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Date Published: February 23, 2004
School vending machines at heart of health debate
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Chris Moore / The Item
Sumter High School students select items to purchase from vending machines at the school recently. Some say the junk food hurts students’ health.
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By KRISTA PIERCE
Item Staff Writer
kristap@theitem.com
When Sumter School District 2 high schools signed an exclusive contract with Coca-Cola, the district’s football stadium got a new scoreboard and the athletic department was given coolers and water bottles and lots of other attractive incentives.
Now, those contracts and the vending machines that do swift business in local schools are at the heart of a debate that sometimes pits struggling school districts against health officials and some legislators who say schools are sacrificing children’s health for a few extra dollars.
“It’s distressing,” said Dr. Susan Kayman, deputy director of the Nutrition and Health Disparities Research Center at the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health. “Principals and school administrators do what they need to do to survive. It’s attractive and lucrative but it compromises the health of children.”
According to statistics from the U.S. surgeon general, the number of overweight American children has tripled since the 1960s. Fifteen percent of today’s children are overweight, and another 10 percent are at risk of becoming overweight.
That’s why state Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum formed a nutrition and fitness task force last year to look at ways to help schools, districts and the state promote healthier eating habits and personal fitness.
The task force is expected to release its recommendations, which will include a call for schools to replace soft drinks with milk, water and juice, within the next few weeks. In addition, a bill has been introduced in the state Legislature that would only allow schools to offer food and drinks that comply with dietary requirements of the National School Lunch Act.
“When we use schools to promote junk food, we’re abusing our authority,” said Rep. John Altman, R-Charleston, who introduced the bill. “They’re a captive audience. You give kids money and you give them vending machines and it’s like giving catnip to kittens.”
Altman said he’s received a lot of support from educators since he proposed the change and said administrators who say schools stand to lose revenue if forced to put healthier snacks in vending machines should be fired.
Some local school officials take exception to Altman’s plan.
“I understand the rationale and we obviously have a number of students that are overweight,” said Sumter High School Principal Rutledge Dingle. “What we need to do in this state is require more than one unit of physical education for graduation and encourage students to be more active and educate our young people about nutrition.”
Some local districts, including Sumter School District 17, have already taken measures to ensure children are eating lunches provided by the schools opposed to the fat and calorie-laden snacks offered in vending machines.
Dingle said Sumter High School offers a variety of healthy choices as an alternative to traditional vending machine fare like soda, candy and chips. “We’ve added alternatives like water, fruit juice, milk and low-fat snacks,” he said. “We’ve made the effort to at least give our students a choice.”
In Clarendon School District 2, vending machines aren’t turned on until 11:30 a.m. in an effort to ensure children eat breakfast and lunch in the school cafeteria.
“Our children pretty much eat in our cafeterias,” said Superintendent John Tindal. Even so, the vending machines have provided extra funds to the district’s schools.
“Make no mistake,” he said. “The vending machines help schools have funds to supplement students and staff. There is a financial benefit to it.”
In Tindal’s district, that is a relatively small amount, about $1,300 per month, but in other districts, the money is more substantial.
Sumter School District 17 reports vending machines bring in about $34,000 each year. District Food Service Director Bill McCracken said the money is divided between food service and school administrators.
At Sumter High School, for example, the money is used to fund student activities like the school newspaper, clubs and other special projects. The possibility that vending revenue, which schools have come to count on to fund student activities, could be reduced doesn’t sit well with some officials.
“Every year we hear these rumblings,” McCracken said. “I have mixed feelings. There’s some good ideas out there but during lean budget times, we don’t need to shut the door on potential revenue.”
Dingle agreed.
“If funding weren’t such an issue, we’d say go ahead and remove the machines,” he said, “but right now, we’d have to do away with programs or raise student fees.”
McCracken said he’s sure students will find a way to bring unhealthy snacks to school if schools were forced to remove the machines or fill them with healthier food choices.
Sumter School District 2 Superintendent Dr. Frank Baker said students would grow accustomed to the changes.
“I feel that if we were to put a healthier choice of products in those vending machines, the kids are still going to purchase it,” he said, adding he thinks schools would still make a profit from vending machines, just maybe not as large.
“Looking strictly at student health, it would be the prudent thing to do,” he said. Since the profits stay at the school level, Baker said decreased profits would not hurt the district, but would potentially hurt individual schools that rely on vending machine and canteen profits to supplement budgets.
Lee County Superintendent Dr. Willie Townes said the district’s vending machines are not turned on during school lunch hours, but are necessary to have for the benefit of students staying after school for various programs. He’s not opposed to replacing the current contents of vending machines with healthier snacks.
“Whatever we can do for healthy kids, we need to put it in practice,” he said.
Contact Staff Writer Krista Pierce at kristap@theitem.com or 803-774-1272.
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March 30, 2004
