Vending fare going healthful

PROVO — Vending machines are changing in schools.

For starters, they are no longer called "candy machines" because they no longer spit out just sugar candies, soda pop and gum.

Thanks to a new federal law, vending machines in schools will soon drop granola bars, bottled water, string cheese and drinks that have at least 10 percent fruit juice. And Provo's students will find such changes this fall when they return to school.

No longer will they see row after row of Twinkies, Snickers and Doritos.

Instead, only 40 percent of the sweets will have "empty calories."

Healthier snacks will fill the rest of the slots in the machines.

Provo's vending machine policy is a small slice of a larger, federally mandated nutrition and physical activity policy that needs to go into effect by July 31, 2006.

Similar efforts to push legislation on Utah's Capitol Hill to regulate junk food in school vending machines have gone nowhere.

"It's in the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act; it's part of that act," said Laura Oscarson-Wilde, director of child nutrition programs for the Utah State Office of Education. "(Districts) are working on them, and they're at different stages."

Districts weren't required to have nutrition policies until Congress passed the reauthorization act in 2004 that provides $16 billion in federal dollars each year for child nutrition programs. As a result, school districts are now required to craft nutrition policies.

There are no specifications for what districts can or should have for policies. The only requirement is that districts make policies, Oscarson-Wilde said.

"The districts are really making an effort. They're not just saying, 'Any policy (will do.)' They're really thinking about it," Oscarson-Wilde said.

Wasatch School District was the first in Utah to limit vending machine and classroom treats. Seventy percent of vending machine items in Wasatch schools are water, milk, 100 percent fruit juices and other foods meeting district nutritional standards.

Provo District's so-called Vending Machine Policy, announced last week at a school board meeting, states that only 40 percent of the food in vending machines can have "minimal nutritional value" as specified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Vending machines are only in Provo's secondary schools.

Soda pop, candy and any other sweets with sugar or corn syrup as a main ingredient have minimal nutrition. However, chocolate bars and candy with nuts are considered more healthful and can fulfill the requirement of nutrition.

"Forty-60 is better than what we've been doing," said Linda Burrell, supervisor of child nutrition in Provo, who was part of a committee that formed the new policy.