Parents Help Swap Sugary Drinks for Healthier Options in Schools

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The nutritional quality of lunches is improving in schools in Fairfax, Va., which has a large Latino student population. But the news wasn’t all good. Parents saw that, despite healthier lunch improvements, sugary drinks remained stocked in vending machines. Sugary drinks consumption contributes to increased rates of obesity and diabetes, studies show. So several parents banded together and, with the support of a member of the local school board and students alike, made a change to remove sugary drinks and replace them with healthier options in vending machines at seven schools.

EMERGENCE

Awareness: The Fairfax School District serves around 184,000 students. In the district’s 25 high schools, Latinos make up 19% of the student body.

JoAnne Hammermaster has two kids in the district and is active in the PTA.

When parents started complaining about the state of school lunches, Hammermaster took a look. Too many ingredients, strange preservatives, unpronounceable additives; the lunches could barely be called “real” food.

“How can I turn my back on that? We had to do something,” she says.

That’s how Real Food for Kids (RFFK) was born three years ago. The local parent group succeeded in replacing processed foods with healthier, fresher foods in many school cafeterias across the district.

While this was a proud accomplishment, Hammermaster and RFFK wanted to do more.

Learn: RFFK has worked closely with Ryan McElveen, a local school board member who says the overall school food environment must continue to improve.

McElveen is particularly passionate about removing sugary drinks from schools.

While Fairfax County schools do not sell soft drinks from vending machines during school hours, the machines are open before and after school. This gives students plenty of chances to get way more sugar than their bodies need, McElveen said.

“Students would perform better without those drinks in their system, and the ultimate goal in the school system is to make it a better environment for learning,” he says.

The machines had few healthy drink options, like water and no- or low-sugar alternatives.

Frame Issue: RFFK and Hammermaster decided to work together to do something about the lack of healthier drink options.

RFFK could rally student and parent support for change. McElveen could build support among school board members. Together, they hoped this would generate a strong case to improve the nutritional value of drinks offered in school vending machines.

DEVELOPMENT

Education/Mobilization: Hammermaster and other RFFK members presented their case at PTA meetings about why healthy foods, including replacing sugary drinks with no- or low-sugar options, would benefit students’ health.

Studies show that those who consume a greater amount of SSBs tend to have higher body weight than those who drink less, with more likelihood of metabolic disturbances, such as diabetes, dental problems, and other health issues, according to a research review. One study shows that children’s odds of adult obesity increase by 60 percent for each additional sugary drink serving per day.

Hammermaster said she got a lot of immediate support.

“The few schools I approached jumped on board right away,” Hammermaster said.

When she approached Thomas Jefferson School of Finance and Technology at the end of the year and asked if they’d be interested in testing the sugary drink removal the following fall, the principal, teachers, and the student government were enthusiastic.

“The first thing those kids did was they got online and did research on why diet soda is bad,” Hammermaster said.

In fact, at least two of the schools RFFK met with wanted to see all sugary drinks and diet sodas removed from machines on campus for good. Letting the students play a role in learning about the health effects of sugary drinks was important, Hammermaster said, because it allowed them to make an informed choice and feel in control of what they put in their bodies.

Meanwhile, McElveen brought the issue to local school board members.

Debate: When McElveen introduced the idea for removal of sugary drinks to the 12-person school board in February 2013, he met some resistance. Some members worried that students with diabetes would not be able to get a quick fix of sugar when they needed it. Others worried that athletes would miss the extra fuel before and after sports games and practices.

Not to be deterred, McElveen sought another audience.

“We took the idea to the [food and nutrition services] staff and worked with them to see what they would be interested in doing,” he said.

During discussions with food and nutrition services, McElveen and Hammermaster realized that, because of the large size of the school district, doing a small trial of removing sugary drinks from vending machines in a handful of schools could be the best way to demonstrate the effectiveness of removing sugary drinks across the school district.

McElveen was able to get enough support to move ahead with a trial program to see if removing sugary drinks from school vending machines and replacing them with no- or low-sugar options would be successful.

ENACTMENT

Activation: RFFK hosted a planning meeting at the in May 2012 with student government leaders, representatives from the PTA, and the vice principal of Thomas Jefferson.

Everyone was on board with removing sugary drinks and adding options with better nutritional value. Many parents and students also wanted to go even further to get healthier snack foods added to the vending machines, too.

Frame Policy: After conversations with the companies that provide the vending machines to the district’s schools, RFFK, McElveen, and students had to compromise on removing diet sodas. The school district had just signed a new five-year contract with a soda company, and the company was willing to distribute healthier drinks to the schools, but they wanted to keep diet sodas available. As a middle ground, they agreed diet soda
would remain in vending machines, and the soda company would buy new machines for the schools to use to sell higher-nutritional-value juices and low-calorie drinks.

Change: The trial sugary drink removal took place the first week of school in September 2013 at seven high schools. The district removed 47 vending machines and replaced them with 37 with no full-sugar soft drinks and only these options: diet soda, iced tea, V8 products, flavored water, and a low-calorie sports drink. Water is offered in other locations around the campus, so between the water and the new lower-sugar options, students have been empowered to make healthier beverage choices at school.

IMPLEMENTATION

Implementation/Equity: Chantilly, Falls Church, Langley, Marshall, and West Potomac high schools, along with Lake Braddock Secondary and the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, are the seven schools to test the sugary drink removal. The school district is going to evaluate sales and student and parent reactions over the 2013-14 school year.

Because they were so positive leading up to the trial period, Hammermaster is curious to see what parents and kids will be saying now that the new machines are in place.

Sustainability: RFFK officials hope the data will show significant support for keeping the no- or low-sugar beverages in the schools and expanding it to other campuses.

Hammermaster is optimistic about the future of healthy drinks in Fairfax County schools.

“If we talk about nutrition and we try to educate kids during school, well then we have to provide those options during the school day, whether it’s in the lunch line or the vending machines,” she said.

This success story was produced by Salud America! with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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