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Sugar high: School District weighs going to healthy vending machine items, but sports budgets could suffer(Anchorage Daily News (Alaska) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) May 7--The teenage girls stride down the hall, a streak of sparkly purses and faded jeans and jeweled flip flops, sipping fruit smoothies topped with puffs of whipped cream. They veer right and stop. Before them, four lit-up vending machines beckon. "I'm getting cookies," one announces, digging for change. Another threads a dollar bill into a machine for a bag of cheddar and sour cream Ruffles. She stuffs those chips in her bag and buys a second one that is opened immediately. "You come to the vending machines, and it may not be healthy," said Cassandra Wahlen, a Dimond High junior. "But it will get you through the day." And it gets school sports through the year: The machines are veritable ATMs for activities. They rake in around $85,000 for high schools like Dimond. That's why, for years, Superintendent Carol Comeau and other district leaders resisted louder and louder cries from health officials to change what schools sell. Their theory: toy with the treats and risk losing money. But Comeau recently announced a change of heart. She now wants junk food and sugary drinks yanked from all school vending machines and plans to propose this at a June School Board meeting. It may mean a loss in money, Comeau said, but it's the right thing to do for kids. Kids don't necessarily agree. "That's dumb," said Hamid Nasir, a Dimond freshman. "This is your choice. That's part of being in high school. You can make the right decision." VEGETABLES DON'T CUT IT About 2,000 teenagers begin their day at Dimond at 7:30 a.m. There are two lunch periods, starting at 10:27 a.m. for freshmen and at 11:27 a.m. for sophomores, juniors and seniors. Teens pour out of classrooms, flood hallways, pool together and make their first food choice of the school day: head to nearby lunch joints, hit the cafeteria, eat stuff brought from home -- or feed the vending machines. Machines dot the school. But the busiest and most convenient ones are tucked in a hallway near the cafeteria. They offer juice, water, soda pop and plenty of candy and snacks. Imagine yourself standing there. What choice do you, the teenager, have -- with money in your pocket and no parent in sight. In one corner: Flavored bottled water, diet sodas and a handful of semi-healthy snacks like peanuts and Pringles. In the other: Coca Cola, Nacho Cheese Doritos and Cheez-Its. Two girls approach -- dressed alike in sheer white shirts over pink camisoles, fitted jeans and pink sparkly flip-flops. One chooses Dr Pepper. The machine churns. Kerplunk. Score. The other girl, after a good minute of mulling, picks cheddar and sour cream Doritos. The bag gets stuck. It's the last one. "Oh man," she whines, beating a balled fist on the faux-glass. She turns to a bulky upperclassman passing by. "Help, please? I love you!" He grins -- and keeps walking. Assistant principal Dale Evern, standing nearby, fetches her another dollar and she finally leaves with chips in hand, gratitude and a big smile on her face. "We're hungry during the day," said freshman Joseph Alston. "And I don't think fruits and vegetables cut it." Teen by teen, the buyers feeding the cash slots prove Joseph right: Though some trade dollars for water, the clunky roll of machinery more often delivers bright colored juice, a chunky Snickers Bar or salty chips. IT'S ABOUT THE MONEY Spurred by the same concern and pressure that turned Comeau, other school districts around the country have killed junk food offerings. Just last week, beverage heavyweights Coca Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Cadbury Schweppes PLC announced they will stop selling sugary sodas to schools by fall 2009. Many Alaska school districts are expected to ax pop on their own: Most are drafting federally required wellness plans to improve student nutrition, with many of those including beverage cutbacks. But that hasn't eased fears that changing food and drink options will devastate activities budgets. School districts across the country have modified vending menus with mixed financial results. Chicago Public Schools report a loss in revenue, though officials there aren't sure yet how much. Philadelphia schools no-soda policy adopted in July 2004 had virtually no impact on revenue, they say. And Miami-Dade County Public Schools reported a revenue increase of $400,000 when it replaced sugary drinks with 1 percent lowfat milk, water, 100 percent juice and low-sugar soft drinks. The Mat-Su Borough is the only Alaska district so far to have changed vending machine offerings because of health concerns. Now food served in Mat-Su machines must have no more than 35 percent calories from fat, no more than 10 percent calories from saturated fat and no more than 35 percent sugar by weight. Drink sales include milk, water, juice that's at least 50 percent real fruit juice with no added sweeteners, or sport drinks with less than 42 grams of sugar per 20 ounces. Kim Floyd, a spokeswoman for the district, said they won't know until the school year ends how these changes affect income. Like