[WARNING: This article contains graphic depictions of fast food employment conditions and as such may offend some readers.]
When Hillary Benson was voted Student of the Month by her teachers and peers in January 2000, her future seemed bright and boundless. A star on the Jefferson High School volleyball and softball teams, Hillary was well-liked by her fellow students and the pride of her conservative Baptist parents, Jerry and Alice. Having maintained a respectable 3.40 grade point average, in her senior year Hillary had her eye on college - but it was a dream that would never come true.
"My parents couldn't afford a real university," she explains, "so I thought maybe I'd go to the local community college for a couple of years after high school. You know, take some classes and maybe get on the softball team there. I figured that would give me the time to find the financial aid I needed for a real university. That was my plan, at least."
Times weren't exactly booming for the Benson family that year. With the White House facing the certain departure of President Clinton and the likely arrival of either Al Gore or George W. Bush, the economy had started to sour. A streak of bad luck added to the family's woes - a streak that included an $800 vet bill when the family cat was mauled by a roving Pit Bull Terrier, and $2,400 worth of repairs to the family's only car when the transmission gave up the ghost on the way to their church's annual spring picnic. Not one to sit idly by and watch her family struggle, Hillary decided she had to do something drastic to help.
"Mom and Dad have always supported me," Hillary announces proudly. "I couldn't just let them hurt like that, you know? I had to do something. Unfortunately, in a small town like Evergreen, there aren't a lot of opportunities for young people. I was willing to take just about any job I could find if it meant helping Mom and Dad."
Despite her respectable high school GPA and her heralded athletic accomplishments, finding a job wasn't easy. She applied at local beauty shops and several Christian bookstores, but nobody was hiring; most businesses were cutting back due to the prospect of tough economic times. After searching for nearly two weeks, Hillary was about to give up. That's when a former schoolmate approached her with an offer. An offer that would change her life.
The Lure
Hillary knew Jennifer Roach from Jefferson High, but the two hadn't been well acquainted. Jennifer had mysteriously dropped out of school several months earlier, and few of Jefferson High's busy students had thought much about her disappearance.
"Jenny and I didn't really hang out at school," Hillary admits. "She was, you know, not very attractive and had this serious acne problem. Most of the guys made fun of her, and I guess I did, too. I didn't want the guys looking that way at me or anything, so I'd usually just point out her latest zit and that would keep everyone laughing for hours. I escaped notice on quite a few bad hair days by pointing out Jenny's zits to my friends. So I guess in that regard I did miss her a bit after she left."
But this time, Jennifer wasn't there to help - even though at first it seemed her intentions were sincere. Hearing that Hillary was looking for work, Jennifer offered to get her a part-time job at the local fast-food burger joint.
"I was definitely attracted to the money," Hillary says, a look of deep remorse in her blue eyes. "I knew the fast food industry was feeding off people's weakness for a cheap, quick meal. Also the incredibly negative impact the industry has on world ecology and already economically depressed areas in U.S. cities... not to mention the basic health issues facing human beings. And I'd heard all that talk about the industry exploiting teenage girls and boys for profit. But the money was just too good to pass up, given my family's financial situation."
Hillary was offered a position in Smouldy Burger's kitchen as Chief Director of Deep Frying Operations - or "Chief Deep" as it's called in the business. She took the job.
At first, Hillary did divert a considerable amount of money to helping her parents; but it didn't take long for her new lifestyle to put an end to that.
"People at work were like, ?You're doing all the work. Why should you give up all your money paying bills and stuff? Let your parents buy the food and pay the rent.' After a while that started to sound reasonable, so I started buying, like, three CDs, a Playstation game, and a couple of movies each week and giving nothing to my parents. It was so crazy, I had all this great stuff. I was... " Hillary pauses while looking for the right word. "I was hooked."
Hardcore
Now that Hillary had a taste of the fast life, she found herself wanting more. In March of 2000, Hillary dropped out of high school just three months shy of graduation. Her manager had promised her the highly coveted position of Primary Cashier - but only if she was willing to work full time. Abandoning Jefferson High and leaving the school's softball team without their star player in the middle of a pennant race, Hillary assumed the position of Smouldy Burger's Primary Cashier, much to the anger of some of her co-workers - who themselves had ambitions to become Smouldy Burger's "girl behind the counter."
"You would not believe how pissed some of the other girls were when I got the Primary Cashier job," Hillary explains. "One bitch spit in my root beer while I was using the bathroom, and I won't even tell you what I found that one time in my hair net... everybody kept saying that I must have slept with the manager to get that job, but personally, I think it was ambition. I willed that job to come my way because I wanted it so badly."
If anyone thought Hillary had a special relationship with her manager, those thoughts were quickly killed shortly after her first day as Primary Cashier.
"Steve didn't like me at all because I wasn't one to just do whatever he told me to do," says Hillary with no small measure of pride. "He wanted me to do things like thank every single customer I served, as if they were doing me some kind of favor. I told Steve that they should be the ones thanking me, and that really pissed him off. But you know what? The other girls started respecting me a lot more after that incident."
Handling money and thanking customers wasn't all that was in Hillary's new job description. Often, there were unpleasant - and downright filthy - acts Hillary was forced to perform if she wanted to keep her high-profile new job.
