Mari-Lynn Flaig
10/23/2020 10:59 AM
I had to do more research on this topic, because I was a skeptic about what "food apartheid" really meant. As I went through and investigated, I found out the following things:
Stores are set up where most of the nutricious and necessary products are on the outside of the store. The snack food aisles and so forth tend to be towards the inside of the store.
Prior to covid, it was as inexpensive to eat out as it was to purchase the foods from a store and prepare them, and in most cases less expensive.
You are more likely to find high carb/high fat/high sodium junk foods in cafeteria style lunchrooms at colleges and schools. They make it cheap and easy for parents to fund a budget account, rather than having your child take a bagged lunch.
It's a social acceptance tactic in schools to get the meals from the cafeteria, rather than bringing what "mommy makes".
When you learn from a young age to do this, it's hard for the cycle to be broken.
Our meals are closely linked with how our family bonds. The more meals we share (as in share in the preparation and clean up, as well as share at the table) the more closely we talk about our days and relate as people. This is critical in children learning vital social skills on how to work as a team and cooperate with others.
Working together as a community, first starts with working as a family at home. You can not have one with out the other.
Stores are set up where most of the nutricious and necessary products are on the outside of the store. The snack food aisles and so forth tend to be towards the inside of the store.
Prior to covid, it was as inexpensive to eat out as it was to purchase the foods from a store and prepare them, and in most cases less expensive.
You are more likely to find high carb/high fat/high sodium junk foods in cafeteria style lunchrooms at colleges and schools. They make it cheap and easy for parents to fund a budget account, rather than having your child take a bagged lunch.
It's a social acceptance tactic in schools to get the meals from the cafeteria, rather than bringing what "mommy makes".
When you learn from a young age to do this, it's hard for the cycle to be broken.
Our meals are closely linked with how our family bonds. The more meals we share (as in share in the preparation and clean up, as well as share at the table) the more closely we talk about our days and relate as people. This is critical in children learning vital social skills on how to work as a team and cooperate with others.
Working together as a community, first starts with working as a family at home. You can not have one with out the other.
