Advertising

The Seattle Times Company

NWjobs | NWautos | NWhomes | NWsource | Free Classifieds | seattletimes.com

The Seattle Times

Local News


Our network sites seattletimes.com | Advanced

Originally published Wednesday, May 25, 2005 at 12:00 AM

E-mail E-mail article      Print Print view      Share Share

Nicole Brodeur

Schools may gain by losing fat

The Seattle schools we worried would close have been spared. Great. But our math problem remains on the board, people: Where to find the...

Seattle Times staff columnist

The Seattle schools we worried would close have been spared. Great.

But our math problem remains on the board, people: Where to find the money to ease the district's budget pain? Enid Hohn says a way to drop at least some revenue into the schools' ever-leaking bucket is to drop the right kinds of snacks into vending machines. Hohn, a registered dietitian, has quadrupled vending-machine revenue at one California high school, and in the process, helped fight childhood obesity by limiting kids to healthful choices.

"It just has to be appealing," said Hohn, 52, director of child-nutrition services at the Vista Unified School District in Oceanside, Calif.

She replaced candy and chips with bagels, Nutri-Grain bars, Pop-Tarts, fresh fruit and vegetables. And it went.

Hohn told the Puget Sound Educational District this month how she phased out sugary sodas by telling students she had simply run out. They had no choice but to buy water and fruit juice.

The key, she said, is offering students only good food, and no bad stuff, "because they will always take the Snickers bar."

In the three and a half years Hohn has run the vending program at Vista High School, she has handed school officials $120,000 of her profits.

By comparison, she said, Rancho Buena Vista High School's candy-and-soda contract with Coca-Cola netted that school only $78,000 in five years. Hohn took over, and made the school $20,000 in four months.

Could we do the same here?

Food in the schools is an issue that brings heartburn even to those who haven't carried a tray in years.

Last week, the Seattle City Council voted to ban mobile vendors — pizza trucks — within 1,000 feet of public schools.

Council members called it a strike against childhood obesity. But they did it at the urging of the union that represents cafeteria workers, whose pay and benefits are linked to the number of meals served.

advertising

Seattle's high-school vending machines bring in some $300,000 annually, district spokesman Peter Daniels said.

Last year, after schools were urged to cut sugary, fatty snacks and drinks, Lynnwood High School saw its vending profits drop 40 percent. One Rainier Beach High teacher last year estimated his school would lose $15,000 a year.

The key to turning that tide, Hohn said, is to involve kids. She holds student focus groups: If this were in the machine, would you buy it?

Seattle officials are open to her thinking.

"Certainly," Daniels said, noting that nutrition staff attended Hohn's workshop.

Hohn's plan keeps profits inside the school. She has even started an in-house pizza business that's been duplicated by seven other school districts.

Hohn thinks a lot about the mixed messages we give to kids: Teachers reward them with candy. PTAs hold bake sales. Fund-raisers revolve around candy bars and cookie dough.

"What are we doing?"

Food for thought. Let's do the math, people.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

She packs her own, thanks.

E-mail E-mail article      Print Print view      Share Share

More Local News

NEW - 6:55 AM
2 Oregon college students say they encountered 3 cougars

NEW - 06:15 AM
Kent officials tell people to reuse sandbag sand

NEW - 05:54 AM
WA Supreme Court to hear death penalty debate

UPDATE - 07:28 AM
Seattlepi.com celebrates 1 year of Web-only news

Goodbye to grand plan for Seattle Center?

More Local News headlines...


Get home delivery today!

About Nicole Brodeur

My column is more a conversation with readers than a spouting of my own views. I like to think that, in writing, I lay down a bridge between readers and me. It is as much their space as mine. And it is a place to tell the stories that, otherwise, may not get into the paper.
nbrodeur@seattletimes.com | 206-464-2334

Video

Advertising

AP Video

Entertainment | Top Video | World | Offbeat Video | Sci-Tech

Marketplace

 
Most read
Most commented
Most e-mailed
 
 

Most viewed imagesMore

Advertising