Ethical Dilemma: Food Insecurity
Steps to reduce food insecurity and poor nutrition
The ethical challenge in alleviating food security is balancing the principles of choice and autonomy with the need to ensure that people consume healthy, nutritious foods. For example, it would be theoretically possible to force people to eat a healthy diet by having a single mandatory school lunch for all students and limiting the types of foods that could be bought by persons using EBT, but this would be too restrictive of individual liberties. Conversely, one could have no financial support for school lunches or EBT and no restrictions on diets but this would result in a rise in both hunger and a reliance on non-nutritious foods.
Introducing healthier foods in the schools while still promoting better eating habits is important. Children get a significant percentage of calories from the foods they consume in school: "children consume 40% of their daily calories at...
However, if students discard a substantial portion of their lunches or are so alienated from the food that is served in the name of health, ultimately the aim to improve the diet of food-insecure children is thwarted. Instead, offering students healthier choices rather than a wholesale ban on popular staples like chicken nuggets might be more palatable. Consulting with students about what foods they like to eat, which is the policy in some districts, can create a less adversarial relationship between students and the administration. Also, enhancing the delivery system to meet student needs can encourage students to be more proactive and to select healthy foods. For example, one common complaint students have is that they have to wait too long in the lunch lines so it is easier to get chips and candy from a vending machine. Some schools are now offering "grab-n-go lunches" from mobile carts which make it easy to get a prepackaged healthy lunch very fast --…
