May 13, 2006
Soft Drinks Out of the Schools
Bill Clinton and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, in cooperation with the American Heart Association, announced an agreement with soft drink producers and distributors to remove all sugary soda pop from schools around the country. This one act by Clinton and Huckabee has the potential to do more for the future health of Americans than most anything I can think of that has been accomplished in recent years. What has the Bush administration done comparably? complicated Medicare beyond comprehension? limited women's access to health care? given breaks to the drug industry? How about the Bush administration's policy of preventing African women from receiving any advice on contraception or birth prevention?
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3 comments:
I'm deeply cynical about gestures like "getting soft drinks out of schools." As a substitute teacher, I took a group of fifth-graders to a library session (librarian reading to several grades at once) during school hours and was stunned to hear her touting Pizza Hut. It seems PH donates to the school and, after she finished the book, she spent five minutes on an actual commercial: "Do you ever go out to eat, children? What do you like--pizza? It tastes great, doesn't it? Pizza Hut has great pizza and they gave us this fax machine,, too. Next time your parents say you'll go out to eat, ask to go to Pizza Hut..." When I questioned this esteemed educator afterwards, she said, "Yes, isn't it great? They contribute so much to (blank) school." This happened in Little Egg Harbor, NJ.
Any adult that protests this soft drink move will only show they are clueless to the truth...
I worked for several years as a sub and several more as a paraprofessional in special ed. I applaud this move. Next something has to be done about the school menus. In out local districts these menus are posted daily on morning TV and other places. It is nearly 90% junk food, tater tots, fries, corn dogs, pizza, cheeseburgers, sloppy joes etc. All this is provided by vendors with huge contracts that I would bet are very lucrative and enables them to sell cheap, un-nutritious crap to school kids. No wonder so many kids complain about school food and hit the multiple vending machines full of pop, candy and chips in the schools!
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