Fast food’s run at local schools nearing an end
By PAM WIGHT Special to the Daily Press
SAMOHI — Nationwide concern over the childhood obesity epidemic hasn’t been enough to prompt school officials from eliminating fast food outlets from local high school campuses this year.
School district officials this year signed contracts with Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s and Papa John’s. On the fast food menus are Big Macs, double cheeseburgers, quarter pounders, fries, sodas, burritos and pepperoni pizzas, all to help feed the 4,692 students at Santa Monica High School and Malibu High.
“The food is the healthier of the items from those vendors,” said Orlando Griego, the district’s nutrition director who determines what vendors come to Samohi and Malibu. “From Taco Bell, we only get 40 bean and cheese burritos. No meat. And from Papa John’s, we only get two pizzas — one cheese and one pepperoni.
“Kentucky Fried Chicken only sends us chicken, no sides,” he added.
The McDonald’s fare is offered through the on-campus Project Echo, an entrepreneurial program run by the students and separate from Griego’s budget or control.
The decision to keep fast food in the high schools was not financially motivated since the vendors only make up a small percentage of a nearly $1.1 million budget, Griego said.
“It is primarily to offer another option for the students,” he said.
However, fast food offerings were about the money for the cash-strapped school district a couple of years ago. The school’s former nutrition director, Rodney Taylor, said two years ago that it was a matter of competition for business.
“Less than 1 percent of the total budget is spent on these vendors.”
“If we don’t provide it, we can’t compete,” he told the Daily Press in 2002. “If we don’t sell it, we would take a financial loss on our meals programs, which would then affect other school programs.”
Although there are state guidelines for levels of fat or saturated fat included in school meal programs, some schools allow outside groups like Project Echo to sell food on campus. Some groups do it to raise money for other school functions like sports teams.
“You’re talking about a big policy debate,” said Phyllis Bramson-Paul, the state director of nutrition services. “Ultimately, is the way we fund worth-while activities to end up contributing to obesity rates? It’s a viscous cycle.”
The local school district has been offering fast food at its high schools for a couple of years. One-year contracts with the vendors generate about $95,000 in revenue for the school district.
“But those vendors are not meant to be a financial gain,” Griego said. “Most kids, by far, eat at the cafeteria and the snack bar, which is run by Project Echo.”
Griego added that part of the reason the district contracts out some of the food services is that it’s impossible to feed that many students in the 40 minutes that’s available for lunch.
Children’s poor nutrition has become a national issue — record numbers of children are acquiring obesity-related illnesses such as diabetes. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that almost 45 percent of new type-2 diabetes in children are attributed to obesity. With busy families seldom sitting down together at meals, fast food is often a convenient alternative. Also, a more sedentary lifestyle has evolved with the average American family watching seven hours of television per day, according to the Center for Media Literacy.
The obesity problem has been compounded by cuts in physical education to public schools. More kids are unfit than ever before. Out of three grades tested, 25 percent of California school children failed to pass the state’s six minimum fitness requirements in 2003. Senate Bill 677 banned the sale of soda in school vending machines in California elementary schools. Beginning in 2005, elementary schools must remove sugar-filled, carbonated drinks from campus vending machines, replacing them with only juice, milk or water.
Even though high schools are not required to do that, Samohi this week has installed a vending machine that offers only 50 percent carbonated drinks — the rest is milk, water and juice. However, the students have been complaining about the higher prices of the new vending machine products, said Project Echo instructor Anita Kemp.
She added that fast food won’t be offered forever at local high schools.
“Plans to wean the students off of the worst of the McDonald’s food is in the works,” Kemp said. “As the younger kids move into high school, we hope to transition them into healthier food choices and start moving those items off the menu.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 2, 2004. Read the original PDF.