Grade by Grade
C. Healthy Living · Healthy Living: Choices, Connections and Well-Being

Food Choices Have Ripples: Your Impact as a Consumer at School and in the Community

C3.1 1.3 1.5About 65 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can explain how consumers influence what food and drinks are offered at school and in the community.
  • I can describe ways to promote healthy choices in cafeterias, restaurants and stores.
  • I can explain ethical and environmental considerations related to food choices.
  • I can plan a realistic action to improve food choices in my school or community.

Words to know

consumer
A person who buys or uses goods and services, including food and drinks.
demand
How much people want to buy something. Businesses stock more of what sells.
PPM 150
Ontario's School Food and Beverage Policy, which sets nutrition standards for food and drinks sold in publicly funded schools.
food security
When all people have reliable access to enough safe, nutritious, culturally appropriate food.
ethical consideration
A question of right and fair treatment, such as fair pay for farm workers or the welfare of animals.
food waste
Edible food that is thrown out instead of eaten.

You have more power than you think

Why does your cafeteria sell what it sells? Why did a fast-food chain add salads, or a grocery store open a bulk section? Partly because customers asked and bought. Every time you buy (or don't buy) something, you send a message.

The Grade 10 curriculum asks you to demonstrate an understanding of how they, as consumers, can have an impact on food and beverage choices at school and in the community (e.g., promoting availability of healthy choices in restaurant and cafeteria menus and in grocery stores, raising awareness of ethical and environmental considerations related to food choices) (C3.1).

Remember from Grade 9

In Grade 9 you analysed how social and environmental factors (family, culture, friends, media, cost, access, the planet) influence your food choices. This year flips the arrow: how your choices and actions influence what's offered to everyone.

One choice, many ripplesYouFriends, familySchoolCommunityPlanetYou: what you buy and ask forFriends, family: what they see you chooseSchool: cafeteria, vending, fundraisersCommunity: stores, restaurants, farmsPlanet: packaging, waste, how food is grownEvery purchase is a vote for what gets sold more.
A food choice starts with you but spreads outward to friends, school, community and the planet.

How consumers create change

  1. Buying power. Stores and cafeterias track sales. When more people buy water, fruit cups or whole grain wraps, they stock more.
  2. Asking. Many restaurants and cafeterias take suggestions. A polite request ("Could you add a vegetarian option?") from several students can change a menu.
  3. Using information. In Ontario, food service businesses that are part of a chain with 20 or more locations in the province must post calories on menus (Healthy Menu Choices Act). Using that information, and asking for nutrition information, shows businesses people care.
  4. Speaking up at school. Student councils, eco-clubs and wellness committees can work with staff on cafeteria menus, fundraisers, breakfast programs and school gardens.
  5. Raising awareness. Posters, morning announcements, social media posts and taste tests help others notice healthy and sustainable options.
  6. Supporting fair and local food. Buying from local farms and markets, and choosing products with fair-trade certification, supports farmers and workers.
Ontario School Food and Beverage Policy (PPM 150)"Sell Most": at least 80% of choices"Sell Less"no more than 20%Highest in nutrients, lower in fat,sugar and sodium (e.g. vegetables,fruit, whole grains, milk, water)"Not Permitted for Sale": e.g. candy, deep-fried foods, pop and energy drinks
Under PPM 150, at least 80% of food and drink choices sold in Ontario public schools must be "Sell Most" items; some items can't be sold at all.

Ethical and environmental considerations

  • Food waste: a lot of edible food is thrown out at home, in stores and in restaurants. Planning, smaller portions and using leftovers help; so do school compost and food rescue programs.
  • Packaging: single-use plastic bottles and wrappers add to landfill and litter. Refillable bottles and water fountains are an easy switch.
  • How food is produced: plant-based protein foods generally need less land and water than most animal foods; some people also consider animal welfare.
  • Fairness: fair pay and safe conditions for farm and food workers, in Canada and around the world.
  • Food security: not everyone can afford or reach nutritious food. Food banks, community gardens, student nutrition programs and fair food prices in northern and remote communities are all part of the conversation. Indigenous food sovereignty movements support First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities' right to harvest and share traditional foods.
Worked example

Let's plan a cafeteria change

Students at a Thunder Bay high school notice the cafeteria sells out of the only vegetarian wrap by 11:45 every day. Use consumer action steps to plan a change.

