Comment: About the Long Beach School District Mission statement in the little green book or is it a red ? I forget. Please lets try to teach our children to be productive and respectful of one another, create and work hard at their goals, but "competitive"? What is competition but another form of violence.

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More from UCLA about Junk food:

By Linda Taylor
UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools

Since the Los Angeles Unified Schools District has just decided against
having soft drinks machines on school campuses this topic has received a
great deal of interest and attention.

There are a number of issues that are debated:

1. Schools contract with distributors in order to raise money ($39,000
annual per high school and $14,000 per middle school). The biggest
underlying issue is adequate funding of schools and school programs (some
schools use the money for extra activities, such as sports, dances, pep
rallies, field trips, PTA funding, etc. how can we find more reliable and
sustainable funding for these programs?).

2. Should schools ask students to spend money (usually more than the school
lunch) on "junk food" (e.g., soda , pizza, chips, candy, etc.)

3. Should schools contract with companies that use both the sale and
equipment to advertise their products to create brand recognition (usually
demanding an exclusive contract that keeps competing companies out).

4. Are there harmful effects of soft drinks for students:
a. Cause cavities, lead to obesity, lead to diabetes, lead to
kidney stones, lead to osteoporosis??
b. Does caffeine have a negative effect on students behavior, mood,
health (e.g., lead to nervousness, insomnia, addiction)??
c. Does soda replace more healthy drinks served by the school
(juice, milk)

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a Fact Sheet "Foods and
Beverages Sold Outside of the School Meal Programs" that describes the
scope of the current situation


The Public Health Institute has put out a "Recommendations: Addressing Soft
Drink Contract in California Schools." There concern is that soft drinks
replace healthful beverages and that school district policy address the
contracting with beverage companies (e.g., make it a district not a school
by school agreement, look at overall child nutrition programs, solicit
public comment, eliminate confidentiality clauses in order to inform the
general public of facts related to the contract, eliminate school
advertising that promote unhealthy beverages. engage school
staff/students/parent/community health professionals to evaluate beverage
policy, fund schools and student activities adequately so they do not have
to rely on student soft drink consumption to fund education and
extracurricular needs.)

The American School Food Service Association (www.asfsa.org) has a press
release "ASFSA Applauds Los Angeles Soda Ban." They point out that 40% of
Los Angeles student are obese and this leads to serious health
consequences, such as diabetes.

Harvard School of Public Health professor Grace Wyshak has research
showing a link teen age girls who drank cola were five times for likely to
break bones as physically active girls who abstained from carbonated
beverages.

University of North Carolina study reports from 1965 - 1996, adolescent
milk consumption dropped 36% while soft drink consumption more than doubled.

The U.S. General Accounting Office did a recent review of soda sales at
schools focusing on the amount of money generated and found it is only a
minute percentage of school budgets.

A Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine study concluded "The high
consumption rates of caffeine-containing soft drinks are more likely to
reflect the mood-altering and physical dependence-producing effects of
caffeine as a central nervous system-activity drug than its subtle effects
as a flavoring agent."

The National Soft Drink Association feels the concerns are exaggerated and
recommend increasing physical activity at schools as a more important way
to counter obesity.

In California, Governor Gray Davis signed a law last year banning sodas in
elementary school. It goes into effect in January 2004. Texas bans soft
drink sales during lunch periods.

CNN.com 9/10/02 reports "The Child Nutrition Act mandates that schools sell
only healthful food in their cafeterias. But soft drink makers can get
around that restriction by essentially giving away their product for
free--by allowing schools to keep all the vending machine profits...A
proposal endorsed by Sen. Patrick Leahy would take things a step further by
banning the "free" distribution of sodas and other snacks. 'This is a
loophole, bug enough to drive a soda truck through, that hurts our
children,; says the Vermont Democratic.."

Hope this is what you need. If you have other specific questions, please
let us know.

Linda Taylor
UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools
(310) 825-3634
Fax (310) 206-8716
email ltaylor@ucla.edu
Web http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu



More....

Can This Campus Be Bought? Commercial Influence in Unfamiliar Places
September-October 2001
Volume 87, Number 5
By Jennifer L. Croissant

Corporations are changing student life, academic philanthropy, and institutional relationships with vendors. Will they also affect the educational mission?

