Schools rethink cola money
Published 10:48 am Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Contracts between soft-drink companies and schools are big business.
Schools in Snohomish County pocketed more than $600,000 last year in vending machine sales through contracts with PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Co., which sell carbonated soft drinks, sports drinks, juices and bottled water at middle and high schools throughout the county, according to a Herald survey of 13 school districts.
Tens of thousands of dollars more are raised by student-run stores on the campuses.
In an era of tight school budgets, the soft-drink money pays for a variety of programs. It helps publish a yearbook in Darrington, buy volleyball equipment in Stanwood and provides high school tutors for elementary school children in Granite Falls.
Also, beverage commissions and contracts provide scholarships and $20,000 electronic reader boards outside schools, and the money pays for dances, computer software, uniforms and field trips.
In this mutually lucrative business arrangement, schools are rewarded handsomely for how much Mountain Dew and Diet Pepsi they sell each day, and companies get a chance to try and build lifetime brand loyalty among students. But there’s a hitch in this cozy partnership between the schools and soft-drink companies.
Individual schools, and even entire school districts, are beginning to ask tough questions: With teenage obesity on the rise, should they be selling soft drinks at a high profit? When schools teach the virtues of health and nutrition in the classroom, should they be pedaling soda pop in the corridors?
The 18,000-student Everett School District took bold action this fall, banishing pop and making other sweeping changes to what foods are sold in schools.
Over the next 10 months, all 296 school districts in Washington will be required to examine their nutrition and physical fitness policies. Soda-pop sales in schools are being added to the hit list of many fledgling committees.
However, parents, school nurses and teachers eager to have more healthy snacks and drinks in their schools face a harsh reality: For cash-strapped schools, the money provides income they’ve come to depend on.
“If machine revenues are paying for team uniforms or school trips or lunch money for the kid who has none, it is difficult to make a change until the principal is comfortable that the revenue lost will be replaced,” said Julia Graham Lear, who directs the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools in Washington, D.C.
The Vista Unified School District in Vista, Calif., is one of the growing number of districts that have made the switch to healthier alternatives yet still make as much or more money.
But there are no guarantees, and schools that make the switch face a financial gamble.
Consider Lake Stevens High School, which received about $50,000 from its beverage contract sales last year. Half went to student government and half to the athletic department.
The sales accounted for 35 percent of the athletic department budget. Without it, student athletes would probably face pay-to-play fees.
“It would put a huge hole in our boat,” said Ed Bailey, the school’s athletic director.
Students in the Everett district question whether healthy eating should be a choice, or forced upon them through restrictive food policies.
“Seniors are turning 18 and have the freedom to vote,” said Joseph Jun, student body president at Henry M. Jackson High School. “They’re wondering why they can’t have the choice to drink pop at school.
“I definitely think we could educate each student more about what pop does and why the rates of obesity are going up,” Jun said. “I just don’t believe they should take away our pop machines because of statistics.”
A national debate
The national movement to regulate or remove pop machines in schools is fueled by obesity rates that have doubled in children and tripled in adolescents over the last 20 years.
Milk consumption among both children and adults dropped nearly in half – to 22 gallons a person annually – between 1947 and 2001. At the same time, soft-drink consumption tripled, to 49 gallons, according to a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture report.
It’s not uncommon for teenagers to consumer 500 to 1,000 calories a day in sugar-sweetened drinks, Harvard researchers found. The odds of becoming obese significantly increase with each additional serving of such drinks above the daily average.
Other trends found in a 2001 Agriculture Department report to Congress:
Added sugars, such as those in processed foods, make up about a quarter of children’s calories on average.
The availability of food sold in competition with school meal programs may contribute to unhealthy eating practices and increase health risks as kids grow older.
When growing kids don’t get enough calcium, it can prevent them from reaching their maximum height and bone strength, and cause osteoporosis later in life.
Schools have negotiated exclusive contracts with soft-drink companies, with many giving schools monetary incentives as sales increase.
Nationally, there are 540,000 cold beverage machines in middle schools, high schools and colleges, according to the trade publication Automatic Merchandizing.
A review of previous contracts in the Everett School District shows that school commissions on carbonated soft-drink beverages ranged from 50 percent to 57 percent per bottle. The return on noncarbonated drinks was about 20 percent to 25 percent per bottle.
A look at Kamiak High School in the Mukilteo School District gives some idea of the popularity of vending machine pop, juice and water.
Some quick figuring shows that about 120,000 beverages were sold at Kamiak in the 2003-2004 school year. That’s about 60 servings per student last year, although there’s no way to track who was buying the drinks – students, staff or parents at PTSA meetings.
Representatives of the soft-drink industry counter that their products have become a convenient symbol of blame for the nation’s obesity problem. Bans on soft-drink sales, they contend, are an all-too-easy answer to a complex problem.
“Bans of any particular food or drink do not have a lasting effect on fighting childhood obesity,” said Kathleen Dezio, a spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association.
“It sounds good. People feel like they’re doing something. I know it’s well intentioned.”
The key to battling childhood obesity is eating and drinking a variety of foods in moderation and getting plenty of exercise, Dezio said. “Trying to isolate one food and thinking that it addresses obesity, it just doesn’t happen that way.”
