Soft Drinks in Schools

Soft Drinks in SchoolsMarion Nestle's excellent article highlights the outrageous practice of "pouring rights" contracts that give soft drink companies exclusive rights to sell their products in spe- cific schools or school districts.Coca-Cola and Pepsi are fiercely competing to sign up as many schools as they can, and many of our public schools appear willing to sell out to the highest bidder.However, this is more than just a question of money.This practice affects the health of our children.Pouring rights contracts influence not only what chil- dren drink, but also what they eat in school.As Dr. Nestle points out, students who have access to soft drinks in school are less likely to eat the school lunch.This should concern public health professionals and educators because students need the nutrients provided in a balanced school lunch, and they are learning lifelong eating habits.Dr. Nestle is correct that contracts such as these undermine efforts to establish government funding for public education, but they are the inevitable response to decades of inadequate funding for schools.Twenty-five years ago, New York City was in a deep fiscal crisis and all "non-educational" activities such as music, art, and sports-and even funding for librarians-were eliminated.Principals were forced to beg parents for donations, they asked schoolchildren to sell candy and other items, and they generally welcomed any other sources of funding for school sports and extracurricular activities.This eased the pressure on the city budget and, unfortunately, has become institutionalized as a way of meeting school needs today.The best money-raisers are sales of junk food- soda, candy, chips, etc. Schools take in more money from these sales than from any other fundraising activity, and they won't give them up easily, particularly as education