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School Food & Beverage Reform
Children in Philadelphia are on the frontlines of a public health epidemic. In Southeastern Pennsylvania, almost four out of ten (38.2 percent) children in the region are considered at-risk for obesity, representing 296,500 children in the region. Children are drinking and eating the wrong kinds of beverages and snacks. Portions are twice as big as they were twenty years ago, and rates of consumption of sugared beverages have doubled in the last decade.
Expelling Soda and Junk Food from School
While many children do not have access to healthy and appealing fresh foods, they have easy access to soda, chips, and other fast foods that are in school vending machines and cafeterias. Children choose food and beverages that are easily accessible to them in school. Unfortunately, more and more of the food and beverages that children consume are high in calories and low in nutritional value.
The Food Trust conducted a poll which found that 9 out of 10 parents want soda out of our schools. Schools offer a real chance to instill healthy eating habits in our children that will last a lifetime. With obesity among our children at epidemic levels, now is this time to insulate our children's learning experience from unhealthy junk food and drinks.
Healthy Beverage Tool Kit
The Food Trust's Healthy Beverage Toolkit is designed to help parents, teachers, food service professionals, school administrators and community leaders confront the epidemic of childhood obesity by promoting healthy beverage consumption. The tools in this kit focus on one critical aspect of the eating habits of children - what beverages are sold and served to children at school.
Download (all files are in pdf format):
> Appendix 1 - Philadelphia Beverage Policy
> Appendix 2 - Resources and Web Links
> Appendix 3 - Healthy Foods and Healthy Finances
> Appendix 4 - Soda in School Survey
> Appendix 5 - What to Do if your School Already Has a Contract
> Appendix 6 - Philadelphia Coalition for Healthy Children Flyer
> Appendix 7 - Philadelphia Coalition for Healthy Children email
> Appendix 8 - Tips for a Successful Meeting
> Appendix 9 - Answers to Soda Industry Claims
> Appendix 10 - How to Contact the Media
> Appendix 12 - Sample Press Release
> Appendix 13 - Sample Media Advisory
> Appendix 14 - Letter from Pennsylvania House Speaker John Perzel
> Appendix 15 - Sample Resolution
> Appendix 16 - Sample Testimony
> Appendix 17 - Petition to Philadelpha School Reform Commission
Visit the Reports and Resources section of this web site to download additional toolkit resources and articles or to purchase the complete Healthy Beverage Tool Kit. The CD-ROM version of the toolkit is available for $5 and can be purchased by credit card (VISA/MC).
Philadelphia Coalition for Healthy Children
The Food Trust formed the Philadelphia Coalition for Healthy Children in the summer of 2003 to get soda and other sugary drinks out of the Philadelphia School system. The project was wonderfully successful, and Philadelphia now has one of the toughest beverage policies in the country.
The Food Trust is continuing to work with the School District to improve the policy on vending machine snacks.
> Read the School District of Philadelphia Beverage Policy
> See the power point on how the PCHC worked to pass the new beverage policy (PPT)