We are researching the controversy of schools serving junk food. Our research question
is: should schools be responsible for combating childhood obesity in the United States? With
childhood obesity rates on the rise, parents are searching for solutions. One solution is to control
what their children eat. This is why some parents want to eliminate junk food from schools.
However, some schools use junk food to subsidize their income and some companies believe
they should have the right to sell their products in schools. This is where the controversy starts.
There are many opinions on how to handle the situation and each uses different methods to
present their argument.
Boukhris, Tommy T. A Public Response to Childhood Obesity: Evaluating the Fresh Fruit
and Vegetable Program in Texas Schools. Publication. Texas State University, Oct.
2007. Web.
https://digital.library.txstate.edu/handle/10877/3601
This report done by Tommy T. Boukhris is a report that reflects what the state of Texas
has tried to do to fix the obesity problem within their schools. He talks about the Fruit and
Vegetable program being implemented and its accuracy of fixing the problem. “Tommy
Boukhris is a Program Specialist V at the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), in
Austin, Texas. He works in the Center for Communications and External Affairs where he
manages executive level communications systems within DSHS divisions and programs, Health
and Human Services Enterprise agencies, stakeholders, and legislators.” In the first chapter
Boukhris analyzes the problem with childhood obesity and gives a good definition and examples.
Chapter three talks about the implementation of the Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) in the
Texas school system and if it works or not. Also contains a brief formal evaluation of the FFVP
in Texas and an introduction to the working hypotheses. Chapter 6 is also useful because it
summarizes the findings and shows an accurate conclusion to the research. We will use this
article when we talk about the theme of “schools”.
Summary By: Pate Rauluk
Braunstein, M.D., Glenn D. "Childhood Obesity: An Epidemic That's Growing Up
Fast."The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 21 June 2010. Web. 19 Feb.
2013
This doctor has wrote an article about the SATS of childhood obesity. He says “One of
every three children in America is now considered overweight or obese, and childhood obesity
has more than tripled in the past 30 years.” He talks about the many ways we have gotten to be
like this for example, I can be hereditary, sitting in front of the TV too much, not being active
and having poor nutrition. This article can be used to argue that the parents of children should be
help responsible for this problem and He lists many reasons most of them taking place in the
home.
Summary By: Jenna Aldulaimi
Cerretani, Jessica. "Targeting Childhood Obesity Early."Harvard Gazette. Harvard
University, 18 Sept. 2012. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.
Jessica Cerrentani talks a lot about how child obesity has become a huge problem and
giving the example that is it effecting 17 percent of children in America. She focuses mainly on
the children of our country and ultimately she wants her readers to understand the problem and
know what is causing in order to prevent it in the future. She continues her article to discuss all
the different ways we can prevent this from happening such as being breast fed and started good
eating habits early on in life. We can use this to talk about how obesity is an actually problem
here in the United States and further proving that point we can move on to discus why this has
happened and who should be responsible for it.
Summary By: Jenna Aldulaimi
“Childhood Obesity in New York City Elementary School Students.” American Public
Health Association -. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.94.9.1496
This article is a case study from New York City elementary schools and their decision to
test BMI in schools. The researchers that wrote this article are Lorna E. Thorpe, PhD, Deborah
G. List, PhD, Terry Marx, MD, Linda May, MA, Steven D. Helgerson, MD, and Thomas R.
Frieden, MD. They found out that 43% of the students were overweight and that it is definitely a
problem that they need to fix. Obesity among public elementary school children in New York
City is an important public health issue. “Particularly high levels among Hispanic and Black
children mirror national trends and are insufficiently understood.” We will use the information
given in the research to show that their students are at risk of obesity because of the statistics
found. The case study is organized well and is easily navigable to the information needed for the
aid of the analysis of the controversy.
Summary By: Pate Rauluk
FERRAN, LEE. “Michelle Obama: ‘Let’s Move’ Initiative Battles Childhood Obesity.”
ABC News. ABC News Network, 09 Feb. 2010. Web. 03 Mar. 2013.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Health/michelle-obama-childhood-obesity-initiative/story?
id=9781473
This article from ABC news is a source that includes the first lady, Michelle Obama. She
talks about how she wants the United States to see the childhood obesity be resolved and extend
the lifespan of Americans. She talks about several things in the article that we can relate to our
analysis. First she talks about the government’s role in battling the obesity. She talks about a
Nutrition Act that her husband is trying to pass. She also talks about the importance of battling
the obesity epidemic in schools. This quote is directly taken from the article. “On the front lines
in the war against childhood obesity are the nation’s schools, where 30 million American
children are getting a majority of their calories. In addition to the government’s effort to support
nutritional meals in schools, the first lady said there also needs to be a focus on physical activity
in school.” Her input on the issue will be used to direct the analysis with ethos, considering she is
the wife of the president of the United States.
