Keep Unhealthy Drinks out of PPS!

Before this school year started, all soft drinks, non-100% juices and sports drinks were removed from Portland Public Schools (PPS) vending machines.  Due to increasing concern about the epidemic of childhood obesity, PPS enacted a number of healthy changes to make the nutrition environment better in all schools.  Coke employees were kept informed of this process.

Now Coke is pressuring Portland Public Schools for making these healthy changes, even though PPS now has a policy dictating healthy vending machine options. Portland Public Schools should not be fined for doing the right thing for the health of our students!  We cannot allow Coke to dictate the sale of unhealthy beverages to our kids in our schools! Tell Coca-Cola Enterprises to leave Portland Public Schools alone! Coke should support PPS’ efforts to improve children’s health and respect PPS’ autonomy in deciding how to do that.

Call Matt Wilson, Coca-Cola Market Unit VP, 503-682-5107.  Join PPS Citizen Wellness Advisory Committee this Saturday to support PPS to keep kids healthy!

Portland Exposition Center
2060 North Marine Drive, Portland, OR 97217
February 3, 2007 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

The PPS Citizen Wellness Advisory Committee (WAC) invites you to join us in saying “Keep our vending machines healthy!”  At the Celebrate! PPS event, visit the WAC booth # 134 to call Coke or sign a petition to voice your support of PPS’ beverage changes. Let’s keep liquid candy out of our students’ hands. For more information, please contact Sara Leverette, Chair of the PPS Citizen Wellness Advisory Committee at 503-381-0821 or saraleverette@gmail.com.

Comments

[lisa]

Could you explain a little more what's going on -- how is Coke going to "fine" PPS for not selling sodas or other sugary drinks?

Is it that PPS still purchases other things from Coke, like bottled water or 100% fruit juice, and now PPS is being charged more for these products as "punishment"? (I know Coke used to own Tropicana; do they still?)

Schools should be 100% free of any beverage with high fructose corn syrup, which includes most sodas, sports drinks and "fruit cocktail" drinks. HFCS is awful; I applaud PPS for getting rid of this stuff. But I'm not sure what's going on here.

[lisa]

This blog entry --

http://theredelectric.blogspot.com/2007/01/coca-cola-threatens-portland-schools.html

-- explains it a bit more, although the precise reason for the $600,000 threat still isn't clear.

This page from Richmond Elementary --

http://www.richmondjmp.org/whatsthelatest.html

-- mentions that Portland Public Schools has a contract with Coca-Cola through 2009. But if PPS is still selling Coke-brand water and juice (Dasani & Tropicana), does Coke have a legitimate complaint just because Portland public schools aren't selling soda too? I mean, it's not like PPS decided to sell Pepsi products instead; they're just cutting out all sodas.

High fructose corn syrup is pretty nasty. Keep it out of schools, yes!

(Though i do like the "Passover Coke" that you can purchase for about a week around Passover -- it has actual sugar in it instead of HFCS. I'll only drink soda with real sugar.)

[Joan]

See today's paper for more:

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1170734107251540.xml&coll=7