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Samantha Chew

November 7, 2019

ENG 111

Kim Lacey

Growth and Gardening: A Strategy for Teaching Healthy Eating Habits to College

Students

The Growth and Gardening initiative provides an action plan for young adults to begin

eating more healthily during their time away from home while at college. This program aims to

give students a sense of accomplishment while teaching them self sustaining habits that they can

use throughout life. This program should be carried out because young adults living on college

campuses do not have access to healthy foods and do not have the means to obtain them. This is

an important issue because young adults in college are beginning to form their eating habits that

they will carry with them throughout life since they are first experiencing a lack of parental

control. The Growth and Gardening program would work to solve this problem by getting young

people interested in healthy eating habits. Specifically, I would set up a Registered Student

Organization (RSO) on campus that teaches the basic principles of gardening and healthy eating

habits. This could appeal to college students because they would get to grow and eat their own

food while forming friendships and enjoying a relaxing atmosphere. This program would provide

students with a therapeutic escape from the stresses of school and would allow them to unwind at

the end of the day.

Problem Analysis
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Health and nutrition among college students is an extremely prevalent topic and deserves

more attention than it gets. Students experiencing their first break from parental control often fall

into a trap of unhealthy eating habits and thoughts. With the stresses of an immense workload

while balancing friends, family, work, and a social life, it can become near impossible for a

student to take time for themselves to develop a healthy lifestyle. This opens the door for the

aforementioned destructive behaviors. Several of these habits of thinking include but are not

limited to:

● Students are often short of money while paying tuition and living costs on campuses.

This situation forces students to either pay their bills, or have money for groceries that

month. ​The New York Times​ related this in an article titled “Hunger on Campus: Pay

Tuition or Eat” by stating, “45 percent of student respondents from over 100 institutions

said they had been food insecure in the past 30 days” (Laterman, 2019). Several students

interviewed in this article confessed of the hardships they face while paying tuition and

trying to survive. Students lamented that they should not have to go into debt in order to

eat, or that it is extremely hard to see the purpose in gaining an education while it is so

difficult. Unfortunately, this can lead to improper nutrition or lack of food altogether

(Laterman, 2019).

● Many students have meal plans with their university and eat almost exclusively at their

campus dining locations. However, campus dining facilities are becoming notorious for

serving foods packed with preservatives, sodium, and sugar, leaving out a variety of

nutritious foods for students to choose from. Not only that, but students are beginning to

form eating habits they never would have at home. Students no longer have their parents
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prompting them to eat vegetables before dessert or enforcing the no eating after dinner

rule. Because of this, students will begin experimenting with these habits and divulging

in the sugary and carb-loaded snacks kept in dorm rooms and campus convenience stores

while finishing inevitable late-night studies (Davis, 2014)

● An unhealthy relationship between body image and food habits. Many factors on college

campuses such as lack of sleep, lack of healthy food, and overall stress can create abusive

habits concerning a college student and their body image. In a published essay titled “The

Relationship between Body Image and Lifestyle Choices in College Students”, a recent

graduate of East Texas Baptist University highlighted the correlation of poor nutrition to

poor body image. Using research of her colleagues, she found that both females and

males have a body image perception dictated by their diet and caloric intake. Similarly,

eating disorders and poor nutrition were found to correlate with poor body image. During

one of the most stressful times in a student’s life, it is of utmost important to have proper

fuel to make it through the school year. Certainly, poor body image and eating disorders

should not be added to the overflowing plate of a student’s stressors. This study

highlights the ultimate importance of having healthy food available to students so they do

not add to the growing number of those suffering with body dysmorphia (McGaughey,

2018).

The Plan

Luckily, the solution to this problem is an easy fix. The plan of action is simple and

requires minimal cost and minimal effort, but provides an abundant payoff. In essence, to combat

the issue of poor nutrition among college students, I would set up an RSO open to anyone on
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campus. To do this on my campus, I would first contact the Office of Student Life. After

establishing and getting approval from my points of contact, I would then begin creating flyers

and advertisements, educating the public about what my RSO is about, and also creating interest

among students. After the program is set in place, planning for the first meeting would begin.

The first meeting is where I would get a headcount for how many people are interested and

decide how many supplies are needed. Also, I would appoint a vice president and secretary if

needed, who can look after the plants and assist in creating lessons so that the burden of the

entire RSO is not solely put on me and it runs more smoothly. Essentially, the first meeting

would be an informational meeting. After this first meeting, those registered and committed to

the RSO would meet formally once per week. After gaining an idea for the populous of my RSO,

then would begin the purpose of the RSO. Each meeting could teach a lesson on gardening or

personal wellness. Before or after this brief lesson, students would get the chance to plant his or

her own crop. Because of the limited space and sunlight on campus, I would make sure my RSO

had a designated area for UV lighting where the students could leave their plants to grow. I

would give the students the responsibility of watering it daily, but I would be responsible for

adjusting the UV lighting and watering the plants if a student would not be present on campus

for a day. I would fill this role because I would be the president and we would only be meeting

together once per week, so it may be hard for the students to stay on top of the plant

responsibilities. I would also want this to be a relaxing atmosphere for students, so on days

where we would not be tending to plants for a long period, I would have organized snacks or

activities where students can get to know each other and get a break from the stresses of school.
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In fact, most of the meeting time would be movies and activities since taking care of a small

potted plant does not require much time.

