State, federal officials want sodas, 'junk food' removed
from school vending machines
By JASON EMBRY
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Waco High School student Krystle Redford likes to wash down
her lunch with 20 cold ounces of root beer. But state and
federal officials don't think that's such a good idea.
The Texas Education Agency sent out a memo last month
saying it will be on the lookout for schools that serve sodas
and sugary snacks in or around cafeterias and other eating
areas.
The TEA message followed a mandate from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture that unhealthy snacks and drinks, largely sold
in vending machines, not compete with the meals served in
school lunch lines. Schools that do not comply could lose
federal funding for the meals they serve to students from
low-income families.
But Krystle said a cola crackdown won't be that easy.
"A lot of people would sneak off campus to go get a Coke at
the store across the street," the 15-year-old student said.
John D. Perkins, director of TEA's child nutrition
programs, wrote to schools last month that they cannot serve
"foods of minimal nutritional value" during meal times. The
ban covers any area of the school where students eat, such as
the cafeteria or an outside courtyard.
"The increasing consumption of 'junk food' and carbonated
beverages by children is being blamed for an alarming increase
in obesity and Type II diabetes," Perkins wrote. "Schools are
identified as one of the key settings for public health
strategies to address this concern."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, 13 percent of children ages 6 to 11 are
overweight, as are 14 percent of children ages 12 to 19. The
CDC claims the number of overweight children nearly doubled in
the last two decades.
Waco Independent School District officials say the federal
rules have been around for several years, but they have not
been enforced . TEA spokeswoman Adrienne Sobolak said monitors
will look out for the machines when they make announced visits
to schools once every two years.
Vending machines with sodas and snacks are mostly in WISD's
middle and high schools. Cliff Reece, the district's food
service director, said he'll soon be meeting with principals
to figure out how each school will adhere to TEA's orders.
"I think the principals are willing to do whatever we need
to do to meet the guidelines," he said.
One option is to replace the banned items in vending
machines with foods and drinks that comply. Schools could also
move the machines outside of the lunch rooms, although Reece
said trying to keep forbidden snacks out of cafeterias could
give principals headaches.
The enforcement does not apply to sodas and snacks that
students pack in their lunches from home. The rules also do
not apply to the machines in faculty lounges.
Reece believes the TEA enforcement could boost cafeteria
sales in WISD middle schools, although he does not expect a
major impact. But he thinks the rules will cause more
high-schoolers to leave campus for lunch, which is allowed for
some older students.
TEA spokeswoman Adrienne Sobolak said the rules focus on
foods that have fewer than 5 percent of the recommended daily
intake of any of eight nutrients identified by the Department
of Agriculture. The four main categories of the restricted
foods are sodas, non-fruit water ices, gum and candies made
predominantly from sugars and other sweeteners. Many types of
chips are expected to survive because they will meet the the
minimum nutrient level.
Krystle, the Waco High student, said most of her
schoolmates aren't worried about nutritional value as much as
taste and convenience.
"There are some that walk around with a bottle of water in
their hands and carrot sticks in their purse," she said.
"They're the ones that really care."
Crystal Abad, also a Waco High student, said she regularly
gets lunch food from the vending machines that sit in a
hallway just outside the school cafeteria. During a recent
lunch she paid 70 cents for a bag of Chee-tos to go with her
chicken strips and french fries.
"It depends on what I feel like," said Crystal, 15.
"Sometimes I want chips, sometimes I want sweets, sometimes I
want sours."
WISD has an exclusive contract with Coca-Cola to sell its
products. According to that contract, WISD gets $3.50 for
every case of 24 cans of Coke products, each of which sells
for 60 cents. This could include items such as water or
non-carbonated fruit drinks. The contract also calls for for
the district to sell 21,000 cases of drinks per year or 1.4
cases per student, whichever is greater.
Spokesman Sean McBride of the National Soft Drink
Association, a trade group for drink manufacturers, said the
group supports federal guidelines that do not allow soda sales
where food is eaten or served. But he said school boards
should be able to decide whether they want soda machines in
hallways and other common areas.
"What we think is really bad public policy is for state or
federal governments to mandate to the schools what they can
and cannot do when it comes to partnerships with beverage
companies," he said.
McBride said keeping an eye on calorie intake must be
coupled with regular exercise. He pointed to a recent article
in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that says low
levels of leisure exercise over time have the strongest
relationship with obesity.
"We've got to get people to log off the computer, we've got
to get them to turn off the TV, we've got to get up off the
couch and get moving," he said. "That's clear. On the
nutrition side, restricting things doesn't work."
WISD principals have said they're worried that the
rule-tightening will cut down on the money that schools make
off of the machines, which can be hundreds of dollars each
month.
University High School Principal Annette Perez said she
uses machine revenues for student rewards and supplies that
are not covered in a typical school budget. A couple of years
ago the money helped a student buy a display board for a
history fair project.
"There will be some very judicious cutting that we'll have
to do as to what we can afford and what we can't," she said.
Perez said students weren't happy when, after receiving the
TEA memo, she cut off access to the vending machines in the
school's cafeteria and on an outside courtyard during meal
times. Seniors and students who have passed all sections of
the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills are allowed to leave
campus for lunch at University, and Perez said some of them
have probably been picking up sodas for the students who stay
at school.
WISD spokesman Dale Caffey said the district may fill
machines with Coke products that meet the guidelines, such as
bottles of water and non-carbonated fruit drinks.
"We feel like it will still bring in some revenue," Caffey
said. "If you turn it completely off for those serving times,
you're going to kill any chance of bringing in any revenue at
all."
Jason Embry can be reached at 757-5743 or at
jembry@wacotrib.com.