This article appears in Dec 4-10, 2008.
selling junk food at the hospital
As a hospital employee I watch the students from Citadel High flood the Tims here every lunch hour. I have observed them buying many, many, many donuts. Two at a time. I know if I was a student and didn’t really care about my health I would do this too.
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This is ridiculous. I could hurt myself with a hair dryer if I was determined enough to. I could hurt myself with a dishrag, a cat, a can of tuna, or a bicycle pump. If I’m stupid enough to hurt myself with it, that’s on me. The same goes for food. Paternalism will just make society stupider. If those kids want to eat themselves into an early grave, that’s Darwinism baby, there’s too many people on our planet anyways.
“Your pathetic idea to increase the cost of french fries in hopes to deter students from buying them means that us over paid hospital employees can stay addicted to them. “Haaaahaha. So you pick on the students for not giving a shit about their health and then segway into it being about the hospital employees being too weak to resist fries? Seriously? And blame it on the hospital? Eating and smoking are personal choices you dink. This reads like those morons who sue fast food joints for “getting” them fat.
Citadel has already filled our school with ‘healthy food’, but because we want a treat now and then doesn’t mean that’s all we pig out on. It’s out personal choice anyways.
There is an obesity epidemic in North America. The only way to change this is to teach children and youth healthy eating habits. One would only assume that our own hospitals would support such ideas… apparently they do not. I mean sure, if the Citadel High students didn’t get their grease fix from the hospital’s cafeteria they would probably go somewhere else, but that is beside the point. The hospital should not be helping to fatten up these kids.
That cafeteria should ban all students in the first place. I had to go to the Infirmary on several occasions last year and this cafeteria was always packed with goddamn loud, obnoxious pimply kids ordering their daily quota of grease. This hospital should be ashamed of the shit they serve. Let the little fucks walk over to McHeartAttack’s to clog their arteries.
It is not the job of Ford to teach you how to drive a car, it’s not the job of Fender to teach you how to play guitar. It’s not the clothing store’s job to teach you to dress better and it’s not a food sellers job to “teach” kids how to eat. The school, yes, is allowed to limit their choices. Tim Hortons is most OBVIOUSLY not responsible for “teaching children how to overcome obesity”. God, you sicken me, I can just tell from everything you’ve written you’re the type of person who decidedly does not take responsibility for her own actions, her own mistakes, her own failings. Just because there’s fries available doesn’t mean anyone is forcing you to eat them. And you know what? Eating fries in moderation is not wrong ANYWAYS. If you can’t control yourself that’s your issue.
Somehow I don’t think greasy fries are as “addictive” as nicotine, but hey, what do I know.
afaik the cafeteria at citadel high isn’t large enough to hold all the students during lunch hour so that is probably a contributing factor to the overflow of students at the hospital.You can’t really ban students, because who knows if they’re there visiting someone or getting care. I was there once, I look young and I had a back pack (in between university classes) and I had a few smirks come my way because they thought I was a CH student (even though I’m in my late 20s!) so….what are they going to do? make you provide documentation on your treatment or documentation on your visit with a patient? HELLO invasion of privacy.
We are all connected. When we sit back and do nothing other than just looking down our noses at those who smoke and eat grease to the point where their physical health suffers we are hurting ourselves also. We should speak up. The ones doing this do have an addiction. I understand that calling it an addiction isn’t helpful because nobody wants to be labelled an addict or anything else for that matter. But that is for the psychotherapist to deal with. Action can be taken in simple ways. Stop selling the crap! It is like watching a family member with lung cancer smoking. Yeah it makes you want to sue the shit out of the cigarette producers, which many have done successfully. I think that is a great idea. Someone should sue the producers of trans and saturated fats. Force those comapanies that use them to put labells on their French fries of plaque filled arteries and the amount of money it costs us tax payers for coronary artery bypass surgery and all the other tests used to diagnose the fact that they sat and ate themselves into an unhealthy state. The fact is, these eating habits will and have cost us tax payers and absolute fortune. Since most of us start living from the ground up we learn as we go but it sure is nice when those before us have learned a few things and lay down the ground work and put safety nets in place. Fries can be baked. Good oils can be used. Tastey healthy alternatives, come on use your brain a little. Lets try some preventative medicine! It is the best way. Good for you Citadel High! You are the leader in health care. If I was a student there I would be very proud of their healthy lunch initiatives.
My son goes to Cidadel High and brings his own lunch and his teachers have commented on the healthy food he brings. My son said alot of students found the food in the cafeteria to expensive so they go the hospital cafeteria or Tim Hortons. Personally I cant understand why they dont bring their own lunch from home.
What’s even more frusterating are the supposed healthcare professionals who wiegh a solid 300 pounds and do the exact same thing. They won’t even serve fries in the IWK cafeteria, yet they have a row of junk filled vending machines right outside the enterance! That’s wack!
Marie, I’m a student from CHS and I bring my own lunch usually everyday too. Some students though don’t have food at home to bring lunches, or parents aren’t responsible/concerned enough to buy groceries that make easy lunches or care about their kids diet. It’s sad really…But, I don’t really understand why your son would say the caf. is expensive? It’s really not that bad, and the prices are made for students since it’s a highschool. If you ask me… I find the caf. in the hospital much more expensive and even Timmy’s more so then the school caf.. I do agree that the hospital should offer more healthy alternatives or completely cut out the grease all together.. after all, it’s a place which promotes health. A jumbo plate of fries, covered in gravy and cheese curds? Clogged arteries and a walking heartache… yuuuck