Everett takes action
Expanding waistlines was one of the reasons the Everett School District decided it was time to look at its nutrition practices.
Also, there was the disconnect between federal nutrition requirements for school lunch programs and the sugary drinks and fat-laden snacks being sold in vending machines and student stores.
A committee was formed to develop standards for all schools. It conducted a top-to-bottom review of campus food, from the cafeteria to what is sold in drink and snack machines to the menu at Everett High’s student store, run by young entrepreneurs who gross up to $175 a day.
The district’s nutrition policy includes a ban on food that derives more than 40 percent of its calories from fat, except nuts, seeds and cheese. It limits portion sizes. Cookies and cereal bars can be no larger than 2 ounces. Water and low- and nonfat milk, 100 percent fruit juice, sports drinks and coffee can be sold at the high schools during the school day.
At Everett High’s cafeteria, french fries are now baked rather than deep-fried. Eighteen pounds of fresh fruits such as pineapples, grapes and apples are consumed each school day. Ham and turkey deli sandwiches are offered.
The student store now sells healthier Sun Chips, popcorn, string cheese, juice, Italian sodas, water and reduced-fat pizza.
“I’m optimistic. I think if we give kids good options, they’ll take them,” said Denny Byrnes, a teacher whose class manages the store. “We were making it hard for kids to eat healthy.”
Some still drinking
Of all the changes wrought by Everett’s new nutrition policy, the lingering controversy is over soda pop.
“Kids really wanted to keep it,” said Elizabeth Copland, a student representative on the Everett nutrition panel last year who is now at the University of Washington. Jackson High School students were “split down the middle,” she said, between athletes who were trying to eat healthy and other students who said, “I’m not obese,” and wanted to keep pop in the school.
It wasn’t just a matter of nutritional choice, Copland said, but the reality of the money for student activities brought in by drink machines at Jackson – about $40,000 last year.
Students felt that offering healthy food options was a great idea, but also felt that decisions were being made for them “rather than allowing us to make our own,” said Kaley Mitchell, 17, Jackson’s senior class president.
Removing pop has ignited a flourishing underground economy.
“Instead of the (student government) getting the money, now it’s going into the pockets of those smart enough to do their own business of Mountain Dew selling,” Mitchell said.
The potential loss in funds to student activities could be substantial, she said. “We’re not going to lose $40,000,” she said of the proceeds from drink sales. “But I still think it’s going to hurt us.”
The Everett district anticipated the financial impact of the new policy, so it agreed to help student governments make up for losses, Superintendent Carol Whitehead said. The district isn’t expecting a major financial drain, based on reports from other parts of the country.
“Avoiding this issue, whether controversial or not, was not in the best interest of our children,” Whitehead added.
Schools weigh options
The Marysville School Board may follow Everett’s example.
“It is my goal to get rid of every single pop machine and candy machine by the beginning of the next school year,” said Michael Kundu, a school board member.
“It can be done, and it should be done,” he said. “The question is how quickly we are willing to do it.”
The Stanwood-Camano School District has a committee studying healthy food choices in its schools. It also must define where to draw the line.
For instance, said Gary Platt, the district’s director of business and operations: “Are we going to try to restrict what is going on after the school day? When there is a birthday in elementary school, are we going to confiscate cupcakes?”
At Lake Stevens High School, students would be reluctant to give up pop, as well as the revenue it generates.
“I think it would do a lot more harm than good” because of the many activities it supports, said Kaila Ann Ayers, a senior and member of the school’s student government. “People can make their own decision about what to put in their own body,” she said.
“A lot of people would think it’s ridiculous that you can be making that decision for us,” said Rebecca Matlack, president of the school’s DECA marketing club.
Even so, the DECA program is beginning to offer sugar-free options in anticipation of changes ahead.
Not all students are worried about the changes.
Bobby Sonsteng, 15, a sophomore at Lake Stevens High School, said he buys about two bottles of pop a week at school. He likes the option, but wouldn’t complain if it dried up.
“If they had a bigger selection of juice, it wouldn’t bother me too much,” he said.
What to offer as alternatives isn’t easy, either.
Breakfast bars and trail mix have a healthy image but can be high in fat. Juices initially sound like nutritious alternatives to pop, but “now we understand juice is sugar-loaded and want to be moderate about that as well,” said Lear, with the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools.
The options are daunting, Sultan School District Superintendent Al Robinson said.
“The sugar is at least as big an issue as the carbonation,” he said. “Juice drinks will make nice sales, but are we really any better off? You could have to go to just bottled water machines.”
Too busy to cook?
If you can open a can, you can have a steaming pot of soup ready in about 20 minutes.
Tortilla Soup
2 cups tomato sauce (Fire-roasted tomato sauce adds extra spice)
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup salsa
1 cup frozen whole-kernel corn
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
14 ounces chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 16-ounce can of kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 clove gralic, minced
Simmer 12 minutes.
1 1/2 cups reduced-fat cheddar cheese
20 fat-free baked fortilla chips
1) Combine first 9 incredients in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 12 minutes. Ladle into bowls; sprinkle with cheese. Serve with chips. Serves six.
Source: Cooking Light
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@ heraldnet.com.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
