I'm thinking we're going to want to take this one beyond Ontario's borders.
The logo up above says it all, but some brief back story. Ontario high school students, frustrated and angered by the toxic environment we've allowed to proliferate around them, with the help of a Toronto design firm, have launched a campaign that's meant to "Stick It To Fast Food" whereby they're encouraging their fellow students to boycott fast food for the entire month of November.
As you might imagine, I think what they're doing is wonderful. But at the same time, I think it's sad. The wonderful part's obvious. The sad part? That high school students felt they needed to do this. That high school students took a look around at a society that doesn't seem to care that we allow the food industry to target our children, at a school system that for the most part serves no-name junk food in their cafeterias, at politicians who talk and talk but do nothing, and at their declining determinants of health, and decided that they needed to take a stand.
At the press conference (if you're a quick clicker it's going on as you read this), Kourosh Houshmand, one of the student organizers explains,
"Fast Food isn’t real food. It was designed by scientists in white lab coats. Sure, sometimes it tastes good, but that’s their trick. If you put enough salt, sugar and fat in anything, it’ll taste good. Fast food companies are getting rich feeding us garbage. And it’s making us fat and sick. This November, let’s go fast food free and Stick it to Fast Food. We deserve better."If you want to get involved, aside from sharing this post as widely as you can, visit the Stick It To Fast Food website. There you'll find videos, posters, graphics, and blogging resources. Students and adults alike can join the boycott. And you can even buy an awesome Stick It To Fast Food t-shirt.
Why can't November be both Movember and the month that as a society we decided to Stick It To Fast Food?
Kudos kids.
(Here's my video message to the students. FYI - I was explicitly asked to give the laundry list of titles at the beginning of the talk)