Miranda 1Doraliz MirandaSpeech 1Professor Cliff RuthDecember 8, 2010Persuasive Speech Outline (Monroe’s Motivated Sequence)Unhealthy School LunchesIntro I. Getting Attention:A. Attention Getter: Picture this: it’s the mid 1940s. The effects of the worst depression in United States history are barely beginning to wear off. Here, the National School Lunch Program is born. Its aim? To ensure that nation’s kids get enough food to eat. Flash forward seventy years. Its 2010. The National School Lunch Program is still in place. The problem? “Obesity among schoolchildren has reached an all-time high…” so writes Laura Sims, author of The Politics of Fat: Food and Nutrition Policy in America (Sims, 69).B. Thesis Statement: To blame? Many factors. But where does it start? Where we spend most of our days: in school. So I’m here today to talk to you about the issue of poorly planned and underfunded school meals that contribute to childhood obesity.C. Preview Main Steps: I will now take a few minutes of your time to discuss the problem with underfunded and malnutritious school meals, their relation to the childhood obesity epidemic, and then discuss a very feasible solution to the aforementioned issue. Body II. Showing the Need: Describing the Problem (The “Bad”)A. Problem Thesis Statement: To start, I will begin by saying that poorly planned and underfunded school meals lead to several issues, mainly childhood obesity. B. Evidence:1. Evidence to show extent/seriousness of problem: You know it’s bad when the base of your lunch lies in tater tots and processed carbs. Kimberly Stewart writes in the September 2004 edition of Better Nutrition that “[Mr.] Gary Hirshberg's faith in the system was tarnished one afternoon when he innocently asked his teenage son: "What did you have for lunch?" The answer: "Skittles, pizza . . . and chocolate milk" (Stewart, 38). That’s right. “Skittles, pizza, and chocolate milk…” Doesn’t sound too far from home does it?2. Explanations/illustration to explain/clarify: To elaborate, it’s been found that the United States Department of Agriculture provides cheap, low quality food to school lunch programs as a way to Use “movie announcer voice” to signal dramatics of story:FACTUAL ILLUSTRATIONEnunciate “Very!!” ANECDOTEMiranda 2side-step its legal obligations. As stated by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in the September 2004 issue of Better Nutrition, the USDA literally “dumps… surplus beef, chicken, cheese, and pork on the National School Lunch Program…” (Stewart, 42). Such high calorie-low nutrient foods are the building blocks of typical school lunches, but not in a good way.3. Discuss causes, effects, and harms problem creates: Furthermore, the Physicians Committee for Responsible medicine also writes that those high-fat, high cholesterol foods are the primary contributors to the nationwide epidemic of obesity (Stewart, 42). As a result, kids these days are getting bigger and bigger, and I don’t just mean height-wise. 4. Make clear 2 listeners how problem affects them: Why be concerned? How can they be harmed?It’s also important to note that this isn’t a problem just confined to the playground. This is a very serious problem that underlies the core of our national health problems. This is especially true because childhood obesity is the most prevalent nutritional disease in children 18 years old and younger, as stated by John Peters in the May/June 2004 edition of Nutrition Today. In other words, we, should all be concerned. This is because even the healthiest of students can be affected, for we all end up paying into the healthcare system that will administer to these sickly children.C. Meeting Objections:Now, some of you here may find that school meals are fine just the way they are. Kids should be kids, and we shouldn’t try to control what they eat. Even you yourself might have reservations about changing the oh-so lovely meals here at RCC. But, according to Jodie Shield, a Registered Dietician and author of The American Dietetic Association Guide to Healthy Eating for Kids, unlike the schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program, there are handfuls of nonconforming schools that provide no guarantee that the lunches and food they provide meet any dietaryguidelines. Consequently, this leaves students at the mercy of ill- informed or underfunded lunch programs that potentially have no nutritional basis to speak of (Shield, 72).TRANSITION: Scary huh? Well, we just covered the brink of a much underestimated problem. Next, I will present a viable and simple plan that shall work to alleviate such an issue.III. Satisfying the Need: Presenting the Solution (The “Good”)SPECIFIC INSTANCE Show slide #1:EXPLANATIONEND Show slide #1:STATEMENT OF FACT CONTRASTEmphasize “unlike”Sound definitive when saying “shifting”Miranda 3A. Solution Thesis Statement: A two part solution to this problemwould be to raise public awareness about the lack of wholesome & nutritious foods in schools and then jointly insist on a shift from the government run lunch programs to private contractors. B. Explain: (my proposal clearly w/ possible diagrams/charts)… First off would be to raise public awareness about the need for better lunches. This can be done through print media, online blogging, picketing, etc. Next would be to use the increased public awareness and support to demand a shift from government run programs to private contractors. This in turn will free up money to buy more nutritionally wholesome foodsC. Reasoning 4 Need: (show how my proposed solution meets NEED and discuss advantages of solution) (Plus EVIDENCE 2 show advantages SOLUTION)Such a solution is beneficial in several ways. First, raising awareness empowers the public to make more informed decisions. As a more educated public, we will make better choices about our health and the health of our nation’s children. Plus we’ll save money all the while. Accordingly, Catherine Robertson’s Safety, Nutrition, & Health in Early Education reveals that the percentage of children who are obese has more than doubled in the last twenty years. Therefore, it is imperative that focus on changing these statistics if we are to reach a healthy tomorrow (Robertson252).D. It Has Worked: Now, this is a practical solution. Karen Bellenir’s Diet Information for Teens, states that schools that have switched to private