Children are suffering from an epidemic of obesity. In spite
of this, purveyors of junk food increasingly are able to use
public schools as a platform for their marketing campaigns.
In effect, the junk food lobby has latched onto the compulsory
school laws as a way to corral a captive audience of impressionable
children.
Parents should guide the eating habits of their kids. Corporations
have no business wedging into that relationship. Schools should
support parents in this.
We are what we eat, as the old saying goes; and in this the
schools play an important part, for good or ill. Schools should
encourage healthful eating habits and exercise. They should
not become marketing zones and shopping centers in which junk
food manufacturers get open access to impressionable children.
Contact your government to protect our children by prohibiting
the marketing and sale of junk food in schools.
1. Schools should help parents promote
good nutrition, rather than support junk food companies that
promote products high in added sugar and fat.
Municipalities and school boards should
prohibit the marketing of junk food on school property:
o Prohibit contracts that obligate children to watch or listen
to ads for junk food on school property.
o Prohibit display of visual advertisements for junk food in
school, such as billboards, signs, posters, and logo placements.
o Prohibit the use of corporate-sponsored curricula featuring
or promoting junk food products.
o Prohibit exclusive marketing ("pouring rights")
contracts between soda beverage companies and school districts,
school food service agencies and school groups.
2. Schools should make healthful food
available to children.
Municipalities and school boards should
ban the sale or distribution of junk food on school property:
o Prohibit sale of junk food on school property, including,
but not limited to, a la carte, beforeschool or afterschool
programs, concession stands or vending machines.
o Prohibit distribution of junk food as a reward or prize for
good behavior or exemplary performance.
o Prohibit distribution of free samples of junk food on school
property.
o Amend ordinances to prohibit marketing of junk food to children
on school property.
3. Schools should be rewarded for
exceeding federal nutrition standards.
Municipalities
and school boards should provide financial rewards to school
districts, schools and food service agencies that exceed federal
nutrition guidelines and obey restrictions on the sale of junk
food in schools:
o School districts and school food service agencies should exceed
the nutritional standards of School Lunch Programs and School
Breakfast Programs, especially by providing plenty of whole
grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, fat-free dairy products,
local and organic products, but no foods with hydrogenated vegetable
shortening, and few or no fried foods.
o School districts and school food service agencies should restrict
certain foods (i.e. no nutritional value) with zero-tolerance
in all schools.