  1. Gather evidence: count for two weeks when the wrap sells out; run a short survey ("Would you buy a hot vegetarian option?").
  2. Find the right people: the cafeteria manager and the student council.
  3. Make a polite, specific request: "About 60 students said they'd buy a lentil soup or bean chili twice a week. Could we try it for a month?"
  4. Support it: promote the trial on announcements; buy it.
  5. Evaluate: check sales after a month and share results.

Evidence + a specific request + support = real influence. This is consumer power used at school.

Worked example

Let's weigh an ethical and environmental choice

Your team is choosing a fundraiser: (A) selling chocolate bars, or (B) selling reusable water bottles with the school logo and running a fruit-and-veggie box sale with a local farm. Compare them.

  1. Health: A promotes candy; B promotes water and produce.
  2. School policy: fundraisers in school must follow PPM 150 rules (with up to ten designated exemption days a year).
  3. Environment: A creates wrapper waste; B reduces single-use bottles and supports local food.
  4. Community: B supports a local farm.

Option B fits healthy eating, school policy and environmental and ethical considerations better, and it can still raise money.

Just for fun

What did the lentil soup say when it finally made the cafeteria menu? "I've bean waiting for this for weeks!"

Hands-on activity

Food environment audit

You need: a notebook, and permission to look around your school cafeteria or a local store or restaurant.

  1. List five items that are easy to see first (near the till, at eye level). How many are higher-nutrient choices?
  2. Note whether calories or other nutrition information are posted.
  3. Note one environmental issue (packaging, waste) and one ethical issue (fair trade, local) you see.
  4. Write a short, polite suggestion you could give to the manager, or a plan for a school club.

What to look for: accurate observations, a suggestion that is specific and realistic, and respectful wording.

Your turn

1

Name three ways consumers can influence what food is offered.

2

What does PPM 150 require for "Sell Most" items?

3

Which Ontario restaurants must post calories on menus?

4

Give one environmental consideration related to food choices.

5

Give one ethical consideration related to food choices.

6

What is food security?

More practice: warm-up

1

What is a consumer?

2

Name one item that is "Not Permitted for Sale" in Ontario schools.

3

What is one simple way to cut packaging waste at school?

4

Who could you talk to about changing a cafeteria menu?

5

True or false: a store stocks more of what sells.

More practice: on your own

1

Why is a request backed by survey results more likely to work than a complaint?

2

Explain how putting healthier items at eye level and near the till could change choices.

3

How can reducing food waste be both an environmental and an ethical choice?

4

Why might fresh food cost more in a fly-in northern community, and what is one response communities use?

5

Write a polite one-sentence request to a local restaurant.

Challenge

1

Design a four-week campaign to increase water drinking at your school. Include at least one consumer action, one awareness action and one way to measure success.

2

A friend says, "One person's choices don't matter." Argue the other side using at least two ideas from the lesson.

3

Explain how food choices connect to health, the environment and fairness all at once, using one food example.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Under PPM 150, "Sell Most" items must make up at least...

2.

Which is the best example of consumer action?

3.

In Ontario, calorie labelling on menus is required for...

4.

Which is an ethical consideration in food choices?

5.

Which change reduces packaging waste?

6.

Food security means...

For parents and teachers

Big idea: C3.1: demonstrate an understanding of how they, as consumers, can have an impact on food and beverage choices at school and in the community. Students practise communication (Living Skill 1.3) and critical thinking (1.5) to plan realistic actions.

How to help at home: involve your teen in grocery planning and comparing options, notice calorie information on chain restaurant menus together, and talk about reducing food waste at home (planning meals, using leftovers).

Common difficulties: thinking only big companies can make change; making demands that are vague or rude. Encourage specific, polite, evidence-based requests.

Facts used: Ontario School Food and Beverage Policy (PPM 150, 2010): Sell Most (at least 80%), Sell Less (no more than 20%), Not Permitted for Sale; up to ten designated exemption days per school year set by the principal. Healthy Menu Choices Act, 2015 (calorie posting for food service chains with 20 or more Ontario locations, in effect 2017).