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Honorable Mention: Zack Stoycoff, Inola High School/11th
Grade
School Vending Machines: Health vs. Wealth
There’s little doubt that Oklahoma youngsters need a healthier
lifestyle. According to a 2004 news release, the Oklahoma State
Board of Health declared that 15% of Oklahoma children are overweight.1
Let’s face it; Oklahomans love their food – from juicy
slabs of steak to junk food and coke. However, children aren’t
learning bad eating habits from home as much as from the place
they spend most of the day: school, where the constant presence
of inexpensive soft drinks and candy bars in strategically placed
vending machines doesn’t set the example for change that
many Oklahomans would like their children to be exposed to. According
to researchers from the University of Minnesota, the availability
of soft drinks in vending machines at school is strongly associated
with the amount of such drink a child consumes.2 Clearly, children
learn much more than academics at school; they also develop habits
that will last a lifetime. As a result, schools have a duty to
promote good eating habits and healthy lifestyles through what
they make available to students. The question on schools’ minds,
however, isn’t if they would like to give healthier choices
in vending machines; it’s could they survive without the
support from contracts with candy and soda companies if they do?
Oklahoma may not be ready to jump the gun just yet. According
to the lunchroom manager at Kelly High School, part of the Chicago
School District which recently banned the sale of junk food, sales
have dropped considerably from the pre-ban era. In fact, profit
from one food stand is down almost $1000, she said. On top of that,
the Chicago Public School District as a whole is expected to lose
$15 million in food sales over the next five years.3 With the budget
crunch here in Oklahoma, now is not the time for the education
system to try to overcome losses like that. The process of eliminating
junk food sales in Sooner State schools should, instead, be at
a slower, more gradual pace than other states have taken.
Contracts with soda companies should be renewed for the short
term, but altered to allow schools to designate vending machines
off-limits at lunch and breakfast. That would ensure that students
purchase the nutritionally balanced school meals rather than simply
grabbing a quick pop bottle or candy bar. Another option is to
move ‘unhealthy’ vending machines further away from
designated eating areas and replace their former locations with
new machines carrying healthy alternatives. Although some students
would seek out the pop and candy machines even if it means walking
further, pricing the healthier items lower than their unhealthy
counterparts would persuade a change in eating habits without abruptly
cutting short the cash flow from pop vending machines. A 2002 article
from the Pioneer Press reported that one Midwestern school replaced
all but one of its soda machines with those carrying water and
100% juice and priced the new items 50-cents less than the pop.
After a few months, water noticeably outsold pop compared to the
same interlude of the previous year.4 These findings are supported
by a survey of Inola High School students that revealed many would
actually opt for healthier snacks if the vending machines provided
them.5 Another survey published by the American Journal of Public
Health came to a similar conclusion.4 Still, implementing such
plans would undoubtedly result in lost revenue for schools. Even
so, the first steps to a healthier Oklahoma must be taken eventually
and an opportunity to take them with less pain is being presented
now, as large portions of the new state lottery revenue are soon
to be appropriated to the school system. If the timing is utilized,
the fresh money would help counteract losses.
This change is not a choice for schools; it’s an obligation.
Recently, more and more evidence linking soda and candy with childhood
ailments has been brought to light. For example, it’s now
well known that sugar induces hyperactivity and ensuing tiredness,
both of which are commonly argued to interfere with class work.
More serious and long term affects have been discovered as well.
The highly acidic quality of the phosphoric acid in pop, for instance,
has been known to prompt the body to remove minerals like calcium
from bones as a means to offset the acid. Researchers who conducted
a study on 460 high school girls cited this as a reason why teenage
girls who are physically active are five-times more likely to suffer
a broken bone if they drink soda. For the same reason, it was found
that soda is a major contributor in the development of Osteoporosis
in both sexes.6
The high sugar and caffeine content of soft drinks has not only
been strongly linked with causing bone problems, but also obesity,
childhood diabetes, mood swings, tooth decay, the inability to
focus, increased blood pressure, difficulty sleeping, heart problems
and more. Since schools play a major role in the amount of soda
children consume, serving such drink goes against what schools
were created to do. Although it has been argued that money from
vending machine contracts helps fund extra-curricular activities
and programs, part of a school’s duty is to educate children
on proper nutrition. If the desire for money prompts schools to
install, and thereby promote, drinks and snacks in vending machines
that are harmful to students’ health, then schools are drifting
from their true mission. The eating habits shaped by indulging
in the presently easy and inexpensive practice of grabbing a junk
food item at school everyday will not only affect students’ health
in the short term, but prolong the Oklahoma tradition of being
one of the unhealthiest states in the nation. No one wants to pass
on that burden on to the next generation – the time for change
is now.
1 Williams, Pamela. Press release. Oklahoma State Board of Health
13 February 2004. www.health.state.ok.us/program/hpromo/news/news04/resolutions.html
2 Kelly Liebbe. Press release. American Dietetic Association
30 July 2004. www.eatright.org/Public/Media/PublicMedia_20243.cfm
3 Ana Beatriz Cholo. “City schools to lose their fizz.”
Chicago Tribune
www.healthyschoolscampaign.org/news/media/food/2004-10_fizz.php
4. Natalie Y. Moore. “School can undo healthy choices at
home”
St. Paul Pioneer Press. 26 February 2002 www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/2744856.htm
5 Zack Stoycoff. “School vending machines don’t give
healthy choices.” Inola Independent September 15,
2004.
6 Jeannie Crabtree C. Ac. “Consuming soda leads to Osteoporosis
in teenagers.” Health-Doc.com 2002. www.health-doc.com/healtharticles/teenagersandsodas.html
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