School Soda: Ten Tips

Ross Getman

At the same time we need to get kids moving, we must reduce the empty calories consumed by children, whatever the source.
With respect to the issue of soda at school, here are the 10 practical tips a parent can email to the school board.

1. Don't allow promotional or advertising activities on school property such as truckload sales, Pepsi pep rallies, coupon promotions, or sweepstakes where kids win T-shirts out of vending machines. I have received responses from hundreds of Freedom of Information requests seeking contracts in all 50 states. The promotional activities being allowed at some schools is shocking. One school, for example, gives each elementary school teacher a logo-emblazoned shirt to wear on casual day. Other contracts contemplate teachers handing out coupons.

2. Get rid of soda. The increase among children in diabetes 2 is scary. Just as much money can be made from the sale of healthful beverages. "Just say no" to caffeinated sugar water. Indeed, don't allow any addictive physical stimulant (such as caffeine) to be sold to schoolchildren on school property -- whatever the drink. The largest school districts in the country have gone soda free: to include New Yor City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, and Austin.

3. Insist that booster clubs and community groups be free to buy from whatever vendor they choose (subject to the prohibition on soda). Supporters of local teams and community groups using school property for nonschool purposes should be able to go to the grocery store and buy beverages at the lowest possible price for resale.

4. Find out the best deals made by other districts. Soda companies are only able to intimidate well-meaning administrators if the school officials do not do their homework. There's no reason for a District to pay $11 for a case of water when other Districts pay $8.

5. Have the companies install noncommercial signage on the machines. Unless just an empty promise made for PR purposes, the soda companiesi have said that noncommercial signage will be provided to any school district that asks. Instead of an electronically backlit, six-foot high picture of the soda company's product, the signage pictures kids playing sports. It just as well could be used to promote a literacy or anti-drug message.

6. Don't allow a contract to contain an "Approved Cup" provision, where the only cup a community group can use is one prominently displaying the logo of a soda company. Children never should be forced to serve as a "mobile billboard" for some soda company.

7. Make the contract subject to renewal each year, so that the next board is free to act as it chooses. Each newly constituted Board should remain free to reflect the mood of the voters on the issue of promoting empty calories to kids.

8. Don't require that a company sell soda before they can compete to sell beverages on school property. This is America. There would be more milk machines, for example, if milk producers could also sell water and juices. The vending machines would be more economical. The “pouring rights” contracts stifle the innovation of healthful drinks by small companies that, as a matter of principle, refuse to sell soda to schoolchildren.

9. Ensure that the School District complies with all competitive bidding laws. Indeed, students are paying inflated prices because purchases are not being competitively bid. Don't be naive. The money is not coming from some faraway soda company. It is coming from Johnny's pockets. It is coming from members of the community.

10. Make sure that the school district avoids any unlawful gratuities to officials. The press has reported that sometimes tickets to football games or basketball games have been given or solicited.

If we make our voice as parents be heard and insist on principles of good government, there will be good nutrition on school property. These exclusive "pouring rights" agreements, when understood, are the antithesis of freedom of choice.

www.schoolpouringrights.com