Schools' ban on junk food takes bite out of budgets

By Linda Shaw
Seattle Times staff reporter

TOM REESE / THE SEATTLE TIMES Krystina Lee gets a fellow Lynnwood High School student to taste yogurt being introduced at the student store as part of the school's new policy on nutrition.

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Two students stand in the hall outside Lynnwood High's student store with a cup of yogurt and a handful of spoons. To drum up business for the store's new, healthier menu, they offer free samples to passing students.

"Unh-unh," one girl refuses.

"I love you, but no," the next begs off.

Last year, customers jammed the store all lunch period. This year, the initial rush soon dwindles. Most of the pizza bagels get sold, but it's slow going for the fruit leathers, the rice cakes and the PowerBars.

Lynnwood High decided last summer to stop stocking the school's vending machines and the student store with candy, soft drinks and other items high in fat or sugar. It's one of the first in the Puget Sound area to do so, although others soon will follow.

In the name of better health, school boards in Everett and Seattle this year passed nutrition policies that are being phased in at the high-school level.

All Washington school districts, under a new state law, must review their nutrition and physical-education policies by August.

New nutrition limits Highlights of new policies in three school districts that cover food and drinks sold outside the cafeteria during the school day: Bellevue School District • Beverages in vending machines must contain a minimum of 50 percent water and juices. Milk products must be 1 percent, skim or nonfat. • Vending machines and student stores can't sell products defined by USDA as foods of minimal nutritional value. Examples include hard candy, breath mints, gum drops, licorice, gum, jelly beans, lollipops. • Vending machines near or in cafeterias must be shut down during breakfast, lunch and 15 minutes before and after those meals. Everett School District (also followed by Lynnwood High in the Edmonds School District) Food: • No more than 40 percent of calories derived from fat, with the exception of nuts, seeds, cheese. • No more than 10 percent of combined calories from saturated fat or transfat. • No more than 40 percent added weight from sugar, with the exception of fresh, dried or canned fruits and vegetables. Beverages: • Limited to water, lowfat and nonfat milk and 100 percent fruit juice with no added sweeteners. • For high schools only: Coffee drinks allowed if they meet the milk standard and do not contain more than 40 percent of added sugar by weight. Sports drinks are allowed in vicinity of school locker rooms (no more than 15-18 grams of carbohydrate per 8 fluid ounces). Beverage requirements went into effect in September. High schools have until next fall to meet the new food standards in vending machines and student stores. Doesn't cover food sold as minimal and secondary part of a fund-raiser, or when food is not intended for consumption on campus. Seattle School District Food: • No more than 30 percent fat, excluding seeds and nuts. • No more than 10 percent saturated fat. • No more than 15 grams sugar, excluding fruits and vegetables. Beverages: • Limited to water, milk (nonfat and 1 percent milk) and 100 percent fruit juice. Nothing with more than 15 grams of sugar. No caffeine. Requirements will be phased in for high schools but went into effect immediately in elementary and middle schools. Student stores have until second semester (Feb. 1) to meet food guidelines and until next fall to meet beverage guidelines. Source: Bellevue, Everett and Seattle school districts

But Lynnwood students are learning a lesson many other high schools fear: Nutritional virtue can come at a cost — a big cost. In high schools around the state, vending machines and student stores can bring in $20,000 to as much as $60,000 a year, depending on the size of the school. Much of that comes from peddling pop, chips and candy.

Without those items, profits at the Lynnwood High student store are down about 40 percent from last year. That means less money for all kinds of student activities, from athletics to debate club. Student governments typically use profits from vending machines and student stores to pay for buses to take sports teams to "away" games, and officials for those games.

The profits often subsidize the cost of yearbooks, student newspapers and clubs. At Seattle's Rainier Beach High School, the Associated Student Body (ASB) buys breakfast for all students on the days they take the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

Don Ide, the faculty adviser for Lynnwood High's store, thinks putting restrictions on junk food, despite the financial pain, is the right thing to do given the escalation of youth obesity.

"The question needs to be asked: Are we willing to give our students sugary products so we can run our other events?" he asked.

Lisa Bond, president of the Seattle Council Parent-Teacher-Student Association, says the answer is no. "We knew it wasn't the right thing to do, but we were doing it anyway," she said.

But others think junk-food bans are just a feel-good move that won't really make a dent in students' eating habits, and will remove dollars that fund many worthwhile activities.

"If we have a knee-jerk reaction to solving the problem, then we create two problems," said Marty Fortin, who directs outdoor learning centers for the state association of school principals, and gives workshops on ASB finance.

