Nearly All Sodas Sales to Schools to End
By SAMANTHA GROSS
NEW YORK (AP) - The nation's largest beverage distributors have agreed to halt nearly all soda sales to public schools, according to a deal announced Wednesday by the William J. Clinton Foundation.
Under the agreement, the companies have agreed to sell only water, unsweetened juice and low-fat milks to elementary and middle schools, said Jay Carson, a spokesman for former President Bill Clinton. Diet sodas would be sold only to high schools.
Cadbury Schweppes PLC (CSG), Coca-Cola Co. (KO), PepsiCo Inc. (PEP) and the American Beverage Association have all signed onto the deal, Carson said, adding that the companies serve "the vast majority of schools." The American Beverage Association represents the majority of school vending bottlers.
The deal follows a wave of regulation by school districts and state legislatures to cut back on student consumption of soda amid reports of rising childhood obesity rates. Soda has been a particular target of those fighting obesity because of its caloric content and popularity among children.
"It's a bold and sweeping step that industry and childhood obesity advocates have decided to take together," Carson said.
A man who answered the phone at Cadbury Schweppes' London headquarters said no one was available for comment. Calls seeking comment from the other distributors were not immediately returned early Wednesday.
Nearly 35 million students nationwide will be affected by the deal, The Alliance for a Healthier Generation said in a news release. The group, a collaboration between Clinton's foundation and the American Heart Association, helped broker the deal.
"This is really the beginning of a major effort to modify childhood obesity at the level of the school systems," said Robert H. Eckel, president of the American Heart Association.
Under the agreement, high schools will still be able to purchase drinks such as diet and unsweetened teas, diet sodas, sports drinks, flavored water, seltzer and low-calorie sports drinks from distributors.
School sales of those kinds of drinks have been on the rise in recent years, while regular soda purchases by students have been falling, according to an ABA report released in December. But regular soda is still the most popular drink among students, accounting for 45 percent of beverages sold in schools in 2005, the report said.
The agreement applies to beverages sold for use on school grounds during the regular and extended school day, Carson said. Sales during after-school activities such as clubs, yearbook, band and choir practice will be affected by the new regulations. But sales at events such as school plays, band concerts and sporting events, where adults make up a significant portion of the audience, won't be affected, he said.
How quickly the changes take hold will depend in part on individual school districts' willingness to alter existing contracts, the alliance said. The companies will work to implement the changes at 75 percent of the nation's public schools by the 2008-2009 school year, and at all public schools a year later.
Many school districts around the country have already begun to replace soda and candy in vending machines with healthier items, and dozens of states have considered legislation on school nutrition this year.
The agreement follows an August decision by the American Beverage Association to adopt a policy limiting soft drinks in high schools to no more than 50 percent of the selections in vending machines. That recommendation was not binding.
Gooood!
Pop is so horrid for ANYONE, let alone kids.
I read something a long time ago that did studies on schools which had a problem with behavior, they schools changed all the foods in the school from processed or junk foods to healthy options, and took away the pop machines, and the behavior of the majority of the kids vastly improved. It was an interesting read. I strongly believe diet and nutrition can affect people, negatively if the diet/nutrition isn't that great, positively for people who eat healthily.
Yeah, it was about time for that! I remember trying to study algebra in high school with a whole class full of kids hopped up on Mountain Dew.
Now, if they'd only extend the lunch periods!! Ours was 18 minutes for 300+ people in two cafeteria lines. I quit school 4 1/2 years ago, and I still wolf all my food--I recently caught myself consume around 1200 calories in under ten minutes. If that's not contributing to obesity, I'm REALLY surprised.
Yeah, I heard about this on public radio. It makes me so happy! The soda companys are terrible for kids and I know Coke at least is not so good when it comes to human rights and unions.
The whole thing is a great idea....the only part I don't like is that they're only going to serve diet sodas in the high schools. I would rather drink regular sugar than artificial sweeteners.....and I know it's not been proven but I've read a lot of articles saying that artificial sweeteners aren't good for you.
Also, I didn't even know they sell soda at elementary schools. I don't think they do around here.
I have a serious problem with only diet sodas in high school. First of all, some of them contain aspartame, which can cause serious problems if consumed on a regular basis. Also, I understand that the whole idea is to reduce the rate of childhood obesity, but do we really need to be adding to the insecurities of teenage girls about their bodies? Only having diet soda available is like telling the entire school that they need to be on a diet. I can't see that being healthy for anyone, no matter what their weight.
Does anyone know if there's any correlation between the war on childhood obesity and the rise in eating disorders?
I do think it's good that they are taking soda out of schools. I just don't see how they can justify leaving diet soda in high schools.
I agree that diet soda should have been removed as well, because that one little part deters the message from 'health' to 'dieting'. As long as the focus is health, I don't think it would attribute to EDs. Regardless of size (a child can be thin and completely unhealthy), I think it's completely beneficial to promote health to our children. We live in a nation of fast food, unhealthy foods and drinks, and sedentary lifestyles, where more and more children are playing video games and watching TV rather than outside playing. There is a thin line though, to make sure the focus is health with the results and end goal being a more healthy lifestyle, rather than presenting the focus as dieting, with the results and end goal as being thin.
I don't see the point in selling only diet soda in high schools. Diet soda isn't very healthy either, they might as well just eliminate soda all together.
Whoooot!!!!!
(see, sometimes the good guys DO win!)
I just have a question, when it says "public schools" do they mean elementary schools?? Because if so, wow. Seriously. Giving KIDS pop?
