Food Is Fuel by Keawe

Food Is Fuel by Keawe - September 2023 Scholarship Essay

My name is Keawe Tolentino. I was born and raised on the island of Hawai'i where I was taught from a young age how to be self sustainable and how to use the resources on the island as your fuel to navigate life. Growing up in Hawai'i I was very fortunate to learn how to survive off the land and ocean, gathering fresh resources and using it to my advantage. Hunting and fishing was a huge part of the lifestyle I lived, catching and cooking meat or fish and putting it directly on the table to eat was an every day thing for me. I'd say I had a good diet while living on the islands, everything was fresh and I got to witness and take part in the whole process of turning an animal into food.

The immediate thought that came into my mind when responding to that question above was Grand Canyon University's lack of food options and how unhealthy it can be over a long period of time. If had authority to change my school in a positive way it would definitely be changing the food options on campus to healthier options. On campus, there is about seven food options that students can get meals from, 5 of those seven options are fast-food restaurants. Students are suffering by GCU's poor choice of having only fast-food options. I believe whatever you put or consume into your body will be used as fuel and like cars, if you put the wrong gas or fuel the car will not run properly and eventually break down with time and that's exactly how our bodies work. Poor food options could result in poor grades, students not eating a proper healthy meal won't be energized to take tests to their best ability. I would specifically remove Taco Bell and Panda Kitchen from campus and replace it with actual restaurants that serve good meals. Taking out Taco Bell and Panda Kitchen would definitely make this campus a lot healthier. To conclude my thoughts on the question prompted to me, If I had authority to change something on my campus it would be removing and replacing fast-food joints with actual healthy restaurants.