Kids and Health Care: Junk Food Money
Sadly, junk food is often a financial matter for schools and school districts.
Schools often put soda and candy machines in their hallways because they need the money that the machines generate to fund extra-curricular activities and other expenses that are often the first things cut by tight-fisted state politicians.
Cash-strapped districts can make money -- millions, in some cases -- by signing exclusive contracts with Pepsi or Coca-Cola to stock vending machines in schools. In 2003, Hillsborough County, Florida (which includes Tampa), signed a 12-year contract with Pepsi expected to bring in $50 million.
Traditionally, vending machines on public school campuses were restricted in the U.S. by federal and state regulations; but many of these rules were relaxed during the 1990s. For example, in 1999, the state of Florida allowed its high schools to make their own decisions about candy and soda machines -- and keep the proceeds of machines, if they chose to have them. Most decided to take the money.
But a strong backlash has followed in the 2000s.
Groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, alarmed by rising rates of child obesity in the United States, have started opposing these business deals. The AAP has issued public statements that soft drinks don't belong in schools and called on pediatricians to help get rid of them. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington, D.C.based consumer group, has been making soft drinks sound like obesity-in-a-can for years. The group labels soft drinks "liquid candy" in its reports about rising soda consumption.
Legislation to restrict school vending machine sales has been filed in more than 15 states, including Florida.
From California to New York, individual school districts and schools have kicked out soda.
The soaring numbers of childhood obesity in the U.S. has forced school administrators' hands. In 2003 and 2004, school districts around the U.S. started to reconsider their snack policies and cafeteria menus. About 20 states restricted student access to junk food until after lunch; and about two dozen states were considering total bans or limits on vending machine products.
One example: The Texas Agriculture Department started revamping the rules on what food the state's public schools can serve to their 4.2 million students. Among the new rules: Canned fruits had to be packed only in natural juices or light syrups; milk had to be reduced-fat or non-fat; potato or corn chips had to be reduced-fat or baked. Deep fat frying was banned entirely. Texas school districts had to follow limits of how much fat and sugar a meal could have.
Noting that some 38 percent of Texas fourth-graders were overweight, Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs also banned "foods of minimal nutritional value" -- including sodas, hard candy and gum -- during the primary school day and at middle-school lunches.
