California State Senator Seeks Junk-Food Ban for Schools

San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Calif. - March 26, 2004

Mar. 26--After her attempt to get junk food out of schools failed two years ago, state Sen. Martha Escutia is again pushing to eliminate high-calorie foods on campuses with a new bill that would extend such a ban to high schools.

Calling childhood obesity an "epidemic," Escutia, D-Whittier, introduced her bill, SB 1566, Wednesday in the Senate Health Committee, where it passed on an 8-2 vote. It now goes to the Senate Education Committee, then to the Appropriations Committee. It could be voted on by the full Senate sometime in May, an aide to Escutia said.

The proposal would set nutritional standards for all foods sold on K-12 public school campuses. The standards require that each food item sold at school must have no more than 35 percent calories of fat, 10 percent calories from saturated fat, and no more than 35 percent sugar by weight.

Although it faces a hearing in the Appropriations Committee, which determines how much each bill that passes through the Senate will cost the public, her bill needs no special funding, Escutia said.

School districts "would simply be replacing some of the most unhealthy items they sell with popular, more healthy products -- granola bars instead of candy bars, baked chips instead of fried ..."

Water, milk, fruit juices and fruit-based drinks would be allowed, as well as sports drinks such as Gatorade and PowerAid at middle schools and high school.

But high-calorie, high-sugar sodas would be barred, she said.

That provision drew objections from Bob Ackerman of the California-Nevada Soft Drink Association, who testified before the Senate Health Committee voted Wednesday. He said the bill would take away from school districts local say over food choices at schools.

"We believe there is a probably a way to address this and that is through education," he said. "(Escutia's bill) won't solve the problem. Local school districts should have the ability to make the decisions. It should be a local decision."

At the Whittier Union High School District , Assistant Superintendent Paul Muschetto said officials already have started working on a plan that calls for completely eliminating soda from campuses by the fall.

Students would still have a choice of water, juices and sports drinks. In addition, the district has integrated into its curriculum lessons about eating a balanced diet and exercising, he said.

"I am sure that if this legislation passes, it will initially have an impact on sales," Muschetto said. "But those students who choose to buy lunch or snacks at school will have healthy alternatives.'

Wanda Grant, food services director for El Monte Union High School District , said banning potato chips and other high-calorie snacks would result in a loss of funding for her district. Students simply would stop buying as much food.

"When I take off Red-Hot Cheetos and put on red-hot rice cakes, kids don't buy the red-hot rice cakes," she said.

But Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, said schools have a responsibility to protect the health of students.

"This could be the first generation that has a shorter life expectancy than their parents. It's a tragedy that schools are one of the places where our children are buying (junk food) often against the best wishes of their parents," he said.

"Children learn not just by what we tell them, but by what we sell them. Schools should not be in the business of selling junk food."

Her bill is the second effort by Escutia to get a statewide ban on junk food at schools. Her previous bill establishing nutrition standards for elementary and middle schools was approved and was supposed to go into effect in January.

The provisions never were implemented, however, because the law was contingent on $65 million in state funding to help districts make the transition. With the state's budget crisis, that money never materialized.

Escutia said she wishes state money was available to help districts implement healthy foods at schools, but her bill is at least a start.

"SB 1566 focuses on one thing that the Legislature can do to start to curb this epidemic," she said. "It will ensure that our students are not surrounded by junk food every day in their schools. The bill calls for schools to replace unhealthy items with healthier items, something schools should have been doing all along."

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(c) 2004, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.