Sophomore walk presents unhealthy food options
A greasy chicken nugget hits the smacking lips of a student, while another student chugs a two-liter bottle of Mountain Dew. Foods being purchased and consumed on the “sophomore walk,” the walk many DHS students take from campus to Anderson Plaza, is not allowing students to eat a healthy lunch.
As many DHS students stroll the snack section at Savemart, many others are purchasing two or three meals for themselves at McDonalds and Quickly for lunch while on the “sophomore walk.”
“Fattening foods can damage your heart, up your blood pressure, lose muscle mass, hurt your liver, and much more,” said Carlette Hartsough, nurse and health teacher. The food on the “walk,” is just that, fattening. If eaten enough times, it will hurt your body, and introduce hazardous eating habits, according to Hartsough.
Stores Screw-up
Most students agree that most of the food that is being bought on the “walk” is junk food, and contains lots of fat, sugars, and starches.
“Right now [students] don’t have the money to buy healthy food because of the cost. Junk food always seems to be cheaper,” sophomore Mia Unger said.
According to Hartsough, stores do not need to cut down on the junk food, but rather add more affordable, healthier options.
Students Slip-up
“Although there are unhealthy choices on the ‘sophomore walk,’ it is still up to the student to decide what to eat for lunch,” sophomore Maggie Koo said.
According to Koo, it is the student’s own fault if he or she decides to eat unhealthily. “One time I saw a student holding three boxes of French-fries. He was going to eat them all himself, but it wasn’t McDonald’s fault. It was his own,” Koo said.
“There are enough healthy options that if kids wanted to get [a healthy lunch on the ‘Walk’], they could,” junior Julian Wilder said.
School Shortcoming
Sophomore Katie Werner thought that the students could be eating a healthy lunch at school, but they are being driven away by unappealing school lunches. Although she agreed that the food on the “sophomore walk” is unhealthy, “[students] want to eat it because the school lunches are gross,” Werner said.
Many students and faculty, including Werner and vice-principal Sheila Smith agree that students don’t eat at DHS because the food just isn’t as good.
“I wish that the school had facilities that could serve all of the students’ needs, but unfortunately we do not, and the health of our student body suffers from it,” Smith said.
Seeking Solutions
Unger said that the best way to fix the problem was to tell the stores to lower prices on healthy foods, to make it easier to access them.
Koo mentioned that if students were more informed about what they were eating, then maybe they would try to change their habits.
Werner suggested that if the school lunches were improved, that would attract some students back to campus for lunchtime.
