Seattle schools to recoup revenue from ban on sweets

Seattle high schools soon will be reimbursed for the money they've lost as a result of the school district's two-year-old ban on junk food in vending machines.

The district will repay the Associated Student Body clubs at 10 high schools a total of nearly $103,000 — restoring the budgets they use to pay for sports transportation and uniforms, school dances, leadership training and other discretionary expenses.

But students say they're still waiting for a more long-term solution.

"People come to us for money all the time," said Trang Nguyen, junior-class secretary at Franklin High School. "We're like a bank for the school."

The School Board in Fall 2004 approved a nutrition policy that bans unhealthful food from student stores and vending machines and eliminated an exclusive contract with Coca-Cola. At the time, the board predicted that schools would be able to make up the revenue with fundraising, but for the most part, that hasn't happened.

South End schools were hit especially hard because most don't have booster clubs to donate money for sports, and school officials say so many of their students are in poverty that they don't want to raise other fees or charge kids to play sports to make up the revenue, as some North Seattle schools have done.

Franklin High School lost the most. In 2004-05, before the policy was in place, the Franklin ASB collected nearly $18,000 from vending machines. Last year, the ASB collected less than $3,000.

West Seattle, Chief Sealth, Rainier Beach and Ballard High schools each lost about 80 percent of their ASB budgets.

"We passed a policy that I think was a pretty good policy to get rid of junk food, but then we didn't really clean up the after-effects," said School Board member Michael DeBell, who chairs the board's finance committee.

Outgoing School Board President Brita Butler-Wall, who pushed for the nutrition policy on the board and as an activist before she was elected, said student groups need to figure out other ways to raise money.

Adults shouldn't be encouraging students to eat unhealthful food, she said.

"The money came from the students all along," she said. "This was the students' money. The money didn't come from anywhere except out of their own pockets."

The question now is whether students are still willing to put the money they used to spend in vending machines toward sports, dances and other activities.

It shouldn't be a big priority for the district, she said.

Franklin students said it's not fair that they've had the problem "dumped" on them. And they don't anticipate vending revenues will rebound.

The granola-bar and baked-chips stocked machines are often turned off because of rules barring "competitive" food sales while lunch is being served, and students often walk down the street to McDonald's or buy snacks at nearby convenience stores.

"We just really want them to reconsider this" policy, Nguyen said.

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com