Policy Profiles

San Jose Promotes Healthy Food and Beverages at City Libraries

In March of 2006 San Jose is the first city to pass a policy requiring 100% healthier options in vending machines, providing healthy food and beverage choices to both library employees and visitors.  Since that time other locales have followed suit, passing policies that not only require healthy vending in libraries but in all government owned and operated buildings. 

We had a conversation with Laura Jones of  Councilmember Ken Yeager’s Office, City of San Jose.  Ms. Jones was instrumental in working with Councilmember Yeager and other key partners to develop and implement the policy and here is what we learned:

Q: What was your thinking for selecting this issue, as opposed to others?

A constituent originally brought the issue to Councilmember Yeager’s attention in the Fall of ‘05.  A nutrition advocate who worked at a nearby university and a member of the San Jose community shared her outrage with vending options in city buildings with several members of the city council.   Councilmember Yeager did some research and discovered that the city vending contract was expiring in July’ 06. The timing was right to create a new policy that would require vendors to supply healthy snacks and beverages.

Q: What were some competing ideas/other avenues to pursue?

Once the issue of vending had been brought to his attention, Councilmember Yeager realized a vending policy was a good place to start.  It was clear to the Councilmember that he should move forward with a formal policy, as opposed to requesting an administrative change.  Councilmember Yeager and his staff considered starting with a policy that would impact all city buildings.  They also went back and forth about what percentage of healthy foods the policy should cover.  Ultimately, Councilmember Yeager decided to start with library vending machines, as a first step, with future plans to propose a city-wide vending policy. Councilmember Yeager was moving forward with a 50% vending policy for libraries, but decided if he were going to move forward with a policy on healthy vending, he wanted to “do it right” by requiring all offerings to be healthy.

Q: Did you see this policy as part of a larger goal?  In other words did you have a sense if this passed of what other policy steps might be?

The Councilmember and his staff wanted to start with library vending in hopes that this policy would pave the way for a city-wide vending policy.

Q: What groups were key in promoting this policy?  Who did you want to be promoting it?  Did you anticipate opposition?

Other locales that have passed vending policies such as Santa Clara County and Contra Costa County, were able to share their experience in getting community buy-in, implementation, barriers, etc.  Kaiser Permanente provided data on how revenue streams changed with the change to their vending policy.

Community groups and advocates have a good pulse on what the community wants and needs. Our local nutrition and physical activity collaborative, Healthy Silicon Valley was able to provide input on how the community would react, how to frame the issue, etc.  Additionally, our local public health department played a key role in advocating for the policy.

It was vital to get library personnel on-board as partners in the process.  Because the libraries rely on revenue from vending machines there was the potential that they could strongly oppose the new policy, and potentially impact the passage of the policy.  Lastly we needed to have the city finance department’s buy-in because of their role in implementing the policy.  The finance department develops Requests for Proposals (RFP) for and manages contracts with vendors.  It was key to gauge their understanding of how the RFP process would work and get their support for the change to the status quo.

Q: What were the action steps that were taken?

We started by conducting initial research including phone calls to library personnel to determine where machines are placed, the amount of revenue acquired from machines, and  researching vending policies in other locales. We then conducted outreach meetings to ensure broad support and buy-in, as well as to ensure that the Councilmember and his staff were “on the right track”  We met with representatives from the Healthy Silicon Valley collaborative, Health Department staff, a Nutrition Scientist at San Jose Sate University, the City Manger,  and library personnel.  Our staff than created a Draft Memorandum of Understanding: (MOU) which included important information such as defining the nutrition standards and outlining the change in cost.  The MOU went to the Rules Committee and then was put on the city council calendar.  On March 14th, 2006, the day the City Council was set to vote on the policy our staff scheduled a press release and press conference.  That evening the Council unanimously voted in favor of  the new policy.  Since the passage of the policy the finance committee and councilmember Yeager’s office are now developing an RFP for vendors who would like to apply for the City vending machine contract.

Q: What were the perceived barriers?

One of the barriers we anticipated was getting library staff on board, given the fact that they rely on revenue from the vending machines to fund some of their programs.  We made sure to involve them in the process in order to address their concerns and make it a collaborative effort.

We were concerned about pubic opposition to government regulation over individual choice.  Councilmember Yeager made sure to emphasize that the new vending policy would include the foods that folks are already eating—baked chips, chocolate chip granola bars, etc.

We also wanted to be sure to address concern from the finance department regarding how the vendors would react to the policy change.  Councilmember Yeager’s staff was able to do research on vendor options and found that 1) there are a wide-range of vendors offering healthy options, and b) other locales that have changed their vending policies have influenced large vendors to supply more healthy options. 

Q: What are the indicators of success?

There were several ways we measured success, including: 

• Community buy-in
• Library personnel support changes to vending machine policy
• Support and assistance from other city departments (finance, public health, city manager, etc.)
• The passage of the policy
• New healthy items sell and produce revenue for libraries

Q: What data was needed to support the passage of the policy?

A cost analysis helped to demonstrate and  predict impact of the policy on revenue sales. We also collected data from other locales that have passed vending policies.  We provided the council with examples of healthy foods that could be offered as part of the new policy and shared statistics showing how sales might change based on cost of product.  The Public Health department and Healthy Silicon Valley helped to provide health data for our city such as the percentage of overweight children in the city and percentage of nutrition and activity-related illnesses among children and adults.

Q: What data will be collected once the policy has been implemented to evaluate its success?

We will be tracking revenue sales and are also in the process of determining a method of examining health outcomes.

Q: Did you plan for implementation as well as evaluation in terms of what needed to be thought about to make it work

Councilmember Yeager has worked closely with the Finance Department to determine a plan for implementation which includes changes to the RFP process, contract agreements, and overseeing what goes into the machines.

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