Push is on for kids to eat better
Sunday, August 06, 2006
By Chad Livengood
clivengood@citpat.com -- 768-4918
Soft-drink vending machines are vanishing in area schools this year as concerns over childhood obesity increase nationwide.
All public schools in the federal free and reduced-price lunch program had to adopt policies by July 1 detailing how they will educate and serve nutritious food to students from preschool through high school.
"Soda pop machines are for the most part gone," said Brant Russell, food service director for Jackson Public Schools.
Jackson High School and the Middle School at Parkside each have one machine. And even they are turned off during school hours.
That will force teens to wait until the last bell rings to consume the 39 grams of sugar and 140 calories in a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola.
The Northwest district is replacing soft drinks in vending machines with water or Gatorade. JPS is adding Powerade machines in some schools.
Russell expects to get a refrigerated vending machine in Amy Firth Middle School before school starts Sept. 5.
"I'm hoping to get one that serves both food and drink," he said.
Most districts have been following federal agriculture department nutrition guidelines for years for lunch and breakfast meals.
Meanwhile, soft-drink and candy machines in cafeterias grew into a lucrative revenue stream for schools.
But alarming increases in childhood obesity led the federal government to step in and require stricter diets for kids.
The 2003 National Survey of Children's Health found 10 million youth age 10 to 17, or 30.5 percent, were obese or at risk of becoming overweight. Nearly 29 percent of Michigan schoolchildren are overweight.
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