Fast Food Free: Healthier People, Better World

Welcome to Youth Speak.  Today my guest is Koa Halpern.  He is 16 year old boy and resides in Denver Colorado.  In addition to being interested in astronomy, rocketry, violin-playing and art, he has been interested in opposing fast-food companies from the age of eight. Fast Food Free, my longest-lasting and most rewarding project, is a nonprofit that has convinced thousands of people to stop eating at many major fast-food chains for two weeks. This project has led to me presenting at several major venues, including Natural Products Expo West and the largest gathering of health-food suppliers in the country. Even after eight years, Fast Food Free is still going strong.

Koa became interested in fast food after an exchange student asked where the nearest fast-food restaurant was immediately after she arrived in America. This made me wonder why fast food was so popular around the world. As I began to research fast food, I quickly realized that it was deeply unhealthy, both for the people who eat it and for the earth it comes from. Soon after, I started Fast Food Free, a nonprofit that became more successful than I had hoped. Soon, thousands of people had taken a two-week pledge to not eat at major fast-food restaurants. I have spent much of the last several years trying to “get the word out” about the adverse effects of fast food.