poppendieck found that in many cases, students bring lunch from home that contain a sweetened drink or other junk food item. On the topic of junk food sales in school cafeteria's, Poppendieck found that on average, they bring in only 71% of the costs associated with offering them which means that schools end up using federal cash reimbursements for healthy food options to pay for these unhealthy a la carte items. The final portion of the article made an important point about efforts to improve nutrition in schools. No matter how many Congressional mandates are passed down to America's schools, student nutrition will only improve if the food they are offered outside of school improves as well.

This article added a significant amount of information to my part of the group research. I especially liked Poppendieck's description of what qualifies as a reimbursable meal. "The basic federal meal guidelines...require them to offer five components: meat or meat alternate, a grain product, fluid milk, and two servings of fruits and vegetables. The school meal is counted as reimbursable if students pick at least three of those components. A grilled chicken breast, a green salad, and a low-fat milk consitute a reimbursable meal, but so do a hot dog roll (the grain), a serving of french fries (the vegetable), and a dish of canned peaches (the fruit)." I also liked Poppendieck's research concerning the students that qualify for free or reduced price meals at school. Everyone knows how mean school children can be to one another, and I imagine it would be extremely difficult to deal with students teasing you because you couldn't afford a full priced lunch like the rest of your class.

5) Sheldon M., Gans K. M., Tai R., George T., Lawson E., & Pearlman D. N. (2010). Availability, Affordability, and Accessibility of a Healthful Diet in a Low-Income Community, Central Falls, Rhode Island, 2007-2008. Preventing Chronic Disease, 7 (2). Retrieved from  http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2010/mar/08_0257.htm.

This article provides an in depth look at what it is like to live in a food desert in Central Falls, RI. As an introduction to their research, the article begins with a discussion about the difficulties that poor populations face when trying to maintain a healthful diet. They even provide evidence that the presence of accessible grocery stores is directly related to the prevalence of overweight, obesity, and hypertension. In conducting their study, the authors of this article performed a market basket analysis in Central Falls to assess the overall accessibility, availability, and affordability of a healthy diet in Central Falls. In the end, they found that in Central Falls itself, only 1 small grocery store and 1 convenience sotre sold a full market basket of goods. Additionally, a discount supermarket in Pawtucket sold all the foods on the basket list and although it was located in a neighboring city, this was the only store of the three where Central Falls residents would be able to //afford// all of the market basket items. Additionally, the researchers found that foods that are readily available and affordable to the Central Falls community often did not include the healthy items recommended in the market basket and because of this, people in Central Falls may be at higher risk of developing chronic health problems.

I especially appreciated reading this article because it brought a national issue close to home. I found it to be a very humbling article to read because while it was easy for me to picture a food desert in New York City or Chicago, it was much harder to read about one here in Rhode Island. When reading about the lack of supermarkets in Central Falls keeping affordable, healthy foods out of the reach of the city's residents, my heart went out to all those families who are essentially helpless victims of their environment. Becuase the nearest grocery store is a bus ride away, they simply don't have access to healthy food that they can afford. Instead, they turn to the energy dense food that costs less and in many cases, leads to a greater number of health problems later in life. I also liked this article because I used one of their references (the Drenwoski-Specter article) as a part of my research for the project.

6) Mantel, B. (2010, October 1). Preventing Obesity. CQ Researcher, 20, 797-820. Retreived from http://0-library.cqpress.com.helin.uri.edu/cqresearcher/cqresrre2010100100. Document ID: cqresrre2010100100.

Barbara Mantel's summary report provided a variety of information about the obesity epidemic in America today. In the article's introduction to the article, Mantel gives a list of factors behind the epidemic including declining physical education and recess in schools, vending machines in schools, and price declines for low-nutrient, high-calorie like soda, fast food. Several articles following the introduction were not really applicable to my focus on poverty and nutrition in our schools, but eventually a discussion of school lunches and congressional action shed interesting light on the challenges schools face when trying to offer healthy food. Mantel's summary report also included an article about banishing food deserts in low-income neighborhoods. In this particular article, they included statistics saying that predominantly black neighborhoods have about half and predominantly Latino areas only a third as many supermarkets compared to white neighborhoods.

I read this CQ summary report at the beginning of my research and it sent me in a variety of directions to continue looking into the problems schools face in regards to nutrition and poverty. Some basic ideas I drew from Mantel's report became the search terms I used in later database searches regarding food deserts, obesity and its prevalence amongst poor and minority populations, and the current situation in American school cafeteria lines. One statement by a NY Senator particularly caught my attention. At the time of her quote the Senate was in the process of passing a bill that would provide an extra six cents for school lunches, and Senator Gillibrand said "We have a long way to go from six cents to the 70 cents we need." I found this to be eye opening in terms of the work that still needs to be done to provide healthy food options to our school children and I only hope that bills passed in the future will try to address this large gap in necessary funding.