Raquel

Reedy
800 Louisiana NE
Albuquerque, NM 87108
rreedy@aps.edu

3/22/16

Dear Superintendent Reedy,

Per your request, I have done the necessary research and determined that I will
require $3,044,000 in addition to the $23,490,000 currently spent by APS to operate its
current lunch program, totaling $26,534,000 to replace the existing lunch program for that
of TAHR Inc. and implement our Nutrition Education Program for the 2016-2017 school
year. All of this money needed to substitute your lunch program for ours can easily be
obtained by simply selling each lunch to students for 10 cents more than their current price.
I am writing this proposal as a registered dietician (RD) at TAHER Inc. to propose a solution
to childhood obesity within New Mexico’s largest public school system. At TAHR Inc. we
strive to improve the quality of food offered to students by providing them with a variety of
creative options that go above and beyond the nutrition requirements and still taste
delicious. By utilizing our company’s resources, your school district will raise a healthier
generation of children who are able to focus on their academic success and avoid later
health problems associated with childhood and adulthood obesity.

In addition to offering healthy lunch choices to children from Kindergarten to 12th
grade, we also provide a Nutrition Education Program that is incorporated into the current
school curriculum. I hope you see that our services have countless benefits to students
within your school system.
Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Nathan Gomez
Registered Dietician for TAHER Inc.
952-945-0505
5570 Smetana Drive





A Comprehensive Solution to Obesity in APS

Introduction
Since the 1990s, obesity rates in New Mexico have increased dramatically, as has the
frequency of childhood obesity. One possible explanation for this is the food that children are
receiving for lunch at school and the education (or lack-there-of) about the importance of eating
nutritious food. I am proposing Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) substitute its current lunch
program with that of TAHER Inc. Implementation of this lunch program would provide students from
grades K-12 with healthy lunch options, give them experience in making sound food choices, and
help them learn what foods are nutritious and why eating nutritious food is crucial in living a healthy
life.

Current Situation
The obesity epidemic is a huge problem in the United States that unfortunately has plagued
the State of New Mexico. While adulthood obesity is dangerous and leads to several health
consequences, an argument can be made that childhood obesity is even more dangerous, as it not
only affects children in their youth, but also increases the likelihood that these children will also
suffer from effects of adulthood obesity, a cycle that is expertly depicted in figure 1. Childhood
obesity rates in New Mexico have risen rapidly over the years to reach the current proportion of
14.6% of adolescents in this state being overweight and 13.5% being obese! . That means that almost

𝑭𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒓𝒆 1𝟒
3 out of every 10 children in this state are at least overweight, if not obese.
Now to attempt to slow this trend, it’s important to look at the commonalities between these
children. This will help to reveal possible causes of this current situation. One commonality I will
focus on is the fact that Albuquerque is the largest city in the state, and most of the children who
reside here attend school at an APS school. In addition, most of these students depend on the school
they attend for at least one meal a day: lunch. From these facts, a reasonable conclusion can be drawn
that meals served to students by schools are not very healthy. In fact I can personally relate to the
crisis APS is experiencing.
As a native New Mexican, I attended APS schools from kindergarten through 12th grade. I
later went to school to pursue a career as a Registered Dietician, but I have not forgotten my years in
APS. Throughout my childhood, I, along with many of my peers, struggled with maintaining a healthy
weight. Looking back, I now recognize that not only were our student lunches lacking in nutrition,
but also the education we were provided did not address nutrition until we were well into middle
school. By this time, I had thoroughly engrained some terrible eating habits, so by the time I learned
why eating healthy foods was so important and how to choose healthy foods; it was difficult to
substitute poor habits with healthy ones. I have experienced first hand the problem New Mexico’s
children face, and changes must be made.
APS clearly recognizes the importance of providing students with healthy food, stating on its
“Food and Nutrition Services” page that good nutrition, “is key to a healthful life” and “Studies show
that students who are well nourished have increased attendance, better grades, and are able to
concentrate and perform at higher standards”.! With this in mind, you would expect the lunch
program to be full of healthy options. Sadly this is not the case. For example, the current elementary
school menu includes foods like “Lasagna Rolls”, “Corn Dogs”, “Nachos with Green Chile”, and
“Breaded Mozzarella Sticks” to name a few. These foods are full of saturated fats, trans fats, and
sugar, and are far from nutritious. Also, the vegetables offered like peas and green beans are often
incredibly bland and unenticing for students who often opt out of this portion of their meal. While it
is relatively cheap to prepare and serve foods like this, only having to charge $2.25 a meal plus $.40
for milk, the health of students should also be taken into account ! .
Offering healthy options to children at lunch is critical to develop healthy students and
equally important is nutrition education. Currently students in elementary school receive instruction
in subjects like math, science, social studies, and grammar. However they are seldom taught
information regarding basic nutrition. As a result, these children don’t have a grasp on what it means
to eat healthy foods and also don’t know the importance of making healthy food choices. Students
don’t encounter this subject until middle school, by which time most students have already
developed poor eating habits during their formative years. Wouldn’t it be easier to allow kids to
develop healthy eating habits early on rather than trying to reverse thoroughly engrained poor
eating habits? If APS continues to serve children less than healthy food and neglects providing
students with proper nutrition education, obesity rates in New Mexico of both children and
ultimately adults in years down the road, will continue their meteoric rise and the vicious cycle will
continue.