Anchorage, Mat-Su schools use vending profits for sports, pulling in anywhere from $40,000 to $70,000 per school per year. The Mat-Su School Board has agreed to make up any lost money, Floyd said. Comeau says she doesn't know if Anchorage will do the same A HUGE IMPACT Sometimes at lunch the machines in the Dimond hallway are quiet for minutes. Sometimes they swarm with activity, a modern replacement for the lunch lady, a hurried last stop before the bell rings. Two boys in rumpled, untucked shirts and jeans know what they want right away, pounding the numbers without hesitation. Kerplunk. Starburst and M&Ms. A tall, thin girl in a JROTC uniform parts from a herd of friends to buy a bright orange Sunny Delight. A stocky guy in a dark leather jacket and earbuds strung to some unseen MP3 player in his coat pauses: Dr Pepper. Evern, the assistant principal of activities, negotiates vending machine contracts. He doesn't dispute that health matters. "But I'm a little bit at odds with this, because of how this will affect our programs," Evern said. "It will have a huge impact, negatively." He assumes that pulling candy, chips and sugary drinks will mean a drop in student spending and that would be a problem. No high school sport is self-sustaining, Evern said. And they cost a lot to run. Just this last year, the Dimond football team got new helmets. The cost: $10,267. They spent $908 to paint the football field and another $7,490 to maintain it. Some sports-related expenses aren't as obvious as stuff like clothes and gear: $7,070 paid for basketball referees, $2,905 covered the volleyball officials and $3,062 went to swimming and diving officials. And there's more -- a lot more. The budget sometimes pays for food for road-tripping athletes and buys equipment as straightforward as basketballs and as unexpected as a new scale for the wrestlers. It adds up to just about $85,000 a year. "WE'LL FIND A WAY TO GET IT" Tina Knight, a 16-year-old Dimond junior, is certain that taking out the candy and chips will hurt sales. And to this three-sport athlete, that's a lame proposition. Many Dimond students already make healthy choices, Tina said, "Like on game day, athletes will usually eat Subway. But on other days, we'll eat the pizza. ... And if the junk food's not in the school, we'll find a way to get it." The machines make getting it easy -- from Skittles to Red Vines to Cool Ranch Doritos, all in neat rows, just waiting for their numbers to come up. Aurora Vending appears every morning at 7 to replenish the stock. Even so, some of the most popular items are gone by the end of lunch. Once, more than a year ago and at the Anchorage School Board's request, vendors monitored drink machines at West High for about a month to see what sold: From Jan. 1 to Feb. 7, 2005, West teens, teachers and others at the school bought more than 15,100 drinks. And the sugary stuff topped the sales. School District officials were pleased to point out that of all the individual items, water sold the most, with 1,873 purchased. But add up soda sales and it's not that impressive: In the monthlong period, students and staff bought 7,919 carbonated products. That included 1,366 Coca Colas, 1,189 Dr Peppers, 1,681 Sprites and 1,048 Cherry Cokes. Just 658 Diet Cokes sold. Depending on which vendors they contract with, schools are either "Coke" or "Pepsi" schools. Dimond is Coke. More than 3,000 juices and 2,226 Powerades also sold in that monthlong period. Fewer than 100 people paid for the few milk products available. "IF THEY WANT IT THAT BAD" At Dimond during a recent lunch hour, many teens knew what they wanted, punching numbers from memory. Others, indecisive, stood for long moments before making a choice. Evern compared it to staring into your home refrigerator, ready to settle for the best thing available. More than 80 teens hit one bank of vending machines during this lunch period. It's a fraction of a typical day's traffic and doesn't account for visits to snack dispensers down the hall or on the school's second floor -- or to sales before, during, or after school. Todd Johnson, a senior, rarely visits vending machines. Occasionally he grabs Skittles or Pop Tarts but it's not habit, he said. "I think they probably should take the junk food out of the school," said Todd, 18. "Students can always go to the store, or bring it from home, if they want it that bad." During the second lunch, for sophomores, juniors and seniors, five kids bought water -- including the kind with some fruit infusion -- while a few bought iced teas, a couple chose Sprites and a lone girl in tight jeans and a windbreaker chose Diet Coke. The remaining 50-or-so opted for something with a sugar kick. The best-sellers: Coca Cola, Dr Pepper, Strawberry Passion Minute Maid and orange Fanta. One girl snagged two bags of Cheetos, a Snickers bar, Ruffles and a bottled water. Stephanie Won, 16, tries to make healthy choices but doubts changing the choices will have much effect on general eating habits, "Even if they put healthy food in the vending machines, I don't think kids are going to buy it," she said "Apples? Fruit? No. I mean, a lot of kids are trying to get healthier. Normally I just buy water. But if I'm craving chocolate, I get chocolate." |