When Pepsi received the vending contract for the University of Arizona in 1998, we soda consumers at the university expected a discount, given the likely volume of purchasing among the 35,000 people on our campus. Instead, we got a price increase, and decreased shelf and fountain space in campus stores and cafeterias for competing brands. At about the same time, our athletic department developed a contract with Nike for apparel and equipment to supply our sports teams.

http://www.aaup.org/so01cro.htm

* * *
Coke backs Harry Potter literacy drive
Tuesday, 9 October, 2001

The film will be premiered in the UK Coca-Cola has unveiled its marketing plans for its multi-million dollar tie-in with the Harry Potter movie, including a drive to get children reading.

The soft drinks giant won the race to link up with eagerly awaited first film to the tune of $150m (#102m).

As part of the deal Coca-Cola will give $18m (#12m) to the US Reading is Fundamental (RIF) campaign to encourage literacy in children.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/film/newsid_1588000/1588261.stm

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No Cheers for PepsiCo and Their Corporate Scrooges

Published on Friday, November 15, 2002 by CommonDreams.org
by John F. Borowski

The PepsiCo Corporation, a monolithic giant in the soda pop and fast food industry plays “cut throat hardball” with its competition. Fearing a 15 year old cheerleader's attempt to fund raise at school selling bottled water triggered the predacious instincts of PepsiCo to rear its ugly nature: profit at any cost.

When Pepsi got wind of West Salem High (Salem, Oregon) cheerleader Andrea Boyes’ creative idea to sell bottled water under the school logo, “Titans” they claimed “turf rights” and squashed the idea. Pepsi has a 10-year, $5 million contract with the Salem Keiser School District and only they can sell their bottled water, Aquafina brand, on school grounds.

With September 7th, 2002 total assets reported at $23,793,000,000 one could only imagine the financial damage young Ms. Boyes might create for the soda giant.

Yes, young Ms. Boyes has learned a hard lesson in this brave new world of public school funding, where corporate entities have no shame about contractual powers and young adults are left jaded and powerless.

It isn’t despicable enough that Pepsi lures cash-strapped public schools into peddling its elixirs of sugar, water and coloring. Doesn’t every good parent serve their children Pepsi in the morning, with a 12-ounce can loaded with approximately 9 ounces of sugar? Possibly PepsiCo executives can market an economics teaching packet for public schools, discussing the future potential of insulin sales as we passively watch a generation succumb to type-2 diabetes? Does being part of the “Pepsi Generation” include a life long membership to the osteoporosis and obesity club?

PepsiCo actions offer a glimpse into a tragic trend. Public schools are now forging collusive deals with the devil, while corporate taxes to help pay for education diminish. Reading, writing and brand loyalty is the mantra of companies like Pepsi and if even a young and motivated cheerleader threatens a penny of earnings: stop her cold in her tracks.

This Pepsi debacle raises even more pertinent questions. Are we as a free society not willing to fund the public school systems of this nation? Are we afraid to ask corporate America, with its armies of publicly schooled employees, to donate their fair share of the tax base? Will we allow fast food, soda pop and candy to dominate the school day of some 60 million students? Will we sit back and watch the most commercially manipulated and marketed generation of children grow into adulthood facing a legacy of malnutrition?

Apparently, PepsiCo has declined to discuss the issue. Maybe they can buy off the cheerleaders at this Salem school with some free coupons to go to one of their other culturally rich icons: Taco Bell or Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Around the nation, including this weekend, crowds of cheering parents and fans will urge on student athletes in an age- old American pastime. Football games, soccer games, volleyball and basketball games will bring together members of each community with a common sense of purpose: supporting children. And when they look up at the score- board and see the Pepsi logo, hopefully they will consider the story of one caring and motivated cheerleader who tried to make a difference in her hometown and the soulless corporate power that views children as vehicles for cash.

If you listen closely, maybe you will hear a rousing jeer from the high school cheerleaders across the nation as they give PepsiCo a hearty Bronx cheer. And maybe, just maybe there will be a shortage of quarters entering the vending machines at those Salem high schools.

John F. Borowski is a teacher of environmental and marine science at North Salem High, Salem, Oregon.

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