Plan
In order to address the issues New Mexican children are facing, wholesale changes should be
made to the lunch and nutrition education programs currently in use by APS, starting in the
upcoming 2016-2017 school year. These changes can all be made by hiring TAHER Inc. to take over
the lunch program, which would only cost $24,534,000 per year. This cost is a mere $1,044,000 more
than the amount being paid to support APS’s current lunch program and could all be attained by
simply charging students an extra 10 cents per lunch. Additionally, nutrition education could be
improved by utilizing TAHER Inc.’s Nutrition Education Program for only $2,000,000. The ultimate
goal of lowering overweight and obesity rates of APS students to give them tools to live healthier
lives could be accomplished by utilizing all of TAHER’s services, costing you a total of $26,534,000. In
order to implement these programs, several objectives should be accomplished.







Objective 1: Evaluate the Problem
In order to gauge whether or not our program is affectively cutting overweight/obesity rates
among APS students, we would first need to get height to weight ratios of all APS students before the
program is implemented. The following steps would be taken to accomplish this goal:
• Obtain up to date height/weight statistics for each student from their primary medical
provider.
• In instances when these statistics are not available, allow school nurses to get this
information by:
o Ensuring height/weight recording is completed during the first week of
class
o Nurses will allot one age group (grade) per day.
We estimate that this process will take no more than a week at the beginning and end of the
school year. This process would be simple and not take significant time out of each student’s day. At
the end of the school year, on the week of May 16-20, nurses will perform the same task. This will
allow our company, as well as APS, to evaluate the effectiveness of our programs and decide whether
or not APS would like to go forward utilizing our services in subsequent years.

Objective 2: Implement the Nutrition Education Program
In order to improve the manner in which nutrition is taught in elementary APS schools,
TAHER Inc. would train elementary school teachers and provide each grade with workbooks suited
to that grade’s nutrition education curriculum. TAHER Inc. already has these workbooks printed and
available for distribution. The only additional efforts would be training teachers a week before the
school year is set to begin (August 3-7). This training would be courtesy of ten of our registered
dieticians who would go through the curriculum at this weeklong training and clear up any questions
teachers may have. Each class would be expected to set aside one hour of class time every week to
get through the designated section in the workbook. The $2,000,000 we are asking for to implement
this program would go towards paying our RDs, reimbursing TAHER for the workbooks, and paying
teachers for an extra week of work that would be used to train them on the curriculum (see budget in
appendix). By better educating students in the field of nutrition, they will be much more likely to
appreciate the food they eat and excite them to eat healthy foods.