Summary By: Pate Rauluk
Gonzalez, Isabella. “Childhood Obesity: Do Parents Have the Right to
Point Fingers?”Divine Caroline. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013.
http://www.divinecaroline.com/life-etc/culture-causes/childhood-obesity-do-parents-have-right-
point-fingers
Isabella Gonzalez gives many points in the article that aid to the relativity of the right for
parents to point fingers at fast food companies. She goes back and forth with the argument, as
she is neutral on the situation. Her article is basically the combination of researchers saying that
it’s the parent’s faults for the children’s weight problem and the parents saying that it’s the fast
food industries faults for not having healthier options. The argument of whether kids are getting
fat in school is also double sided in her article showing both sides arguments on the subject. We
will use this main point from this article “The government and other organizations are taking
actions to combat childhood obesity. For instance, first lady Michelle Obama’s Healthy Hunger-
Free Kids Act, which was passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate and is now
awaiting President Obama’s signature to become law. This bill encourages schools to serve
nutritional meals that comply with the standards set by the National Academy of Sciences.
Schools are given subsidies in order to make these nutritional meals possible.” Our themes
within our essay include the action of the government and this source will mostly cover this
subject.
Summary By: Pate Rauluk
Krisberg, Kim. “Schools Taking Center Stage In Battle Against Childhood Obesity. (Cover
Story).” Nation’s Health 35.7 (2005): 1-23. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.
http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.library.arizona.edu/ehost/detail?sid=304fb019-b159-4884-
9a9b9911c6420e31%40sessionmgr13&vid=8&hid=101&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ
%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=18199859
The article addresses USDA nutritional guidelines claiming they are out of date. Krisberg
most importantly points out that the current policies allows junk food such as candy bars and
sugary sports drinks to be sold in cafeterias. The article then explains things like sodas that
cannot be sold in the cafeteria, but can be sold in vending machines because the USDA
nutritional guidelines don’t have any power outside the cafeteria. The source is fairly biased and
uses words like “takes advantage” when talking about junk food companies subsidizing the
schools budget. This takes away from the ethos that a newspaper naturally has. However, she
quotes many doctors, giving her article logos and compensating for the loss of ethos through her
biases. This article has effective statistics and ideologies in favor of schools fighting childhood
obesity that can be used in our paper.
Summary By: Addison Earle
Lehmann, Deborah. “Why School Cafeterias Are Dishing Out Fast Food.” education.com.
edcation.com 2013. Web. 25 Feb. 2013
http://www.education.com/magazine/article/fast-food-school-cafeterias/?page=2
This article explains that schools sell junk food for the revenue. She explains that the
revenue is used for school programs such as field trips. The article also explains how the lunches
are made to fit the USDA guidelines. This article lacks facts, but presents very important
ideologies. Although the article is in favor of schools having junk food they express their opinion
from a fairly neutral stance. Lehmann stays away from pathos and using strong language. This
gives the article a seemingly neutral stand and gives the article ethos. This article would be
useful to present ideologies and reasoning to why schools should be allowed to sell junk food.
Summary By: Addison Earle
Li, Ji, and Neal H. Hooker. “Childhood Obesity And Schools: Evidence From The National
Survey Of Children’s Health.” Journal Of School Health 80.2 (2010): 96-103.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.
http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.library.arizona.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?
vid=5&sid=304fb019-b159-4884-9a9b-9911c6420e31%40sessionmgr13&hid=
Ji, Li and Neal Hooker base their article off data form the National Survey of Children’s
Health conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2003 and 2004. Using the
data from this research they point out relationships between BMI and physical exercise,
socioeconomic standings, academic achievement, and food programs, like the National School
Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. This scholarly article is very neutral. The article
has strong ethos because of the structure of the writing and the sources used. The article purley
relies on logos. This article is filled with good facts and statistics but lacks a view into our
controversy. This article should be used for facts and statistics in the paper.
Summary By: Addison Earle
MeMeRoth. “MeMe Roth- NAAO- Junk Food in Schools- Stuart Varney.”
Youtube.Youtube, 11 Mar 2007. Web. 25 Feb. 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yey4sZD3h0w
This is a video from fox news. Although intended to be neutral reporting the anchor
interjects opposing viewpoints while questioning the interviewee. He brings up the point that
people shouldn’t have the right to “parent” others children. He also bring up that it could cost the
schools thousands of dollars. The story also presents Meredith Roth’s, a concerned mother’s,
view on the issue. Although a biased source it presents both sides to our controversy. The sides
presented lack logos to back up their claims but contain a lot of the pathos from both arguments.