Ide said other student-store advisers think he's crazy to remove popular foods at Lynnwood before he has to. But he reasons the changes will be required soon anyway. He doesn't want to be known "as somebody who sold candy to the last second."

Lynnwood High allows a few exceptions. For example, parents still sell doughnuts once a week to help fund senior activities. But such treats are no longer available every day.

At the student store, the top sellers used to be Dr Pepper, Pepsi, Snickers bars and Cup-O-Noodles, students say. This year, it's pizza bagels (cut in half to meet restrictions on bakery items), Kudos bars and hot chocolate.

But the new items aren't selling as well as the old. Last year, for example, students bought 100 to 200 soft drinks a day, compared with 20 to 30 juices this year. The healthier food has lower profit margins, too — just 15 to 25 cents on the dollar for juice, while it's 50 cents for soft drinks.

Few students like the new policy. Steven Fernandes, one of the store's managers, can't think of one person who is enthusiastic. But he can think of people "who were really enthusiastic about stopping it."

The hope is that sales will rebound once students get used to the new offerings.

In that respect, Lynnwood may have an advantage over many high schools. Because its campus is closed during lunch, students can't simply defect to the nearest minimart or fast-food outlet.

Lizzie Smith recently bought a strawberry milk from the vending machine, and a peach yogurt from the store. Last year, she said, it was always a Sierra Mist and Doritos. The 16-year-old thinks the ban is stupid, "but it's all we have and I'm hungry."

At open-campus schools, students can easily go elsewhere to find the food they want. Dan Jurdy, the activities and athletic director at Rainier Beach High in Seattle, names three fast-food chains and two supermarkets within a five-minute walk of his school. Like many schools, Rainier Beach started offering some healthier choices a while ago. But that's not what sells best.

Jurdy estimates his school could lose $15,000 a year when Seattle's new nutrition policy kicks in fully next year.

This year, he said, he's been told that the school won't get $5,000 to $6,000 in bonus money that it would have received had the district renewed its soft-drink contract with Coca-Cola.

"We have no way to make that up," he said, noting that schools like Rainier Beach, where many students come from low-income families, will get hit the hardest.

So the ASB cut the student newspaper to one issue this school year. And it stopped paying the cheerleading coach, who's now doing the job for free.

Middle and elementary schools stand to lose dollars, too. Parent-teacher associations also have peddled candy, popcorn and pepperoni to raise money. In Seattle, some parent-run stores in middle schools closed this fall, at least temporarily, because the district's new policy went into effect immediately there.

At Whitman Middle, that put a $10,000 hole in the PTA budget. President Anne Wong Ramsey said parents are coming up with new fund-raisers, including school-spirit wrist bands. They were already offering some healthy food in the store, she said, but the policy made them take away the junk food faster.

"It's inevitable. It's a good thing. It's just painful," said Jo Berry, PTSA president at Madison Middle, which also closed its student store this fall.

No one disputes the need to improve student eating habits. The question is how best to do that.

"Prohibition doesn't work," said Jurdy. "It's been proven not to work."

He'd prefer to see more nutrition education, so students make better choices in school and outside it. And he'd prefer a policy closer to the Bellevue School District's approach. Last year, that district opted to require more healthy choices but didn't ban candy and soft drinks altogether.

Others believe just as strongly that schools have no business selling junk food on a regular basis.

"It just doesn't make any sense," said Shelley Curtis of the Children's Alliance, who was involved in shaping Seattle's new policy. Districts, she said, "need to move away from depending on money that comes from selling products that aren't good for kids to fund activities that might be good for kids."

High schools in other states have shown it's possible to make as much money with healthier food in vending machines, Curtis says. But Kim Stewart, the activity and athletics director at Mountlake Terrace High, said he's polled colleagues at California districts with junk-food restrictions, and he's found only two that say they're doing OK.

In Seattle, the district is exploring how to help ease whatever financial shortfall its nutrition policy causes, but money is tight.

Seattle School Board member Brita Butler-Wall says ASBs can help themselves, too, by coming up with new fund-raisers, but also by taking a hard look at their budgets and deciding what's worth raising money for.

Lynnwood High doesn't know how it will make up for lost ASB income. Ide said his marketing club, which runs the student store, likely won't get the $3,000 it usually receives from the ASB, and he suspects other clubs will get less, too.

So Ide and his students are brainstorming new ways to make money. They're stocking batteries in the store (for graphing calculators), and are looking into whether they can sell vehicle license tabs or movie tickets. They keep offering samples of their new foods. That worked well with fruit cups and baked chips. Yogurt, however, remains a tougher sell.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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