LEGISLATORS WANT SCHOOL FOOD, DRINK TO SHAPE UP

By Ed Fletcher
Sacramento Bee Capitol Bureau
February 10, 2003

As the war against tobacco wanes, activists and state lawmakers are gearing up to battle the schoolyard bulge.

Armed with mounting evidence chronicling what some experts call an epidemic of overweight and unfit children, activists and lawmakers will try to put healthier options in vending machines in state buildings, improve physical education and make contracts with food and beverage companies harder to ink and more transparent.

While experts say all those things are important parts of the overall effort, a bill banning sodas from schools will likely garner the most spirited debate.

"Eliminating soda was shown to be the most promising strategy for removing the childhood obesity epidemic," said Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy.

It would be one thing if kids were just slurping down lots of soda, which they are, but the fact that most young people aren't getting enough exercise makes the practice doubly troubling, Goldstein said.

Increased cola consumption is being blamed by recent studies for an array of maladies among youths, including increased obesity rates, a spike in diabetes, weakened bones and more dental cavities.

"It is quickly turning into a statewide health issue," said Amanda Purcell, a researcher for the Public Health Institute.

With a runner's build and mind-set, Sen. Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, is one of the legislators leading the charge.

Dealing with childhood obesity is a challenge comparable with earlier and ongoing efforts to curb smoking and drunken driving, Torlakson said.

"It took about 30 years, but we are a pretty smoke-free place," Torlakson said of what he called both a grass-roots and top-down effort to reduce smoking-related diseases.

Like those movements, the former teacher and coach said, it will take energy from both directions to reverse the obesity trend. "It's a huge battle," he said.

Beverage industry officials say comparing their products with tobacco is just flat wrong. Sodas or "junk food" are not inherently bad for you, said Robert Achermann, a lobbyist for the California-Nevada Soft Drink Association. Lack of physical activity is the biggest cause of childhood obesity, he said.

Meanwhile, this year's adolescent bulge-battling efforts are hardly the first legislative foray into childhood obesity.

In October 2001, lawmakers passed legislation offered by state Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Whittier, establishing health standards for food served to public school children. That law, spelling out fat and sugar content limits for elementary school food, is to take effect in 2004.

Legislation revamping how physical education is taught and allowing high school students to opt out of physical education classes if they pass a fitness test in the ninth grade was passed last year.

Also last year, state Sen. Deborah Ortiz proposed implementing a special soda tax, then tried to ban them in schools. Both of those efforts failed, but that won't deter her from trying again this year.

Ortiz, a Democrat, is highly critical of soda contracts that pay schools big bucks and give bottlers fertile marketing territory. She said she thinks kids should have more incentive to drink water or other healthy choices.

While the details of Ortiz's proposed soda ban have not been worked out, the Sacramento legislator said her bill would likely resemble last year's SB 1520, which -- with few exclusions -- limited school beverage sales to fruit-based drinks, water, specified sports drinks and milk. The previous soda-ban bill would have phased out soda sales in elementary schools in 2004, middle and junior high schools in 2005, and on high school campuses in 2007.

Most school officials aren't keen on taking soda machines -- or the revenue they bring in -- off campus.

Revenue generated from soda sales helps fund school athletics and extracurricular activities on many campuses.

Lynelle Grumbles of the California School Food Service Association said trendier food items and soda sales help subsidize meal offerings.

If legislators were serious about giving kids good lunches, they would allocate more money for meals, she said.

She argues that taking carbonated beverages away from kids without telling them why is pointless. "I don't think they are going to pick up that we took sodas out of schools because they aren't good for them unless we tell them," Grumbles said.

Kevin Gordon, executive director of the California Association of School Business Officials, said the state should implement broad reform, not reach for headlines with bills banning pop. "It is great for maybe garnering media attention, but I don't think it is the linchpin for solving the problem," Gordon said.

As one might suspect, soda bottlers don't like the idea of banning sodas from campuses, either.

The state already took a big step toward dealing with the issue though Escutia's food content bill, said Achermann, the soda association lobbyist.

In addition to regulating elementary school meals, the Escutia law will ban soda sales to elementary school students at all times and permit soda sales at middle schools only before school and after lunch.

The soft drink association never supported that legislation. Its representatives say students deserve a choice.

"These kids are making decisions that are very important to the rest of their lives," Achermann said. "We think many of them can make this decision." Achermann said school districts should also be able to make decisions about soda sales.

Many districts around the state have tightened restrictions on sales of sodas and other foods, Purcell noted. The Los Angeles Unified School District, for example, banned soda sales outright in all grades.

When the school board approved the move in August, some called it a groundbreaking move that could start a national trend. But while some districts are moving in the same direction, others wonder out loud how they'd replace the money from soda sales.

Goldstein said schools have more responsibility for children's health than does the corner minimart. "It is really a tragedy when schools rely on children's pocket change to balance their budgets," Goldstein said. "It is imperative that even in tight budget times we put our children's health first."

© 2003 Sacramento Bee

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