I hope highschools soon follow, even though for my highschool (I graduated 2 years ago) they put the pop machines in during grade 10, so 4 years ago, and seriously, there is NO NEED.
public schools means all schools. I'm a little ambivalent about the ban. My school banned soda, but we still sell "juice" drinks that are primarily high fructose corn syrup.
I could not agree more...faux juice, ha. Have you ever compared the grams of sugar in un-pure juice to that of pop? Frightening! Most of those juices like Hi-5 are aimed at children as well. I have to shake my head when juice, no⦠âjuiceâ (I love it) companies advertise that their product is now 50% real juice. Like thatâs a good thing?
What the fuck is JUICE? I want drink, muthafucker.
ha ha. Sorry, I couldn't help it.
I cannot believe this is actualy happening. Now if they can get the Taco Bell out of the middle/high schools......
Anybody see the Naked Chef commercials on TLC? Jamie Oliver is supposed to go into schools & help make over the cafeteria food. I stopped buying school lunches for Matthias in 1st grade when I learned that they let them pick what they want to eat and the choices were almost always fried, fatty, sugar, or covered in gravy.
I don't drink soda and I totally agree with not having it in elementary schools and middle schools but I think taking it out of high schools is a tad ridiculous. There NEED to be other options but telling high schoolers they can't have soda to me is silly. We are old enough to make our own decisions about how much soda to consume. My high school serves soda in the machines but it's funny because more teachers drink it than kids. We recently started stocking Vitamin Water. I LOVE IT!!!
A 16/17 is capable of moving out and raising a child on her own.
Yet she can't be trusted to decide what to drink with lunch?
I agree.
That said, I suppose the distributors have every right not to sell to schools and the schools have every right to limit what is sold on the premises.
This just smacks of PR for the soft-drink companies rather than genuine concern for students' health. Why is this front-page news?
From another article I read on the topic, here's my summary of how the drinks will be served in some schools:
They are limiting all sugary drinks - including high sugar juices. In elementary schools ALL juices (with the exception of 8oz or less sized orange juices), sports drinks, and sodas (diet too) will be banned from being sold at the school. In middle school the ban is the same, but they up the limit to 10 oz containers.
In high schools all drinks will be limited to 12 oz containers. No sugary sodas will be sold, and half the drinks offered will be water or a low-calorie beverage, such as diet soda, diet lemonade or diet iced tea. Sports drinks will be allowed, as will juice drinks as long as they have fewer than 100 calories per serving.
I'm really not comfortable with the idea of them only having the option of diet....cuz like a few other ppl have said I think it's pushing the idea of dieting onto kids and could lead to problems.
If they're going to limit it I would go with only water and 100% juices.
I do think the people in high school should have options though....you can drive, have children and some people can even vote when they're in high school but you can't decide what kind of drinks you want. I think it should be no soda rather than the option of diet.
That is what I was thinking but I didn't want to overstep my boundaries as a kidless ally. I am capable (though I am 18 but still I have not technically graduated yet even though classes are done) of driving, voting, making reproductive decisions (including but limited to having an abortion or raising child... though I have done neither), buying guns, being drafted, etc etc. But I cannot have soda? That seems ridiculous to me. But soda is still yucky.
Soda consumption has been consistently linked to obesity, diabetes and osteopenia. It's not like you can't drink soda at home, or in your free time, but I can't understand why it should be available at school. Why not just put cigarette machines in the building?
Would soda be totally banned? I thought they were just putting an end to selling it in schools. Would kids still be able to bring soda to school?
"Soda consumption has been consistently linked to obesity, diabetes and osteopenia. It's not like you can't drink soda at home, or in your free time, but I can't understand why it should be available at school. Why not just put cigarette machines in the building?"
I don't think anyone is trying to say that drinking cokes is good for you, but rather that at a certain point, good or bad, the choice should be left up to the individual. There's an annoying trend in our society to treat anyone under 18 like a child, and then act as though it's a social crisis when they turn 18 and aren't an adult yet. So do I care particularly about the issue of whether or not there are coke machines in high schools? No, not really, but I do care that it's part of that larger trend. I wish that our society would either back off teenagers and start giving them more responsibilities that prepare them for independent adulthood, or acknowledge that our increased life spans and levels of sophistication may call for a longer transition from child to adult and let up on the pressure to know it all by 18 and have it all planned out by 21. That tangent doesn't particularly relate to the topic at hand, but that's where my mind went when I read this.
Oh and I don't trust the drink companies at all, so I don't doubt there's not something equally as sweet as coke machines in schools in this deal for them.
personal choice crossed my mind when i read this too. but i don't think soda machines should have been put in schools to begin with. if they're going to take soda machines out of schools though the choice should still remain to bring your own soda on campus. even if they let you bring soda on campus with it not offered for sale on campus teens are going to be drinking less soda. I don't forbid my kids from drinking soda but I try not to keep it in my house. i get 2 liters or those half size six packs (sometimes) so that they're gone quickly & there isn't soda in the fridge at all times. I think that's gonna help them not get into the habbit of drinking soda all the time.
at my school we dont have any sodas but we do have "juice" drinks that have like 5% natural juice and the rest is sweetner and artificial flavoring. i think most of the "juice" brands are owned by the big soda companies anyways.
i just drink water.
Exactly. High school students should be treated as adults and trusted with decisions regarding what they put in their bodys, true, but I don't find that really relevant in discussing whether Coca Cola should be allowed to put their machines in our schools. If students want soda, they can have it. They can go to a store and buy it and bring it in. They are not talking about schools forbidding soda, they are talking about schools not selling soda. The bigger issue to me is why are private coorporations being allowed to invade our public schools? That gets into all sorts of issues.
I totally agree with this one...i mean, yeah..it's good to limit what kids are taking in...but, school need to learn how to back off at certain points, kwim?