When Gayathri Rao suggested to fellow PTA members in Redlands, Calif., that they take a hard look at their high school’s beverage machine contract at renewal time, she didn’t expect her request to spark an overhaul of the entire school district’s nutrition program.
But that’s what happened.

“It all started with this little idea,” says Rao, a soft-spoken substitute teacher with a degree in public health whose son attends Redlands High School.

Rao initially hoped to find out if healthy beverages could be included in the school’s vending machines, which offered only soda. Her proposal to the PTA moved to the school district board, which liked it so much that it recently decided to go her one better and re-examine all food served to students.

Rao says she found advocating for change relatively easy, though as an immigrant from India for whom English is a second language, she admits to being intimidated by public speaking.

“It’s not a daunting task,” she says. “It’s just a matter of doing the research. Any parent can ask to talk to any school board in the country — they do give you a few minutes. The main thing is you just have to think positively and say (to yourself): ‘As a parent, I have power.’”

Jacqueline Domac, a health teacher at Venice High School in Venice, Calif., has felt that power firsthand.

“The power of a parent is enormous,” Domac says. “It carries far more weight than any nonprofit on the issue.”

Just how much became apparent to Domac when Venice High students approached their school’s vendor, Coca-Cola, to ask for 100 percent juice in its machines. The company said no, citing a violation of its exclusive deal with the school. And the school at first refused to show the students the contract.

When Domac and students protested, the soda company relented and put in orange and apple juice — but in only four slots out of 200 in the school’s 22 machines, not nearly enough to meet demand.

During the fight, Domac was elected to Venice’s School-Based Management team, made up of parents, teachers and administrators. She brought the issue to the team’s meetings, knowing she was treading on one of the main sources of revenue for school activities.

“The parents were outraged and gave me their full support,” Domac says. “They could easily have viewed this as a substantial threat to their fundraising.”

Domac and her students began to push for changes in the contract, going so far as to testify before the Los Angeles school board, which ultimately voted last year to ban soda sales during school hours at all district elementary schools by January 2004.

Venice High, which became one of 10 pilot schools to get funding for the program, started early, replacing sodas with water, juice and sport drinks last fall. Candy also has been removed from vending machines and the student store, and is no longer allowed to be sold for fundraising.

“We do have some resistance (from students),” says Domac of the changes. But, she says, freshmen new to the school “are becoming addicted to water now,” while kids who insist on soda or candy can always bring it from home.

Domac says the $3,000 her school lost by eliminating its soda contract can be made up through healthy beverage sales and fundraisers. But many school districts report soda revenues in the hundreds of thousands, money that traditionally funds athletic supplies or school trips.

In the Oakland, Calif., school district, which banned soda in 2002,cafeteria sales are down nearly $500,000 since the change, says food services director Amy Lins. But school board member Dan Siegel argues that the health of students is far more important, and the district is finding other ways to make up for lost revenues.

“Clubs have found other things to sell — fruit, milk, water, fruit juice, sandwiches, T-shirts, even dates with the most handsome kid in school,” Siegel says. “I’m sure there’s been an effect, but the concern that some people expressed (before the measure passed) was really overwrought.”

The Soda Manufacturers Association reports that since 2001, 28 states have tried to curb soda offerings in schools, but so far, only the Los Angeles and Oakland measures have passed. Some individual school districts, such as those in Fenton, Mich., and Danville, Va., have decided to ban soda on their own.

Bans also are under review in Indiana and Illinois, but bills have failed in Maryland, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Iowa and Wyoming.

Despite slow going, Gail Woodward-Lopez, associate director of the Center for Weight and Health at the University of California at Berkeley, has been “inspired by the number of schools that are eager to do it,” even without financial compensation.

“Childhood obesity is related to sweetened beverage intake,” says Woodward-Lopez. “There is good reason to think (soda bans) will have an impact.”

Meanwhile, Domac’s students, emboldened by their success, have drafted a proposal to halt junk-food sales districtwide, and now want soy milk added to the cafeteria menu.

After all, says Domac, “You can wash down pizza and a Snickers bar with juice and it won’t help prevent obesity and diabetes.”
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Lorna Collier is a freelance writer who reports regularly on health and family issues for the Chicago Tribune’s health and family section.
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© 2003, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.