Objective 3: Implementing Lunch Program
The following steps would be taken to implement TAHER Inc.’s lunch program:
• Innovative TAHER chefs would be in charge of supervising the preparation of lunches at a
small group of schools. Each chef
would supervise 5 out of the 142 APS
schools, giving a total of 28 chefs.
These chefs would work with and
train existing APS lunch program
employees to prepare and serve the
meals listed on TAHER’s menu.
• Each lunch session would include:
o 1-2 creative vegetable
options
o 1-2 healthy protein options
o 1-2 grain options
o 1-2 dairy options
• Each student would be allowed to
pick one food from each category,
which will be served by school

𝑭𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒓𝒆 2𝟓
 kitchen staff in assembly line fashion (as seen in Figure 2).
• To ensure that meals are freshly prepared, weekly deliveries of food will be made to each
school every Monday from Albuquerque’s Shamrock Foods. Food will be stored at each
school for that week until it is prepared.
Presently APS spends $23,490,000 to operate the existing lunch program. This includes the
purchasing of prepackaged meals, transportation of these meals, and service of these meals. They are
able to raise this money by charging students $2.25 per lunch. Thanks to our current contract with
Shamrock Foods, we would be able to purchase and transport food needed to serve the same amount
of students at APS for roughly the same price. The only additional cost is that to pay our expert chefs,
who after all, are a key component to the program’s success. To make up these costs, we would
require that lunch prices be raised $.10 per meal, producing the extra $1,044,000 required to pay our
chefs (see budget in appendix).

Qualifications:
We at TAHER Inc. are uniquely qualified to solve the crisis APS students are facing. In order
to raise a healthier generation of students in Albuquerque, students need to be given the tools to
make informed food decisions, as well as healthy food to give them fuel to grow into healthy adults.
These needs have proven to be difficult to meet, but thanks to our qualified labor force, sustainability,
and track record, TAHER can accomplish the goal of lowering obesity rates among APS students.

Management/Labor
All employees at TAHER Inc. are qualified, competent and share the same drive as our
President and CEO, Bruce Taher. Since it’s inception in 1981, Mr. Taher, an MBA in economics, has
been motivated to provide innovative, creative, and healthy food to people of all ages. His experience
in hospitality has prompted him to employ over 2,600 individuals who are experts in their respective
field in order to maintain the high standards that TAHER has ! . For one, all TAHER chefs are Certified
Master Chefs who have experience creating new, healthy meals. In addition, the registered dieticians
employed by TAHER, myself included, have gone through the rigorous process of becoming certified
RDs and specialize in childhood nutrition and development. By working with the chefs to ensure that
meals are as nutritious as possible and educating teachers and children on the basics of nutrition, we
ensure that both our lunch and education programs are of the highest quality and will create a school
environment that assist APS children live healthy lives.

Sustainability:
Given the high quality of our services, specifically our lunch program, one may expect our
prices to be outrageous or our services to be unsustainable. This however is simply not the case.
Thanks to our contract with Shamrock Foods, we are able to buy high quality food in bulk for the
lowest possible prices. Also, to cut down on costs, strict records are kept on just how much food each
school uses, then the right amount of food is sent from Shamrock Foods to schools each week. This
limits waste and allows us to allocate money towards employing top-notch chefs.

Record of Excellence:
The changes that would occur with this change to the way lunches are served and nutrition
is taught to students in APS would be very different from the way things are done now, so it may be a
little daunting to utilize our services. Rest assured these concerns are not warranted. Our services
are currently in use by California Public Schools, Wyoming Public Schools, and Kansas Public Schools,
to name a few. All of these school districts have student obesity rates well under 7% and regularly
perform well on standardized tests. These accomplishments are due in part to the healthful school
lunches the students at these schools receive.

