ADVISORY/LAUSD Votes on Fate of Students' Health.

News Editors/Education and Health Writers

ADVISORY...for Tuesday (Aug. 27)

--(BUSINESS WIRE)

Students, Parents, Teachers and Health Advocates Fight to Take

the Fizz Out of Los Angeles Unified School District's Soda Contracts

    What:   Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) won't be
            selling its students' minds and taste buds to the highest
            cola bidders if a coalition of concerned citizens have
            their way when the Board of Education votes on the Healthy
            Beverage Resolution calling for a ban of all unhealthy
            soft drinks now sold on LAUSD campuses during school
            hours.

    Who:    Coalition of LAUSD students, parents, teachers and
            community organizations, including the Center for Food and
            Justice, Los Angeles Region Project LEAN, California
            Center for Public Health Advocacy, California Food Policy
            Advocates, The Healthy School Food Coalition, Parent
            Teacher Associations, the Coalition to End Hunger and
            Homelessness, and the 5-A-Day PowerPlay! Campaign, are
            supporting Board Members Marlene Canter, Genethia Hudley
            Hayes and Julie Korenstein, who sponsored The Healthy
            Beverage Resolution within LAUSD.

    When:   Tuesday, August 27, at 5 p.m.

    Where:  Downtown Business Magnet School Cafeteria
            1081 W. Temple (corner of Beaudry and Temple), Los Angeles

    Why:    25-40 percent of LAUSD elementary school children are
            obese, according to a 1998 UCLA study. Childhood obesity
            has doubled, and adolescent obesity has tripled over the
            past two decades. Research has shown that an extra soft
            drink a day increases a child's risk for obesity by 60
            percent.

    Photo Ops:
            --  Pour six 5-pound bags of sugar on a table -- that's
                equivalent to the amount of sugars a person consumes
                in a year if they drink just one soda a day
            --  Students will display healthy beverages they like
                instead of soda and speak in support of healthy
                beverages on school campuses
            --  Testimony by Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev
                Yaroslavski
            --  Testimony by Francine Kaufman, M.D., Head,
                Endocrinology & Metabolism, Children's Hospital, Los
                Angeles; President, American Diabetes Association;
                Chair of Los Angeles County Blue Ribbon Task Force on
                Children and Youth Physical Fitness