Teen hopes to take junk food off the menu for youngsters
Along the northern stretch of Centre Street that cuts through the section of Jamaica Plain bordering Roxbury, the aroma of fried foods wafts in the air, and delis line the street.
Jose Pinto, a 17-year-old who lives in the neighborhood, said that everyone he knows eats "greasy junk food." And so did he, until he ended up with chest pains at age 12 and was told he was clogging his arteries.
"I didn't even know there was [such a thing as] high cholesterol until I went to the doctor's," Pinto said. So when Pinto, a youth literacy tutor for the Hyde Square Task Force, was asked to come up with a project for his tutoring group that didn't deal with violence, he had an idea.
"It's not all about the violence," Pinto said in a conversation with another teen tutor, who helped develop the idea. "There are other issues that we have." He wanted to get the neighborhood's youths thinking about nutrition and fitness.
The group is now planning to spend the year writing a children's book on the topic and distribute it in elementary schools in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury this spring. Ana Almeida, who runs the program, said she will ask children's authors to coach the 15 tutors on how to write the book.
Almeida will then have nutrition and fitness specialists speak about appropriate eating habits and physical activity for different ages. The tutors are thinking about a book for younger children, between the first and fifth grades.
Pinto said he tries to warn his friends about greasy food, but they don't heed his advice. He thinks he has a better shot with the younger children. I'm hoping that since the kids are young, they'll listen," Pinto said.
KIMBERLY ASHTON 