Costs and Benefits:
Based on the amount of schools currently under the jurisdiction of APS, the total costs to
replace your current lunch program with that of TAHER Inc. and to utilize our Nutrition Education
Program, the costs would be as follows:
 ! Lunch Program: $24,534,000/year
! Nutrition Education Program: $2,000,000/year
! Total: $26,534,000/year
To conclude, let’s take a minute to outline the value that our services would bring to APS. With
TAHER’s programs in place, students will be given the basic tools to help them live healthy lives.
They will receive at least one delicious meal every day that they are sure to enjoy, and will offer
proper nutrition to allow them to be successful inside and outside of school. With the Nutrition
Education Program, they will learn what it means to eat healthy foods, the importance of eating
healthy foods, how to choose healthy foods, and when coupled
with the lunch program, gain experience in independently
making healthy, responsible decisions. By establishing these
healthy eating habits at an early age, these students will be
more likely to keep these good habits into their adult years and
avoid suffering from the consequences of adulthood obesity.
They will grow into productive members of the community,
which benefits everyone. When compared to the meager costs
necessary to make these changes, the benefits of TAHER Inc.’s
services make this an easy decision.
𝑭𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒓𝒆 3𝟕 For your convenience I have attached a copy of my résumé
in the appendices. If you have any questions about my plan or
wish to accept my proposal, please feel free to contact me. I hope that you consider our proposal, and
look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thank you for your time,

RD. Nathan Gomez
952-945-0505
5570 Smetana Drive
References
1. Morris P. Overweight and Obesity. State of New Mexico Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity
Profile 2012:1–4. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/state-local-
programs/profiles/pdfs/new-mexico-state-profile.pdf. Accessed March 15, 2016.

2. Food and Nutrition Services. — Albuquerque Public Schools 2016. Available at:
http://www.aps.edu/food-and-nutrition-services. Accessed April 8, 2016.

3. Elementary School Menu — Albuquerque Public Schools. Elementary School Menu — Albuquerque
Public Schools 2016. Available at: http://www.aps.edu/food-and-nutrition-services/school-menus-
and-prices/elementary-school-menu. Accessed April 8, 2016.

4. Betty C. Jung's Web site. OBESITY RESOURCES ON THE INTERNET. Available at:
http://www.bettycjung.net/obesity.htm. Accessed April 10, 2016.

5. Younger Consumers Are Eating More Fresh Food! - Taher, Inc. Food Service. Taher Inc Food
Service 2015. Available at: http://www.taher.com/younger-consumers-eating-fresh-food. Accessed
April 10, 2016.

6. Bruce Taher Biography - Taher, Inc. Food Service. Taher Inc Food Service. Available at:
http://www.taher.com/about-us/corporate-team/bruce-taher-biography/. Accessed April 13, 2016.

7. Stages of a growing of the person, from the child to the adult. 123RF Stock Photos. Available at:
http://www.123rf.com/photo_5885814_stages-of-a-growing-of-the-person-from-the-child-to-the-
adult.html. Accessed April 15, 2016.
























Appendix 1: Budget:

Item Description APS In Kind Total
Lunch Program: The food we would receive $23,490,000 $23,490,000
Food for the lunch program
would be from Shamrock
Foods off of Renaissance
Blvd. and would include
the purchase and shipping
of food from their
warehouse to schools.
Lunch Program: This program would $1,044,000 $1,044,000
Chefs involve the employment of
28 trained Certified Master
Chefs, each of which make
an annual salary of
$40,000.
Lunch Program: This money would be $1M $1M
Facility allocated to schools that
need adjustments made to
their kitchens in order to
accommodate this
program’s needs.
Nutrition This program would $500,000 $500,000
Education involve 10 RDs who each
Program: RDs make an annual salary of
$50,000.
Nutrition This money would be $1M $1M
Education necessary to pay teachers
Program: for the extra week of
Teachers training before the school
year begins.
Nutrition This money would be used $500,000 $500,000 $1M
Education to reimburse TAHER for
Program: 20,000 workbooks to
Workbooks elementary school
students.
Nutrition This money includes the $10,000 $10,000
Education cost of hosting trainings at
Program: Facility APS schools.
Total $26,534,000 $1,510,000 $28,044,000











