Lawmakers back limits on school pop, candy

An effort to keep soda and candy bars out of Utah elementary schools received a nod Wednesday from a group of lawmakers.

Members of the House Health and Human Services committee voted 6-3 to advance HB47, which seeks to restrict vending machines in elementary schools from selling anything but bottled water, milk, fresh fruit and 100 percent fruit juice.

The proposal by Rep. Pat Jones, D-Salt Lake, drew a standing-room-only crowd, including close to a dozen Morningside Elementary School students who asked lawmakers to make the healthy choice and ban junk food.

One after the other, they paraded empty drink bottles and plastic baggies of sugar to demonstrate the high sugar content in many of the foods hawked in vending machines.

"Moms and dads support this bill," Jones told her colleagues, citing obesity and the onset of juvenile diabetes as two nationally growing problems among young children.

"Healthy options are out there," she said.

Jones in past years has unsuccessfully sponsored legislation to restrict vending machine sales in all public schools. But school leaders said those machines generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for cash-strapped Utah schools.

Still, several representatives of the soft drink industry along with leaders of the Utah Manufacturing Association and the Utah Food Industry Association said Jones' latest effort is unnecessary.

Few Utah elementary schools have vending machines at all, and both major soda companies said they have policies against selling carbonated drinks in elementary schools.

"Local control is very important," said Christine Buckley, chief financial officer of Swire Coca Cola.

"HB47 is a mandate that takes power away from schools. . . . Ultimately parents should decide what their kids eat and drink. No governmental entity should take that right away."

Although opponents of the measure said local schools should be allowed to handle the problem should it occur, Jones said lawmakers should act now, instead of waiting until elementary "hallways are lined with soda pop machines."

Nationally, she added, 43 percent of elementary schools across the country have vending machines.