Targeting vending machines

Leading students into temptation... photo by Torri Barco

Fatty foods and sugary pops sell -- and that's a problem for local educators in the wake of the national growth spurt of childhood obesity.

Cheese fries and pizza are school cafeteria favorites, district officials say, and sometimes needed just to get students to purchase a meal (see "School cafeterias take on obesity," The Nugget, January 28, 2004, page 4).

Soda pop vending machines are also tempting sources of low-value calories.

The machines generate large funds for schools, according to a December article in The Economist. Soft drink companies pay school districts to let them put vending machines in the schools, and in turn, the vending contracts total an estimated annual revenue of $54 million per 3.75 million pupils, according to the report which surveyed 932 school districts in Texas.

Sisters School Board member Eric Dolson advised the school board at their last meeting that he intends to seek removal of soda pop vending machines from Sisters High School, the only school where they are currently sited. When asked about the money the machines bring in, Dolson, (publisher of The Nugget), said, "We could probably make money selling alcohol and cigarettes. I don't think we should do that either. Serving soft drinks is a means to provide a concentrated dose of sugar which human beings have evolved a craving for and it's not good for us."

Jake Merrell, a senior at Sisters High School, said it is nice to have the soda pop machine open after 1 p.m. because it allows the students to have a pop all afternoon and not just when they can leave campus for lunch. But he said taking away the soda machine to promote healthier habits is a good idea.

"They should keep the water and orange juice and milk, but that would be a good way (to curb obesity) because wherever you go you can get soda, so they (the students) have it every day anyway," Merrell said

A member of the varsity baseball team at 5-feet-10-inches and 175 pounds, Merrell said he tries to eat healthy and exercise regularly. He's not a big soda pop drinker, but he said he'll purchase a pop from the vending machine about once a month just because it's there.

The percentage of overweight students at Sisters High School appears to be slightly below the statewide statistics, which indicate 58 percent of Oregonians are overweight, according to a September 2003 report from the Oregon Health Sciences University.

At the beginning of this school year, 23 percent of ninth graders and 13 percent of 11th graders at Sisters High School measured a Body Mass Index (BMI) of over 25 -- an international standard for overweight.

Dolson's protests come on the heels of a successful Texas crusade to curb fat in school cafeterias. Susan Combs, an agriculture commissioner for Texas, managed to win a law that banned "foods of minimal nutritional value" from 11 elementary and middle schools in Texas, according to The Economist.

Sisters schools have made strides in a healthier direction. Over the past several years, the school district has added a salad bar and cut back pizza on the menu.