Appendix 2: Résumé
Nathan M. Gomez
6027 Arrow Point Rd NW
Albuquerque, NM 87120
(505) 720-1926
O bjective:
Committed, enthusiastic graduate student seeking a position as a Registered Dietician at
TAHER Inc. to assist in the development of healthy, creative meals suited to be served to students, as
well as assisting in the nutrition education program offered to schools by TAHER Inc.
Education:
•University of New Mexico
o Current cumulative GPA of 4.175 through three semesters 2014-Present
at the University of New Mexico.
o Currently on the University College Dean’s List at UNM. Present
• Volcano Vista High School
o Attained a High School GPA of 4.10 from Volcano Vista May, 2014
High School.
o Received a graduation Diploma from Volcano Vista High May, 2014
School.
Experience:
• City of Albuquerque, Therapeutic Recreation Program May, 2014
o Title: Recreation Leader
o Responsibilities:
" Supervise children from ages 5 years
through 12 years of age, with and without
disabilities
" Lead group activities
" Assist children with homework
• Moon Jump 2010- Present
o Title: Delivery and Set Up Assistant
o Responsibilities:
" Deliver and set up jumpers for family-owned
business
" Provide customer service regarding set
up and questions
" Collect payments for rentals
• DECA 2012-2013
o Title: Student Cashier
o Responsibilities:
" Prepared food as ordered by students
" Responsible for running cash register
" Responsible for cleaning area after shift
Skills
• Excelled in Chemistry, Biology, and Nutrition courses at UNM. 2014-Present
• Serve as Eucharistic Minister at Holy Rosary Catholic Church. 2013-Present
• Selected to be the captain of high school soccer team. 2013


Appendix 3: Resume Review Sheet

Resume Review Sheet

Student’s name: Nathan Gomez
Your Name: Bryn Smith
Your Profession: Registered Dietician at Sandia National Labs
Date: 3/26/16

Please list three things that this resume does well:

1. Clearly separates education, skills, employment

2. In depth explanation of responsibilities

3. Concise

Please list three things that this resume can improve/add (especially according to
conventions of resumes in your discipline):
1. Make your objective a bit stronger. Brag about yourself in a word or two,
such as “Dedicated and lively graduate perusing a position of Registered
Dietician…”

2. Separate dates like I did in mine.

3. Everything else looks good!

Thank you!









