Editor’s Note: This opinion article and call to action was submitted by grade 5 student Natalia S., who worked on it for her PYPx project. What follows is a gently revised version that fits The Bite’s style guidelines.

Nutrition. It’s pretty much like eating healthy, right? Well… not really. Nutrition is more than just that!

Sure, eating healthy is a big component to it, but there’s also wellbeing, movement, and watching your diet and what you eat. All in all, simple. But when it comes to availability, that gets trickier. In some countries or cities, fresh, real, non-processed food is much more expensive. 

As reported in an article in BBC News, in the UK the “Food Foundation reported that 1,000 calories of healthy food such as fruit and veg costs £8.80, compared to £4.30 for the equivalent amount of less healthy food, such as ready meals and processed meat.”

So you’re telling me that the same weight of food costs more or less judging by health levels! Don’t believe me yet? Then let’s see if this changes your mind. The online magazine Kids News republished an article from the Herald Sun that reports on a study that found schoolchildren in Australia “who buy food at school are being given little incentive to buy healthy food at their canteen when, in many cases, an apple costs more than a packet of chips.”

Kids who buy food at school are being given little incentive to buy healthy food at their canteen when, in many cases, an apple costs more than a packet of chips.

Kids News, reporting on food pricing at Australian public schools

As you can see, this is a major problem, but there are solutions. Charities like Banca pentru Alimente in Romania are collecting food donations and redistributing it to people who can’t afford it. These organizations are making a difference, and you can too!

To help, you can donate to the grade 1 project by dropping off non-perishable food items in the boxes found in the Atrium, where all of those donations go to Banca pentru Alimente, who, as I mentioned, give food to people in Romania who can’t afford it themselves.

Now that you have finished reading my article, don’t you see how big this is? Sure, maybe my article is short. But it shows a problem clearly and shows how to help solve it. So, what are you going to do? Are you going to help people have healthy and good-quality food, or are you going to ignore this? Take time making your decision, but I know I’ve made mine.