Some high schools in our area are edging toward following the lead of Orono High School in switching their vending machines from junk food to nutritional items. But switching is tough. The junk food providers offer hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars in commissions – money that helps the schools finance athletics, school bands, field trips and other activities beyond the scope of their tight budgets.

Mount Desert Island Regional High School got $8,500 in commissions on its vending machines last year. Principal Robert Liebow says some nutritional products have been added, but he knows that if students have a choice they’ll take the junk. He is thinking about switching to all-nutritional, maybe next year.

William Ziemer, interim principal at Ellsworth High School, reports that the school got $5,700 in commissions last year. Of that total, $5,300 was administered by the student council for scholarships and non-athletic activities. The other $400 paid for teacher conferences. He says the idea of switching to all-nutritional items has merit. He is going to put the matter to the students, who already have been discussing nutritional matters.

Sally Leighton, principal of Sumner Memorial High School in East Sullivan, gets about $80 a month in commissions. This year she is using $400 to send 100 students to Orono for a performance of “Of Mice and Men,” which English classes have been studying. She values the extra funds but is considering further steps toward better nutrition. Vending machines at Sumner offer fruit juice and milk along with sodas, pretzels and candy. “We don’t want them spending their lunch money on junk,” she says.

At Bangor High School, Principal Norris Nickerson says items offered there are mainly nutritional. He says the school gets probably $1,000 or more a year in commissions and is “comfortable with what’s going on.”

At Orono High School, Principal Cathryn Knox says the change this year to all-nutritional has worked out well. Students buy granola bars, fruit drinks and spring water and soon will have fat-free chocolate milk, instead of sodas and potato chips. And the school still gets commissions that may come to as much as $1,000 this year, compared with $1,281 last year.

The Maine Department of Education has invoked a “competitive food rule” since 1979, requiring that vending machines be closed from the morning bell until the close of school. But before and after school, the machines can put out sodas and chips. Some states, concerned that their schools are promoting bad eating habits and addiction to junk food, have tried to require only healthful items in vending machines. Legislators in Hawaii are pushing to oust sodas from school machines altogether.

Nothing statewide like that is in the works in Maine. In fact, a bill in the last session of the Legislature would have relaxed even the present “competitive food rule” and allow sodas during school hours. The bill was killed in committee, despite heavy lobbying by the junk food industry.