The Toronto Star reports that the Toronto District School Board has come up with an ingenious way to get students to buy healthier food: it prices the junk food so it is out of their financial reach.
While the issue of students eating habits has gained significant publicity of late, especially as youth obesity gets headlines and school districts such as Los Angeles ban soft drink sales from school grounds, Toronto’s school board says it has had a health food pricing policy in effect for years.
Milk, for example, is 45 cents; soft drinks cost a buck. Vending machines carry a broad range of offerings, including healthier foods. And while the board of education recognizes that it can’t completely control students’ eating habits, it is using simple economics to steer them in the right direction.
While the issue of students eating habits has gained significant publicity of late, especially as youth obesity gets headlines and school districts such as Los Angeles ban soft drink sales from school grounds, Toronto’s school board says it has had a health food pricing policy in effect for years.
Milk, for example, is 45 cents; soft drinks cost a buck. Vending machines carry a broad range of offerings, including healthier foods. And while the board of education recognizes that it can’t completely control students’ eating habits, it is using simple economics to steer them in the right direction.
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So they’re not just leaning about nutrition, but also about money. The Toronto District School Board deserves double applause.
In all the debate that has gone back and forth on the site, we think that the best argument has been made for education – teaching kids about how to eat, how to take care of their bodies, and hoping that they make the right decisions as they get older. Obviously, they can’t be dictated to, nor controlled. But if we as a society used a fraction of the imagination that we use to sell young people stuff that’s bad for them to create and market healthier products, the world and its young people would be vastly different.
