Double D

Wed June 25, 2003 01:11 PM ET

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...log/GetContent

NEW YORK (Reuters) - School officials are taking the candy away from New York's kids.
Starting in September, candy, soda and sweet snacks will be banned from vending machines in New York City's education system, the largest in the United States, officials announced at a City Council hearing on Tuesday.

In addition, sugar, fat and salt will be trimmed from the 800,000 lunches served daily in schools, the officials said.

The new standards were issued in response to an obesity epidemic in city schools, but districts across the United States have been reviewing meals and reducing junk food, even though the machines are an important source of revenue for cash-strapped schools.

A New York education department spokeswoman said the amount of money raised varied from school to school and there was no recorded average. The extra cash is used to pay for academic scholarships, sports team uniforms and class trips, items that would normally cost tens of thousands of dollars.

"We firmly believe that good nutrition plays an essential role in health and development and helps young people to do well in school," city school food service head Martin Oestreicher told the council.

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control study showed that 20 percent of third graders and 21 percent of sixth graders in New York are obese. In poor neighborhoods, 15 percent of the total population has diabetes, which can be caused by poor diet.

Under the new guidelines, school cafeteria food such as beef ravioli, potato salad, macaroni and cheese and ice cream would go, but they are still being taste-tested without salt, fat or sugar. Candy, soda, cakes, doughnuts, cookies, salty chips and fruit drinks with less than 100 percent fruit will no longer be served in vending machines.

Instead, low-salt, low-fat versions of cheese pizza, chicken fingers, Jamaican beef patties and chicken teriyaki will be available on menus. Vending machines will contain pretzels, energy bars, water, 100 percent fruit juices and low-fat, low-salt chips.
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A step in the right direction, 'ya think?

TaLoN

finally, someone taking some action

ARTelevision

Of course it's a step in the right direction.
It's irresponsible to have that stuff available for consumption in a school...

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Double D

I agree. School lunches have been laden with fat & sodium, and devoid of nutrition for decades. Kids often decline eating the slop they serve, but the schools needed a way to generate revenue- so in came the vending machines.

I've substitute taught and had the joy of lunch patrol.
An unbelievable number of kids have a lunch such as two Snickers bars and a Coke.
Then one looks to the girl's tables - and their lunches consist of a _just_ a diet coke. It's all very disturbing.

Maybe there's hope yet, though.

Vyk

I'm glad they did this. My highschool used to have an incredibly fatty collection of foodstuffs from which to choose. It consisted of junk food, high fat meats and uber greasy pizza. Add in all the soda pop machines and you get fat kids.

It would be nice if they'd actually offer some healthy alternatives.

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The_Dude

bah, i think they should privatize school lunches.

you get more variety at a lower price (made some agency monitor the food they're selling)

i hated my school lunch, you basically had the same choices for 4 years. gets pretty tiresome. in the end, i was eating on a bag of doritos, sunny delight and a icecream snickers bar.


to make things worse, they cut down the # of coke machines from 4 to 1 in the cafeteria. they only sell good drinks now (juices) in 3 of them, and one still has cokes.

the result? the coke machine is always out cuz of the huge demand for them.

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Alz

One of the reasons why I never ate lunch at my highschool was that the only stuff they served that I remotely liked was grease fries, grease burgers and other greasy stuff, I figured I got enough of it already and after a couple months I just eventually just bought a bottle of water and read a book / magazine during lunch. Avoided headaches from stupid stuff happening in the cafeteria and it let me have time away from all the noise of school (Hey who says kids don't like peace and quiet too?)

Although it is a good idea to improve nutrition in schools they should have some degree of choice for students so that they don't always have to eat the greasy stuff or always have to eat the stuff that is 'good' for them.

ducati999

healthier food is needed in school and so is more physical activity, kids are some damn lazy and just stay inside all day....look at past generations where all they did was be outisde, its amazing to see how long they live and how fit they were and are...

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Daval

Well done, finally some common sense!

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KillerYoda

Junk food is one of the few things you can depend on in school to make it more tolerable. At least fatty foods from the vending machine are edible, as opposed the the chunky brown Drano they serve up and refer to it as "chili."

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SaltPork

My HS used to have milk shakes, hot pretzels, burgers, hotdogs, fries, onion rings, chicken fingers and pizza EVERY DAY!! In addition to the regular crappy school lunch stuff. It's all gone now. I never had an obesity problem...maybe what kids need to do is get off their fat asses and ride bikes and do stuff outside instead of spending their time inside watching TV and playing video games....God I sound old.

Having said all that, it's a good idea to remove that stuff from the schools. No need to have the public education system in the country turning out big fatties .

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It was like that when I got here....I swear.

warrrreagl

Speaking as someone who went to school in the 60's, I can report that we didn't have vending machines of any kind. In fact, sneaking into the teacher's lounge and pilfering a coke from their machines earned you an expulsion.

So what's the big damn deal? Are the prissy little brats going to melt if they can't have a Twinkie?

***Warrrreagl halfway expecting one of the prissy little brats to start getting hysterical about first amendment violations. They scream first amendment stuff at everything whether it applies or not***

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lurkette

Yay! Wish they'd do that here in NC.

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JStrider

looks like a step in the right direction...

when i went to highschool i almost always brought my own bagged lunch.... a sandwitch a capri sun drink maybe some pretzels too

the food they gave us tasted like crap

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Reese

At least they haven't quit serving condoms and tampons in the vending machines yet.

I really think that making this stuff less available is a good idea. Hell, I think they should outlaw fast food and other dangerous food commercials from TV. I think its good that they are trying to do their part. I just wish they had better food. There was never anything worth eating and trying to discribe the taste of the food was impossible.

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silverback

It is about time. I can remember kids in school who would eat nothing but french fries for lunch every day.

buffto

how about getting the fatties more exercise. If the kid wants to eat candy and be a lard ass, let him. The kids who care about their health aren't obese.

Gortexfogg

I wish I had those kinds of choices of food when I was in high school. For a while I just brought Slim Jims for lunch... tastes good but no filling. I'd eat more healthy food if it was available.A lot of kids are probably like "Oh, I won't eat that stuff", but once they get hungry they'll change their tune and maybe end up liking the new school sponsored diet.

TwistedFate

I did that for a while, 2 bags of fries, and a chocolate milk. We had drink machines when I went to HS (grad in '88), but they were turned off during lunch periods. They added 2 snack machines my senior year. Our school lunches were HORRIBLE!! Basically we had a choice of 2 fast food type "sandwiches" or one healthy meal. (NOTE: by healthy I mean not AS bad for you, not necessarily good for you) I ran track so I took my lunch most of the time, cause a 3-4 hour track practice/meet after a tray full of grease wasn't fun.

I'm glad they are starting to do something proactive. It needs to happen everywhere, not just at school. Actually parents need to have an involvement, it's not really the schools responsibilty. In the video game/internet age it's easy not to get any activity at all, add to that all the "Super Size" meals you can get relatively cheap it's a recipe for disaster. An interesting fact: At McDonalds today a small drink is the same size as the largest drink was 20 years ago.