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So Long, Sugar: Ban Pops Soda’s Bubble in Colorado Schools

	Jessica Hernandez of Arvada West High School can choose from bottled water or other nutritional drinks since soda pop and other high-sugar drinks were removed from Colorado schools.

High school principals see Colorado’s new soda pop ban as a smart way to encourage students to make healthy choices at school vending machines. They also know it will take time and education for teens to switch from sugary soda to water to quench their thirst.

Arvada West High School principal Rob Bishop says eliminating soda sales in schools was the right thing to do.

“I have these kids six or seven hours out of the day, and I have to have some responsibility in what I make available to them to put in their bodies,” says Bishop. “We should try to educate them about making the right choices, the healthy choices.”

Across town, Mona Martinez-Brosh, director of Nutrition Services for Aurora Public Schools and a registered dietitian, also is pleased that sugary drinks are gone from campuses.

Both Martinez-Brosh and Bishop still spot pop cans packed from home with lunch or bought at nearby stores, but they see the pop ban as progress in the fight against childhood obesity.

“This is only the first year,” says Martinez-Brosh, who hopes the ban will cut soda consumption among teens. “We’ll see how this change will impact us as time goes on.”

Colorado’s New “Pop Policy”
Across the state, school districts that make money on vending machine sales are hoping youngsters will learn to prefer water. At Bishop’s school, sales have dropped 300 percent since the soda ban.

But whatever the financial impact, the ban has widespread community support, given the dramatic increases in childhood obesity. Under the six-month-old statewide policy set by the State Board of Education, all beverages sold to students on school grounds must meet minimum nutritional standards. This means schools may sell bottled water and fat-free or low-fat milk. Elementary and middle schools also may stock 100 percent juice, while low-cal sports drinks are acceptable in high schools. But no sodas – not even diet sodas – are allowed anywhere.

The pop policy took years of advocacy and lobbying to overcome objections that such matters should be left to local control.

“There was universal consent that our students should be drinking healthy things,” says Erin Bertolli, senior director of Government Affairs for the Pacific/Mountain affiliate of the American Heart Association, which strongly supported the ban. “There was a philosophical difference about whether it’s the role of the state to tell schools what they can and can’t do. But it was the opinion of the health community that local control of schools deals primarily with curriculum issues, not the health and wellness of students.”

The battle dates back to 2004 when state Sen. Paula Sandoval, D-Denver, sponsored a bill to require at least 50 percent of food and beverages sold in school vending machines to be “healthful.” By the time that bill passed, it had been amended so that schools were “encouraged” but not required to do so.

In 2005, Bertolli and other health advocates tried again, but the bill died.  In 2006, legislation passed, but was vetoed by then-Gov. Bill Owens. Advocates took a year off, then brought back the bill in 2008.

Support Goes National
This time, supporters had a new, key supporter: the beverage industry. The national Alliance for a Healthier Generation crafted a memorandum of understanding with the large soda companies that said they all would work to get sugary beverages out of schools.

“That really was an impetus to move [ahead] here in Colorado,” Bertolli says. “That helped make clear that the soda companies and the beverage association would not be opposing initiatives at the state level. That had been the biggest obstacle.”

In 2008, Senate Bill 129 became law, directing the State Board of Education to set standards for beverages sold in public schools. The board not only banned sugar-laden drinks, but nixed diet sodas as well, in the hope of steering kids to more nutritious options.

Sandy Stenmark, MD, a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente and longtime advocate of the pop policy, is thrilled.

“More people are understanding that it’s not just about personal choice,” says Stenmark. “We have to have an environment that makes the healthy choices easy. So why are we setting our children up to fail by making so many unhealthy choices available?”

In 2008, the Colorado Health Foundation, with a coalition of child and health advocates, actively supported Senate Bill 129, which directed the Colorado State Board of Education to adopt nutritional standards for beverages sold in Colorado Schools.

---Rebecca Jones
Photograph by John Johnston