A Cost-Benefits Analysis

The benefits of my plan greatly outweigh the costs. Gardening as a hobby is very

inexpensive, so there is no reason that it would not be able to follow through due to finances. For

as big of a group that I would be expecting (around 10-20 students), supplies would be relatively

cheap. For seeds, water, dirt, and pots, I would estimate the cost to be under $100 dollars. Even if

the student population greatly exceeded my expectations, the cost would not fluctuate by much,

due to the very low price point of my supplies. The one large expense would of course be the UV

lighting, but even that is not an extreme expense. I would also estimate about $100, give or take

a small amount for UV lights and a table for the plants to sit on. The budget for RSOs on campus

is $300 from the school, so out of pocket expenses from the students would not be necessary.

This is a small price to pay for the effect this program would have on college students. The one

foreseeable problem we may experience would be space, but if it came down to it, the students

could bring the plants to their dorms with them and we could invest in individual UV lights for

each individual. The benefits for students include but are not limited to:

● An increased ability to form and foster relationships with other students on

campus. This is an important mission of the Growth and Gardening RSO because

forming relationships with peers would allow students to find their place on

campus and having friends is an important part of emotional and physical

wellness, which is the aim of the RSO.

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● An increased knowledge of good nutritional wellness. As stated earlier in the

proposal, college students are lacking in good personal wellness and are suffering

from hunger, poor body image, and poor nutrition. An increased knowledge for

applicable and realistic solutions could be the key to fixing these issues.

● A way to unwind from the stresses of school. Sometimes spending time with

friends, doing a relaxing activity, watching movies, or playing games is the best

way to take care of yourself and gain more energy. Putting away a laptop and

homework can at times be more productive than doing the actual assignments.

The aim of Growth and Gardening is to provide an outlet for students to do

exactly this.

● An ability to be self reliant while reducing our carbon footprints. TED speaker

Britta Riley commented on this in her “A Garden in My Apartment” speech by

expressing that it was sometimes frightening how much she depended on others

for sourcing her food. Along with this, she also argued that switching to growing

even some of your own food can do wonders for the environment. In this speech,

she also discussed a new technique for at-home gardening that is spreading across

the world. She finishes her speech by restating how gardening has an affect on the

environment as well as how it can help form bonds between many different

people (Riley, 2011).

Conclusion

The importance of an organization like the one I described should not be understated. The

health of college students in America is being largely ignored. Not only are extremely
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detrimental habits being dismissed, but they are also being normalized by our culture and

accepted as just part of what kids do when they go off to college. As Laterman (2019) of​ The

New York Times ​wrote, “Stories about college hunger have been largely anecdotal, cemented by

ramen and macaroni and cheese jokes”. My Growth and Gardening initiative works to combat

this issue by providing education and relaxation to college students on campus. By becoming a

part of this RSO, students are provided an outlet to destress, make friends, and form good habits.

The process and cost of creating this organization is very minimal, so action can be taken in a

short period of time and the program can begin having an effect on students sooner rather than

later. Growth and Gardening and similar programs on college campuses can have an immense

impact on the lives of students for a variety of reasons. It is well past time that our society

brushes past the problems in the lives of young people and begins taking steps to uplift and

support young adults. If young people are the future of our society, we should teach and foster

good habits when it comes to accessibility to healthy food and physical and emotional wellness.
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Works Cited

Davis, J. (2014, March 3). NUTRITION OF CAMPUS DINING: AN INCREASING MATTER

OF WORRY. Retrieved November 21, 2019, from

http://blogs.cornell.edu/foodstories/2014/03/03/nutrition-of-campus-dining-an-increasing

-matter-of-worry/.

Laterman, K. (2019). Hunger on Campus: Pay Tuition or Eat. ​The New York Times,​ p. 1.

Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgov&AN=edsgcl.584364209

&site=eds-live

McGaughey, M. (2018). The Relationship between Body Image and Lifestyle Choices in College

Students. ​International Social Science Review,​ ​94(​ 2), 1–17. Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=131932326&site=eds-l

ive

Riley, B. (2011, May). ​A Garden in My Apartment. ​Retrieved from

https://www.ted.com/talks/britta_riley_a_garden_in_my_apartment?language=en