Quietly but efficiently, an ambitious campaign is taking shape to close down the school vending machines that peddle sodas, chips and other high-calorie, high-fat and high-caffeine products that often start kids on a lifetime of bad teeth and overweight bodies.

A task force of Maine nutritionists, educators and medical and dental specialists has been meeting regularly in Augusta to develop the Soda/Snack Policy Initiative. Last week, they polished up a draft timeline.

Here are the highlights:

By June 30, 2002: Complete an information packet including a model policy, a fact sheet, some research articles on obesity and tooth decay, and strategy advice for school districts.

Also by June 30: Meet with vending machine companies to seek their cooperation.

By Sept. 1, 2002: Develop a presentation for individual school groups.

By Jan. 1, 2003: Obtain endorsements from Maine education and public health organizations.

By March 1, 2003: Start pilot projects in several Maine communities.

By March 30, 2003: Use results of the pilot projects to adjust the information packet.

By June 1,2004: Develop and implement a plan for statewide distribution.

Sept. 2004 to June 2005: Provide support and technical assistance to communities.

By June 30, 2005: Evaluation and follow-up.

If all goes according to plan, that means that in three years every school district in Maine will have been able to limit vending machines in all its schools to nutritious items plus water.

At last week’s meeting, the task force discussed some problems that lie ahead. Some teachers, like most students, like soda and chips. So do adult groups that meet after school hours. The task force decided that the non-nutritious stuff should be banned across the board – from the teachers’ lounges and during and after school hours.

Many districts have signed long-term contracts with vending-machine companies. The task force passed around a copy of a contract between one southern Maine district and a supplier that specifies cash payments and free scoreboards for the schools. In return, it bound them to grant exclusive rights to operate the machines in the schools for 10 years. It does provide a minor loophole. Each school may have one additional machine from another supplier.

The task force may find such contracts hard to break. A lawyer will have to decide whether the one-machine exception is enough to avoid anti-trust problems.

And when it selects school districts for the pilot projects, it should include at least one in northern or eastern Maine. The group is not yet seeking publicity, but in changing such ingrained habits it will need all the statewide public support it can get.