This article would be useful in presenting ideologies from both sides.
Summary By: Addison Earle
Moreno, Geraldine, Deb Johnson-Shelton, and Shawn Boles.
"Prevalence And Prediction Of Overweight And Obesity Among Elementary School
Students." Journal Of School Health 83.3 (2013): 157-163. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 1 Mar. 2013.
http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.library.arizona.edu/ehost/detail?sid=a2d32cbe-5adc-437b-
9b4e-726e68220ea5%40sessionmgr112&vid=6&hid=102
This article explores links between BMI and school programs, neighborhoods, and
socioeconomic status. Although the bulk of the article lacks a view into the controversy the
introduction is full of important statistics and also shows an opinion. The opinions of the authors
are that legislation regarding school lunches, venders, and physical exercise are the keys to
solving fixing childhood obesity. This scholarly article is very effective in its use of ethos and
logos. The reason for this is because they use the Center for Disease Control as a source. This
article would be great for introduction material as well as material for the parent theme of our
paper.
Summary By: Addison Earle
"Preventing Childhood Obesity by Reducing Consumption of
Carbonated Drinks: Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial."
Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2013.
http://www.bmj.com/content/328/7450/1237
The following article shows the results of drinking carbonated drinks in elementary schools. This
article talks about a test in which doctors and physicians went to 6 different schools and asked 3
of them to stop drinking soda and three of them to continue drinking soda. The evidence
gathered from this experiment goes to show the correlation with consuming carbonated drinks
and becoming obese.
Summary By: John Parker
Rabin, Roni Caryn. "VITAL SIGNS; CHILDHOOD: When the
Cafeteria Line Leads to Tater Tots." The New York Times.
The New York Times, 08 Feb. 2011. Web. 03 Mar. 2013.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/health/research/08childhood.html?_r=0
This article does a great job of showing the affects of eating a meal provided by your
school at lunch as opposed to bringing your own from home. In a study done at several
southeastern schools in Michigan there was a 29% increase in obesity found from children who
bought lunch at the school as opposed to brining it from there house. This goes to show that the
school is more worried about saving money than getting nutritious food for there children.
Summary By: John Parker
Ross, Robert. "President Obama Takes Fitness, Sports and Nutrition to the Next
Level."The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 June 2010. Web. 19 Feb.
2013.
Ross talk about how president Obama is working hard to take a big step in nutrition to
help aid the childhood obesity dilemma we are having as a country. He has created what he calls
"Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition.” Obama along with a council created the 50 pound
challenge to push young children to be healthy. A main thing to consider in what we are talking
about is who are the people that should be taking control and steeping forward stopping
childhood obesity. This is an example fo the government and the president of America taking
action in the prevention and solution for childhood obesity. We will use this source in our essay
to show that there are many sides to this issue and many people think that the government should
take action. This article is showing action being taken and a push for the greater of this country
and the children that live in it.
Summary By: Jenna Aldulaimi
Severson, Kim. "There's a Fight Inside the School Cafeteria."The New York Times. The
New York Times, 31 Mar. 2010. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.
This article is trying to prove that a main problem that is leading to childhood obesity is
school lunch's. It is said that “In Washington, where Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign
continues to point a finger at the school lunch line” A main reason for this is the funding that
the school is receiving which isn’t enough to have completely healthy food at school. Funds are
trying to be raised to help this problem. This article is a huge relation to our topic directly
attacking schools for the problem of childhood obesity in our country. This article can be sued in
our paper to have our readers see the side that schools are responsible and should be changing
the types of food they sell in class to help and prevent this problem in the future. We can argue
this source by showing the money that the school has and that has a huge factor on the food that
they are able to provide.
Summary By: Jenna Aldulaimi
Super Size Me. Dir. Morgan Spurlock. Perf. Morgan Spurlock. Sony, 2004. DVD.
Super Size ME is a documentary that follows Morgan Spurlock for 30 days while he is on
a diet of purely McDonalds. Throughout his documentary he does several interviews with people
in one way or another involved with the obesity epidemic in America. In one segment of the film
he interviews Mary Bollino, the Food Services Director, and some children. In this scene it
shows the children buying getting nothing but junk food for their meals. This scene is obviously
biased towards getting rid of junk food and takes away from Spurlock’s ethos. The scene also
lacks logos to back up the claims presented by Spurlock but it does a great job of outlining the
problem. This documentary would be great background information for the introduction of the
paper.
