Girls voices matter in Chicago and abroad

Global Girls is on the MOVE helping girls right here in Chicago so that they can continue helping girls in other countries. In honor of Earth Day, April 22, we hosted a healthy lifestyle campaign designed to inspire girls to become nutrition conscious consumers and to move more. The group who called themselves, The Nutritionists, learned about healthy eating, reading food labels and counting calories so that they could teach it to other youth in a series of community workshops. The campaigned culminated with a nutritious lunch at the Global Studio for family and community members.

We believe that hunger and malnutrition go hand in hand. Because most of our schools receive free lunches, youth have the option of eating somewhat nutritious meals at least while they are in school. However, there are forces at work that that influence their food choices. In 2015, the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity examined how companies advertise sugar-laden soda, high-fat snacks and massive-calorie restaurant fare to people of color and how those foods are impacting youth obesity rates. Researchers found that a total of 48 brands were advertising directly to children and teens, and they were all significantly more likely to target those ads at Latino and black kids. The result is that young blacks see 70 percent more food-related advertising than their white counterparts, and twice as many television ads for candy, and sugar snacks and drinks. In contrast, the report found, those same companies were significantly less likely to target black and Hispanic consumers with their TV advertising for healthier food categories such as yogurt and other dairy products, 100 percent juice, water, and fruits and vegetables. “The Nutritionists” served as a counter balance to the big advertisers and chipped away at their destructive propaganda. 

As a 17 year old youth performing arts organization with a strong following and reputation for creatively addressing youth issues, Global Girls believes that this initiative can become an ongoing program that lasts for many years. We’ve taken on litter in the community and led campaigns to clean streets and parks. We trained other youth, and they’ve maintained the effort with annual events each summer. “The Nutritionists” is a natural, youth-led outgrowth. Candy wrappers, chip bags and fast food containers make up most of the litter in our community. Some of our youth eat junk for breakfast and lunch and then have fast food for dinner. Our videos can be used by teachers, parents, other leaders to show youth the difference between the body digesting fruits and veggies and the way it digests candy and chips. Those videos can be shown over a long period of time. Also, they can be shared on social media by hundreds of youth. We could even take the project to other communities. The community brunches can be quarterly events. We certainly want to continue the project beyond the funding period because we want our friends and families to become healthier.