School nutrition targeted

Heber Valley students still could get pop and candy at school, but it could be slim pickings under a revised nutrition policy proposal.

Meanwhile, other districts are looking at what's for sale in student vending machines. Granite is urging schools to cut back on junk food. And Jordan and Nebo are studying nutrition in schools, which could lead to treat restrictions or other rules.

Child nutrition is a national issue. Child obesity rates and adult-onset diabetes diagnoses are on the rise. Studies show poor nutrition breeds poor achievement. The state Board of Education is urging schools to give enough lunch time and seating so kids don't replace meals with machine-bought snacks.

Wasatch School District's nutrition proposal, found here, seeks to address such issues.

It once sought to ban pop and candy in vending machines and to use food as a classroom reward. No more.

Redrafted following bitter public response, the new proposal would require 70 percent of student vending machine offerings to be water, milk, 100 percent fruit juices and edibles meeting the district's minimal nutritional standards. Junk food would cost more.

The proposal also would allow but discourage teachers from using food as rewards — the most contentious part of the original policy. Parents could request in writing that their children not receive such rewards.

The proposal still bans vending machines in elementary and middle schools, and directs district officials to draft a plan to lower processed foods and up fruits, vegetables and low-fat, -sugar and -sodium fare.

Nutrition policy committee chairwoman Cheryl Hardy, the district applied technology education director, believes healthier choices will boost sales in vending machines, the money from which helps prop up student programs.

Others praise its flexibility.

"It makes it so vending machines are more nutritionally based, which everyone I know is supportive of," Wasatch Mountain Junior High assistant principal James Judd said. "There's (also) the option that if it's a rough day, and a teacher wants a Diet Coke, it's there."

The policy, out for public comment through the first part of July, could be unprecedented for Utah schools.

Others, however, are looking into their own practices.

The Granite Board of Education is examining a locally controlled nutrition policy.