Nutrition rules may bite school clubs

Ice cream sales went up like the temperature this spring at Ferris High School’s DECA store, which came as good news for after-school activities that rely on money from those sales.

But no one expects those sales to last.

The national battle against the bulge moves into most area schools next fall when new policies will block the sale of the highest selling items at schools like soda, candy and ice cream bars.

Statewide, school districts are finalizing new nutrition plans, which the state will require by August.

Next Wednesday, the Spokane Public Schools board of directors is expected to vote on whether to pass the proposed new policy. Mead School District will present its policy Monday. Cheney School District will consider its policy in June. Central Valley should have one to present by June, phasing out candy and soda within five years in the high schools. Deer Park Schools already phased out all candy from its DECA store and landed a grant that provides unlimited free fresh fruit to students all day long.

Spokane Public School students, especially those in the marketing club DECA, had some concerns about the policy’s impact on DECA stores. The stores serve as live teaching labs about business and raise money through the sale of foods and drinks.

“It’ll take pretty much every item we have off the shelf, giving us very little to work with,” said senior Garth Hill. The store Hill has managed for 18 months offers about 50 items, including a dozen varieties of candy.

As Hill sees it, all that’s left with the new policy is water, diet soda, fruit and pencils. “I can already tell you that’s not going to sell,” he said.

District officials said Hill’s characterization is exaggerated but conceded that restrictions on sugar and fat content will prevent sales of most cookies and fatty chips. Sacajawea Middle School was a pilot school in the district and went all year with fewer high-calorie a la carte items offered in the lunchroom. They still sold Sun Chips, pretzels and granola bars.

“We learned it has some impact on our a la carte sales,” said Doug Wordell, director of nutrition services at Spokane Public Schools. “We learned students whined for the first few months and then went back to business.”

For months now, Spokane Public Schools has been meeting with teachers, DECA leaders, fitness teachers and cafeteria workers to hash out the plan. Wordell said he’s met with about 20 different school groups and worked with a committee.

At one point, the policy firmly stated that teachers would not be allowed to use candy, doughnuts or pizza as an incentive. That was softened a guideline.

Teachers also won a concession to allow a soda vending machine in the teacher’s lounge for staff and teacher use only.

High school DECA stores and the Skills Center culinary program gained an exception allowing them to sell some sports drinks.

During last week’s Spokane Public Schools board meeting, students from Rogers High School and Ferris lined up to plea to the board to consider the impact on their DECA clubs.

Rachel Merritt, a senior at Rogers, said that DECA impacted her life more than any other student activity, including serving on student government. She’s heading to college with an annual $9,000 DECA scholarship. She and others feared DECA could be crippled by the change.

She asked the board to consider how the proposed policy would impact a low-income school like Rogers, which can’t rely on well-off alumni to make up a lost funding source.

“I am a personal success story of DECA,” Merritt told the board.

Board member Rocco Treppiedi assured students that the issues they brought up had been heard before in various meetings and work sessions.

Board president Barb Richardson responded by saying, “These challenges are facing every DECA program in the state.”

Richardson added that she attended a recent conference where she learned about schools that found healthy items that sold well.

There’s no question the sale of soda is a hefty revenue generator for schools, said Mike Dunn, superintendent of Cheney Public Schools.

“This is not easy for DECA or high school ASB,” Dunn said.

Dunn said that when he was Shadle Park High School’s principal in the 1980s, the district had surplus cash and could give cash to student groups like ASB. As district funds dried up, vending sales began to pay for things like band uniforms, state competition trips and cheerleader trips.

The markup on soda is much higher than for juice and water, Dunn said.

A study released in April by a nonprofit group called Community Health Partnership showed that school districts make millions of dollars from vending machine contracts. The study covered Oregon schools and found that Portland had been promised $2.2 million in incentives, in addition to profits from the sales. Portland Public Schools receives half the price of each 10-ounce soda sold, 35 percent of each 12-ounce soda and 30 percent of the price of juice and water.

How that lost revenue will be made up in area schools is yet to be determined, Dunn said.

Under the proposed policy being considered at Spokane Public Schools, a Nutrition, Physical Activity and Health Advisory Committee will be formed by January to monitor the new procedures and produce annual reports.