Summary By: Addison Earle
"Taking a Bite out of Childhood Obesity: New Proposed School Snack Standards."
LiveWell Colorado. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar.
2013.https://about.livewellcolorado.org/livewell-in-action/livewell-colorado-blog/taking-a-bite-
out-of-childhood-obesity-new-propose
Maren Stewart does a great job explaining the issues of child obesity and how it relates to
our schools. She goes on to say how the USDA has proposed an updated nutrition standards for
schools across our country. This new proposition will force schools to implement healthier
choices in school vending machines. Maren states some interesting facts; she mentions how 50%
of our children’s diet is directly correlated to our school’s food options, by implementing these
new ideas hopefully we will see a difference in childhood obesity ratings.
Summary By: John Parker
"Top 10 Causes of Obesity in Children - Boston Children's
Hospital - Top 20 Health Challenges." YouTube. YouTube,
29 Oct. 2012. Web. 03 Mar. 2013.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBTUcBgBVV4
This video shows the top 10 reason why are children are becoming more obese. The man
states that most of the issue of obesity is due to our poor diet. He mentioned that sugary drinks
were the top cause for child obesity but also that processed foods at factories play a crucial role
in our countries obesity problems. He also mentioned that lack of excersise was a huge cause for
this issue but that our diet is still the most important thing we need to be worried about.
Summary By: John Parker
Wallis, Claudia. “America’s Obesity Crisis: Activists: The Obesity Warriors.” Time.com.
Time Magazine, 7 Jun. 2004: Web. 13 Feb. 2013
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,994389,00.html
Wallis starts the article pointing out how junk food companies are advertising to our kids.
With the addition of their commercials representing themselves as healthful snacks there is a lot
of confusion. The article talks about how it’s hard for small communities to fight against junk
food companies with such huge resources. Wallis then brings to light the view of some peers.
One of these are Ludwig whom argues that promoting physical well-being should be part of a
school’s education. Ludwig also points some statistics behind soft drink and their relationship to
child hood obesity. Ludwig then explains that fast food meals such as Pizza Hut, Burger King,
and McDonald’s are still making it into our children’s cafeteria. Wallis then explains what the
government should do to stop this epidemic. This even includes the idea of taxing soft drinks to
raise money for combating obesity as well as a financial deterrent. This article presents a range
of views from removing junk food to compromises. The article has strong ethos because it was
wrote by TIME and it is fairly neutral. This article would be useful in presenting many sides of
our controversy.
Summary By: Addison Earle
Conclusion
I. Introduction – Addison Earle
A. Rhetorical Situation
i. Econ.
ii. History of obesity
iv. How obesity is becoming worse
v. What junk foods do schools sell?
vi. Ideologies
a. Freedom
1. Choice
2. Speech
b. Child
c. Parents
d. Schools- loco parentis
II. Theme 1- View points from Schools- Jenna Aldulamli
A. Intro- introduce topic Schools want better food
i. Schools money- not enough money for healthy food
ii. Parents should send lunch with children
iii. Schools want to put better food in schools
iv. The extra money from unhealthy food is used a lot to benefit other programs
in the school.
v. Children should learn to make healthy choices on their own
B. Talk about source
C. analysis
Schools make money off bad food
D. Talk about how this relates
E. Analysis
III. Theme 2- Parents- Pate Rauluk
A. State issue of childhood obesity
B. State sides of the argument
i.Parents want schools to have better food
ii. Parents don’t like the schools food they should provide their own
a.Parents don’t want other parents to have control over their children
iii. Varying degrees of action
a. tax soda
b. Get rid of venders
c. Update policies
iv. Parents should be responsible for teaching their children good eating habits
C. Body Paragraph I
i. Introduce article/source and background
ii. State Michelle Obama’s stance
a. What side of the argument is she on?
b. What kinds of rhetoric does she use within her stance?
iii. How does this relate back to the audience?
D. Body Paragraph II
i. Introduce article/source and background
ii. State both sides of the argument
iii. How are these effective to the argument?
IV. Theme 3- Companies- John Parker
A: Intro to companies
i. They make revenue they have the right to
ii. Some companies are trying to compromise in a sense by creating healthier
options
iii. Government rules and regulations
v. government rules and regulations
B: Rhetorical analysis on articles and how they affect the way the general public looks at
these big companies
E: Conclusion
VII. Conclusion- Addison Earle
A. Overview of controversies
B. Which argument was presented the best
C. Setup 3rd paper