EXPELLING SODAS

Everyone should know by now that kids are too fat, especially in Maine, and that sodas are one of the causes, especially those sold in school vending machines. But getting the sodas out of the schools means getting around some obstacles. Many school principals are hooked on the cash and free scoreboards that the companies provide. Most students like the sodas. And now comes a letter to this newspaper contending that prohibiting sodas just makes them more attractive to the kids.

Well, in Calais, Heather Erickson, the school health coordinator at Union 106, including schools at Calais, Alexander and Robbinston, has gotten around all the obstacles. With the help of the student councils, the principals, parents and teachers, she has been able to report that sodas have been cleared out of all six schools in the district, making Union 106 completely soda free.

How did they do it? First, as to the cash and the scoreboards: Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola continue to supply the vending machines – but with water and pure fruit drinks rather than sodas. Sales of the water and fruit drinks bring in about as much money as did the Cokes and Pepsis. So the schools still get some cash and can keep the scoreboards.

To bring the kids into the picture, Ms. Erickson carried samples of the water and fruit drinks into a student council meeting for a tasting session. They wolfed down the new stuff, bearing out the saying that kids will eat anything, and approved the hangover. A few teachers objected to having sodas removed from their lounge, but eventually they went along with the ideas that teachers should set an example.

As part of the campaign, Ms. Erickson had attended meetings of a task force organized by the Maine Center for Public Health and used its information packet to spread the word in the schools and community at large.

She says Washington County has the highest overweight rate in the state, with 36 percent overweight and another 19 percent clinically obese. Seventy percent of the county population doesn’t exercise at all.

The Calais breakthrough is sure to draw attention at an all-day workshop Dec. 9 in the Augusta Civic Center sponsored by the Maine Center for Public Health, the Harvard Prevention Research Center, the Maine Nutrition Network and the Maine Bureau of Health. The title of the workshop is, “From Table to Tush: Weighing the Truth About Portion Size and Obesity.”