"This one time Steve asked me if I wanted a little overtime work, and I was pretty hard up for cash that week, so I expressed interest. I asked him what the work would involve, and he told me that all I'd have to do was restock napkins and straws and keep the dining area in good shape. So I said what the heck and agreed to come in on my off-day - but when I got there, Steve had something else in mind. He handed me a mop and a bucket and told me to clean off the floor in the women's bathroom. Of course I objected, but I needed the money and didn't want to lose my job. The stench in there was inhuman. They only cleaned out the bathroom once a week. Someone had vomited on the floor and I was expected to clean up these half-digested chicken nuggets - and that was the easy part.
"I can't even bring myself to describe the commode."
You Wanna Eat, Don't You?
Filthy jobs and exploitative managers weren't the only problems Hillary faced during her time in the fast food industry. Food became a problem too. With Smouldy Burgers offering their faithful employees all-they-could-eat freedom fries, Hillary watched in helpless horror as her girlish figure transformed into something much more frightening. Her skin - which had previously been milky white and the envy of the softball team - was breaking out regularly. She put on 30 pounds in four weeks; but despite the concerned pleas of her family and friends, Hillary couldn't get off her self-destructive path.
"All my co-workers were eating tons of fries. It was just the thing to do, especially during those slow hours between lunch and dinner, you know? There were days my skin was so gross with zits that I would cry myself to sleep. When the local community college finally started up, I only went for three days before I dropped out. Old friends were pointing out my zits and laughing, I was too heavy to make the softball team, and the school hours were getting in the way of my work schedule."
That she dropped out of college was the final straw for Hillary's parents. It was a warm evening in September when Jerry and Alice Benson confronted their daughter in her bedroom. She was playing the latest Resident Evil game - another sign of her tormented and unhappy existence - and it was then that Hillary's parents firmly announced that enough was enough.
As luck would have it, the pastor at the Benson's church had given a talk the evening prior about saving teenagers from the lure of the fast food industry. The frank discussion - given at a fundraiser for Decent Citizens Against Fast Food Exploitation of Teenagers (DCAFFET) - both shocked and amazed Hillary's concerned mother, Alice. DCAFFET had been in existence for six years, trying to raise awareness about the dangers of the fast food industry. A DCAFFET spokesperson noted that, under the Clinton Administration, pleas to the White House for help in the battle against fast food exploitation were completely ignored. Unlike Slick Willy, however, Alice Benson heard the message loud and clear that night.
"I just can't get over what these Godless capitalists do to our children - and we say nothing and let it happen," says Alice with understandable passion. "These men who run these so-called businesses just exploit our children for profit. They start off by luring in children with "Fun Meals" and "free toys," then they hit them when they're ripe by offering money and instant ?good life.' The next thing you know the child is stuck in this horrible and faithless existence, serving body-destroying substances to other desperate souls who never learned the value of cooking. And what really sickens me is that it's all about money. They admit that. Ask any of these fast food chains why they are in business - they'll tell you right to your face. It's the money."
"Did you know that the average career in fast food lasts for only two years," adds Hillary's father Jerry, raising his eyebrows. "That's a fact, look it up. See, now that tells me something. That tells me that the fast food industry is burning out employees faster than Wendy's can fry a square burger. That's a sobering fact."
Her parents' intervention was a wake-up call for Hillary, and she vowed to get out of the fast food business and move on to something more meaningful and healthy. In her final days at work, coworkers noticed a change in Hillary's attitude. It was a change that they didn't like. Hillary had been known for her willingness to do anything. Now the girl that always gave in was suddenly stern and cold.
When asked why Hillary had always said yes at work prior to those last days, she pauses in an attempt to collect herself before answering. Warm tears start to roll down her cheek.
"I was so unhappy inside, you know," she explains through the sobs. "I wanted people to love me and to think I was good. But... but I wasn't good. I tried to pretend so that my customers would feel they were well-served. I can't pretend anymore. I hated the work. I hated it. All I could think about when I served someone was how much I hated them for using me in that way... I was in so many ways like that hamburger myself, a piece of meat to be used for a moment of profit. The fast food industry was consuming me."
On Sept. 23, 2000, Hillary got out of the fast food industry for good; but many of the emotional scars remain. For the next year she lived on the financial support of her parents while she tried to forget about her fast-food past. Then in 2001, she got an offer to work for DCAFFET as a guest speaker. Today, Hillary tours the nation speaking at high schools and churches, trying to bring her message of warning to others who otherwise might repeat her mistakes.
"The other day I was walking by a store window when I saw that the new Nintendo GameCube was on sale," Hillary says to a packed auditorium at Lincoln High in Nebraska. Hillary is an energetic and passionate speaker, and the kids pick up on her energy right away. "I thought to myself that I could buy that GameCube in just two paychecks if I went back to fast food. I might even be able to buy the latest Mario game to go with it.
"But you know what? My soul is worth a lot more to me than some vacuous electronic stimulation. That's why I say ?no way' to a life in fast food. And you should too."
Good words. Words to live by.
Connor Young is the Editor in Chief of The ADULTWEBMASTER Magazine.
