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2nd Place – Mark Donaldson, Holland Hall Upper
School/Tulsa/ 12th Grade
A Bad Deal – Alternative Food Choices in School Vending
Machines
As I buy my lunch at school, I am tempted by a freezer full of
delicious ice-creams, all loaded with fat. A few feet further down,
a vending machine full of sodas promises me a few hours of sugar-induced
bliss, and a crash shortly thereafter. Elsewhere, I am drawn to
chips, cookies, and chocolates that fill a well-stocked vending
machine. One would think that school would be a teenager’s
refuge from these forces that seek to fatten us, yet junk food
infiltrates schools through vending machines more every year. School
administrators must resist the quick buck that these food companies
offer in order to provide healthy choices for students who want
to break their dependence on junk food.
In an age when obesity among youth is becoming a concern, school
vending machines are bringing more unhealthy foods to children,
contributing to this epidemic. Today, 20-30% of children are either
obese or are in danger of becoming obese,i a figure that has tripled
over the last three decades.ii Today, 74% of middle schools and
98% of high schools provide students with access to junk food through
vending machines or snack bars.iii The contents of these school
vending machines are incredibly unhealthy, roughly 75% of beverages
and 85% of foods have little nutritional value.iv
The situation has gotten progressively worse in recent years,
as more schools sign contracts with food and beverage companies
in order to obtain funding. Schools sell advertisements in their
schools and buses, and give companies exclusive rights to distribute
snacks in their schools. Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation
tracks this phenomenon, from the first deal between a Colorado
school and the Coca-Cola Company in 1993, to the commonplace contracts
that occur today.v Their goal, Schlosser claims, is to get kids
to drink more soft drinks and eat more unhealthy foods. Exposing
children to more junk food, soft drinks, and fast food advertisements
may indeed have this effect, as eating habits established by children
can be extremely hard to break later in life, and can lead to many
health problems.vi These deals may bring much-needed money to schools,
but at the expense of the health of our nation’s children.
Our schools must promote healthier eating habits in children,
and avoid contributing to our nation’s health crisis. There
are many alternative snacks that schools can and should start providing
in their vending machines: low-fat milk instead of whole milk;
real fruit juices instead of artificial, sweetened ones; low-fat
chips and pretzels instead of greasy potato chips; and items such
as fruits and vegetables that more children need but don’t
get often enough. As Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa stated, “Junk
foods in school vending machines compete with, and ultimately undermine,
the nutritious meals offered by the federal school lunch program.”vii
Fatty, unhealthy foods create a dependency on those quick sugar-fixes,
and discourage children from eating whatever healthier foods may
be provided to them.
The Oklahoma legislature has begun to take some action on these
issues. Two bills in particular, House Bill 1254 and Senate Bill
265, take some preliminary steps to ensure at least some change
in school vending machines. These two similar bills suggest such
methods as incentive pricing, making nutritious foods cheaper than
unhealthy ones, as well as barring unhealthy foods from lower school
vending machines and requiring high schools to stock their vending
machines with at least 50% healthy food. Both of these bills should
be enacted and carefully enforced, and should serve as the beginning
of a process that will heavily restrict or eliminate unhealthy
foods at schools.
As in every controversial issue, there are many arguments on
both sides of the school vending machines debate. Opponents of
regulating vending machines often cite the amount of money that
schools take in from deals with food and beverage makers. Oklahoma’s
schools are in dire need of funding, and it is difficult to take
steps that would eliminate a major source of income. However, by
accepting these contracts, we are selling children’s futures
away in the form of medical costs. Every year, obesity-related
health problems such as diabetes, heart conditions, and cancer,
cost the nation $75 billion, over half of which is covered by taxpayers.viii
It would make much more sense for us to spend these tax dollars
funding our schools so they don’t have to make deals with
companies, thus preventing many obesity-related health problems
in children as they grow older.
In addition, schools can find other sources of income besides
contracts with makers of unhealthy foods. If necessary, schools
can make contracts with the makers of foods with real nutritional
value. However, a school without advertisements would be even better,
and the CSPI has assembled a list of many ways that students and
administrators can raise money for schools without resorting to
advertisements. Signing a contract with Coca-Cola may be the easy
way to fund schools, but in the long-term, the costs of such a
deal outweigh the benefits.
Critics also assume that children will not take kindly to replacing
candy and soda, and will opt to bring their own food to school,
nullifying a school’s efforts to promote healthy eating.
However, a recent Tulsa World editorial cited statistics from an
attempt in Florida to improve school menus, which showed that 85%
of students continued eating school food after it had been made
much healthier.ix Removing junk food from school vending machines
is an important step in improving children’s eating habits,
helping them live healthier for the rest of their lives.
I’ll admit it – on some levels, I would miss the
quick sugar fix that a can of Coke provides me. However, my body
would thank me if I had juice or water instead. That is the dilemma
faced by many high-school students today, and many are choosing
instant gratification and poor nutrition. By replacing unhealthy
foods in school vending machines with healthy ones, we can help
students make the right choice for their health.
I Hellmich, Nanci. “School Vending Rated as Junk.” USA
Today. May 11, 2004. Online at http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-05-11-vending-machines_xhtm
ii Chang, Alicia. “Schools Across U.S. Target Vending Machines
in Obesity Controversy.” Associated Press February 26, 2004.
Online at http://www.organicconsumers.org/schoool/obesity031904.cfm
iii “ Dispensing Junk Survey.” Center for Science
in the Public Interest. Accessed March 27, 2005. Online at http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/dispensing_junk.pdf.
Pg.8
iv “Dispensing Junk Survey. Pg. 8
v Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company, 2001. Pg 51
vi Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. Pg. 262
vii “School Vending Machines “Dispensing Junk.” Center
for Science in the Public Interest. Accessed March 27, 2005.
Online at http://www.cspinet.org/new/200405111.html
viii “Dispensing Junk Survey.” Pg. 15
ix DelCour, Julie. “The shape of things to come.” Tulsa
World. March 13, 2005. Pg. G1
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