-
watch a festival
FESTIVAL NEWS
Taking Soda Out of Schools
If you've watched Johanna Divine's Young Agrarians then you have been inspired by young people committed to sustainable agriculture and healthy food choices. Unfortunately, there are millions of other young Americans who eat junk that is neither good for their bodies or the environment in which they live. For many youth, healthy eating starts at home and continues at school where their food choices are often determined by the school's cafeteria and vending choices. One of the biggest problems has been vending machines stocked with junk food, soda and sugary drinks. And at the same time, the companies whose products are in these machines often have advertising deals with the schools to ensure that their products are pushed to students. All that is changing, according to recent article in the New York Times. As Marian Burros and Melanie Walker exlpain in "Bottlers Agree to a School Ban on Sweet Drinks": The country's top three soft-drink companies announced yesterday that beginning this fall they would start removing sweetened drinks like Coke, Pepsi and iced teas from school cafeterias and vending machines in response to the growing threat of lawsuits and state legislation. Under an agreement between beverage makers and health advocates, students in elementary school would be served only bottled water, low-fat and nonfat milk, and 100 percent fruit juice in servings no bigger than eight ounces. Serving sizes would increase to 10 ounces in middle school. In high school, low-calorie juice drinks, sports drinks and diet sodas would be permitted; serving sizes would be limited to 12 ounces. The agreement, which includes parochial and private schools contracts, is voluntary, and the beverage industry said its school sales would not be affected because it expected to replace sugary drinks with other ones. "This is a voluntary policy, but I think schools will want to follow it," said Susan K. Neely, president of the American Beverage Association. Still, about 35 million public school children would be affected by the agreement, which would apply to extended school functions like band practice but would not apply to events likely to be attended by parents, like evening plays or interscholastic sports. An additional 15 million students attend schools that operate under stricter regulations, where the guidelines would not apply. Good news for American youth, but the new policy does not go into full effect until the end of 2009 and a lot of work needs to be done between now and then to get young people on the right track. One organization that has been fighting to get soda out of schools is Parents' Action for Children. Their web animation Cola Conspiracy, exposes the truth about corporate alliances with school systems, and it will also make you laugh! Watch Young Agrarians Watch Cola Conspiracy Read "Bottlers Agree to a School Ban on Sweet Drinks" Take action!Published on June 20, 2006
DONATE
Join Arts Engine’s Fundraising Campaign and help us get the Media That Matters™ collection into schools and community centers, both in the U.S. and around the world!
RSS Feed