As many of those who know me are aware, I am not a giant fan of fast food, although I admit I do occasionally partake of a little
Burgerville now and then. I understand the financial need for cheap food, believe me, and I’m not judging any family that has neither the time nor the finances for a home cook meal. Let me be really clear, all of my judging is aimed specifically at the
corporations who do everything they can to get our kids to eat at their fast food joints.
That said, my greatest ire has always, and will no doubt continue to be, McDonalds. This is disgust for McDonalds can be summed up in two words:
McTeacher’s Night.
What is McTeacher’s Night? If you look at McDonalds website, you will find under their “
good works” section, this paragraph:
“Supporting Education. McDonald’s owner/operators support education in many ways. They develop and co-sponsor local programs, host fundraisers for their local schools, and provide scholarships and other education assistance for their employees. They are key sources of support for the RMHC scholarship programs.”Sounds fantastic, right? Local franchise owners hosting fundraisers for the kids, what could be more wholesome? In reality what McDonalds does is have the elementary school teachers of said local school come for an evening and “serve” the children McDonalds food for a kickback of around 20%.
The horror I feel at this is not so much that the fundraiser was taking place at McDonalds, but that our teachers were serving McDonalds to children. Our kids see teachers as trustworthy adults, the ones they can go to when they are hurt, the ones who teach them the fundamentals of how to do things the right and wrong way. To have them behind the counter saying "eat this food" is basically saying that McDonalds is a good place to eat with healthy food that even your teacher endorses, when in fact neither the school or the teachers are endorsing McDonalds, we just simply need the funds.
When you take a kid to Chuck-e-Cheese for a fundraiser (which I did), no one expects the food to be wholesome or good, it's a treat for kids to eat pizza and play the games. Chuck-e-Cheese as marketed as a fun place where kids can run amok and that's exactly what it is. No on believes you should eat at Chuck-e-Cheese every night (and really, who could afford it at $10 a pizza plus the $20 you end up shelling out in games). I’m still not sure who thought up the brilliant idea to have a rat as the spokesperson for a restaurant (hey, come on down, we have giants rats...and they sing!), but that’s something to ponder at another time.
McDonald's is marketed as a "healthy meal" when all the evidence shows it is anything but. There is a well established link between fast food and childhood obesity, childhood diabetes and a host of other illnesses brought on by eating food packed with calories, salt and sugar. According to their
website, a McDonald's Happy Meal is, just by scanning over it, around 550 calories (I could go into the sodium, fat and sugar content, but I'll spare you the spreadsheet). The American Heart Association recommends that kids 4-8 years old eat, per day about
1300 calories which means that the Happy Meal should be 42% of the total that the kid eats all day. That's almost half of the daily calorie requirement for one meal!
I know that McDonald's is aggressive in their marketing for schools for "McTeacher's Night" and I also know that most schools and districts participate, but that doesn't make it ok. That 20% they are kicking back (I think it was 20%), they don't really care about our kids, if they did they would just donate 20% of the profits for that evening without forcing teachers to work there. The whole purpose of McTeacher's Night from McDonald's standpoint is to get more customers for McDonalds, not to benefit our kids.