 Proposal Reflection
Dear Breanne,
After writing this proposal, I feel like I have grown in my ability to analyze a
rhetorical situation and taper the mode in which I write to appropriately address the
situation. Also, I feel like I was able to compose this document by deliberately using
strategies that made the writing process more efficient. Lastly, I feel that I was able to
present this document incorporating visuals that enhanced my writing, as well as advice
from my peers.
This assignment has given me more practice in writing in a different genre in order
to have the desired effect on my audience. In the proposal genre, you are attempting to
convince the reader that what you are proposing is necessary and worthwhile. For this
reason, it is important to be persuasive, transparent and concise, and respectful. I tried to
do all three of these things in my proposal to APS to replace their lunch program with that
of a hybrid fantasy company. For example, to be persuasive, I used language like, “If APS
continues to serve children less than healthy food and neglects to provide students with
proper nutrition education…” Here I used to word “neglect” because it is somewhat
accusatory and implies that APS is partly to blame for the obesity of its students. This
language, I hoped, would really strike the superintendent and force her to look for viable
solutions to the problem. An example of being transparent and concise is when I included all
of the steps it would take to implement my plan, and told them exactly how much money
each step would cost APS, even though on the surface it seemed like a large amount of
money. This showed APS that I was credible and realistic about what changes would have to
be made to improve student’s health. I addition, to increase my credibility, I expressed why
I was passionate about this problem in the Current Situation section. I also outlined how the
company was competent in the Qualifications section, saying, “all TAHER chefs are Certified
Master Chefs who have experience creating new, healthy meals.” This hopefully made the
reader confident that competent employees could execute my plan. Lastly, even though I
used somewhat strong language, I remained respectful by not referring directly to the
superintendent very often, and instead referring to APS. This made the proposal less
accusatory and increased the likelihood that the superintendent would remain open to my
ideas.
Writing this proposal prompted me to use different strategies than I normally do
when it comes to the process of writing. Usually I just start writing and do research to fill in
blanks on things I don’t know. However with this assignment, even though I had a decent
idea of the problem I was addressing, I still did some research to make sure that statistics
backed up my claim, as evidenced in the current situation section which reads, “14.6% of
adolescents in this state being overweight and 13.5% being obese! .” I used this statistic to
bolster the descriptions I made in my current situation. Another deviation from my normal
writing routine was breaking up the times that I write. Usually I write most, if not all, of a
paper in one sitting. This time; however, started with the current situation and worked on
each section on separate days. I think the fact that you gave us time to get started on these
things in class helped me focus my writing on the specific section we worked on in class.
This allowed me to be thorough in each section and not neglect any facet of the proposal.
Lastly, I think that having us write the cover letter before starting the actual proposal was
helpful because it helped me focus my writing towards my target audience and gave me a
framework from which I could write the proposal.
When it came to the presentation of my proposal and the mode in which I chose to
write within this genre, I made several deliberate decisions to enhance the readability of my
proposal and also get my message across most effectively. I also used the advice given to
me by Shayla to improve my proposal, the first of which was to reword the first sentence in
my cover letter. The original sentence read, “Per your request, I am seeking $26,534,000 in
order to substitute APS’s current lunch program for that of TAHR Inc.” I didn’t really notice
how awkward this sounded, but she caught it and helped me improve it to say, “Per your
request, I have done the necessary research and determined that I will require $26,534,000
in order to substitute APS’s current lunch program for that of TAHR Inc.” This not only flows
better, but also gives me instant credibility by stating that the solutions I have come up with
are based on research and not just pulled out of nowhere. She also recommended that I
provide more space between my visuals to enhance readability, which I did. The final
suggestion she made was that I include an appendix so that all of the things I don’t want in
the paper, like the budget and my resume, had somewhere to go and somewhere from
which I could reference them. Judging by her feedback, she seemed to approve of the mode
in which I wrote.
I chose to write a written proposal because it seemed more professional to me, and I
thought that the superintendent of APS would be far more likely to pick up and read or at
least skim through a handwritten proposal than she would be to sit down at a computer and
watch an entire proposal, which she can’t skim though. I also chose to use certain visuals
that I thought would enhance the persuasiveness and credibility of my proposal. For
example, the visual I used in Figure 1, a depiction of the cycle of childhood obesity, was put
in the Current Situation section because it displays what factors perpetuate the problem of
childhood obesity. I also decided to use this picture because it incorporates all of the factors
that lead to children becoming obese, including those that I did not want to expand upon. In
this way, the visual I used added to my argument. I also loved the way it showed the cyclic
nature of the current situation and lets the reader know that if things are not done to fix the
problem, the cycle will continue. The second picture I used, Figure 2, depicts TAHER’s lunch
program in action. This boosts the proposals credibility by visually showing that the
changes I plan to implement have been implemented elsewhere and are possible. Using
these images was one way I tweaked the mode in which I wrote. The other way was using
colorful headings. I chose to do this because I thought that by choosing the colors green and
blue, colors that are typically associated with health, the reader might be put into a more
health-focused frame of mind while reading the proposal and be more receptive to my
message.
The final strategic efforts I made in presenting the proposal was choosing to present
the qualifications after presenting my plan, and condensing the Costs, Benefits, Conclusion
into one section. I placed the qualifications after the plan because I recognized that after
exposing the current situation to the superintendent, she would most likely want to
immediately hear what my plan to fix the problem was. Had I included the Qualifications
right after the Current Situation, she may have gotten lost in how the plan can directly fix
the problem her students face. Finally I decided to condense the Costs, Benefits, and
Conclusion into one sentence because at first I had them as separate sections and I found
myself repeating myself just to fill space. I decided that it would be better to condense these
sections into one concise, persuasive section, some of which reads, “By establishing these
healthy eating habits at an early age, these students will be more likely to keep these good
habits into their adult years and avoid suffering from the consequences of adulthood
obesity. They will grow into productive members of the community, which benefits
everyone.” Here I not only list a benefit of my plan, which would have gone in the Benefits
section, but also explains why this benefit is worth the costs, in that it also benefits the
community as a whole.
Overall the process I used to compose this proposal gave me valuable experience in
writing in yet another genre and prompted me to use a different writing process than I
usually do. The peer review process also helped me catch areas of the proposal that needed
work and make necessary changes. I feel that the decisions I made contributed to the
proposal being persuasive and clear, which was my goal.

Sincerely,
Nathan Gomez