Posted in Kansas_Sunflowers on 05/03/2006 09:09 pm by Queenkv
NY Times, NPR and a bunch of other folks reported on this new deal for soda companies to eliminate soft drink sales in schools. Neat. And it’s also nice that schools have made deal with the healthy drink vendors to help bring in extra funding for school stuff - sports, extra-cirriculars and more…
“As a mother of two school-aged daughters, I agree that schools are absolutely the right place to teach children about healthy habits for their lives,” she said.”
That’s cool. But, kids will find ways to spend money on what they want. What about club fundraisers? Students could bring pallets of soda to sell to classmates…And at the mall - kids can and do indulge their sweet teeth.
More than ever, children are major shoppers and their parents empower that need to spend. I’ve seen too many instances of kids shopping their little hearts out with their weekly/daily/hourly allowances.
Back when I worked at a computer camp - I had a front row seat on kids spending habits. Sure, we had regular breakfast and lunch meals in the DC. But at snack time - that’s when our campers whipped wallets and poured quarters into the vending machine. During their breaks, they indulged in candy, soda and sweet stuff. And then I had an afternoon of campers running around the computer room on a sugar-high. Counselors tried to talk about yummy healthy choices…several of us made it a point to eat fruits in front of the campers - our attempt to set a good example. We scheduled soccer, hiking and other outdoor cardio events for our breaks…but we didn’t have much luck suggesting alternatives to the vending machines. And as college students - the camp counselors didn’t want to overstep people’s parenting styles.
Every morning at the camper drop-off site…parents whipped out wallets and made sure their kids had enough for their afternoon snack. (and they know what type of vending machines we had at the site because they took tours of camp at the beginning of the week)
Healthy vending machines at school - good idea.
Parents who make an effort to steer their kids towards healthy choices - another good idea.
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