Public gets pop at wellness plan.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

When it comes to lunch, Sheldon High School freshman Ryan Oberg is a creature of habit.

And the habit really couldn't be much worse.

"This is what I have every day," he said in the noisy cafeteria last week, peeling the plastic wrap off a gigantic chocolate chip cookie - the chaser to a corn dog washed down with Mountain Dew.

A reed-thin boy whose lunch buddies share his tastes, Oberg knows that the sugar- and caffeine-loaded soda isn't the best beverage choice for adolescents, whose bones need calcium to help them grow strong. But that doesn't stop him from buying three or four 20-ounce bottles every day from the school vending machine.

"If someone invented milk that tasted like Mountain Dew, I'd drink it every day," he quipped.

Add another 40 pounds to his frame and Oberg could be a poster child for advocates pushing for a new policy that could oust the worst junk food - including soda pop - from Eugene schools.

Their chief concern: a stunning rise in childhood obesity, which boosts the risk of diabetes, heart disease, strokes and cancer. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the prevalence among young children has doubled over the past 20 years and nearly tripled among adolescents.

On Wednesday, the public will have its first formal opportunity to weigh in, so to speak, on a draft "wellness policy" that could spell big changes for the vending machines, student stores, lunch lines and even classrooms in the Eugene School District.

The proposal is the work of a 24-member advisory committee made up of school board members, parents, students, district staff and community members. Their work answers a new federal mandate that all school districts have a wellness policy - covering nutrition guidelines for foods available on campus as well as goals for nutrition education and physical activity - on the books by this fall.

Committee members found relatively easy accord on the vast majority of points, including:

Putting an end to the time-honored teacher practice of using candy in classroom assignments or as rewards for good behavior or academic progress.

Developing "Healthy Snack" and "Healthy Parties" guidelines for teachers and parents;

Curbing the variety of high-fat, high-sugar foods in school stores and vending machines;

Increasing the variety of nutritious foods and beverages available both during the school day and at after-school events;

Attempting to offer more organic and/or locally grown foods on campus;

Providing more opportunities for physical activity throughout the school day.

But after nearly five months of work, the committee deadlocked on one key point: whether the worst stuff - defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as "foods of minimal nutritional value" - should be banned from ALL schools, or just elementary and middle schools.

Soda pop falls into that category, as do hard candy, chewing gum, licorice, cotton candy, candy-coated popcorn, and jelly and marshmallow candy.

"I'd start a riot," pledged Obert, who speaks for a lot of teens when he says kids his age are old enough to make their own choices and understand the consequences. If they couldn't buy soda at school, he and others said, they'd simply bring it from home or march across the street to a grocery store or fast-food outlet.

But a growing chorus of parents, educators, health-care professionals and community leaders threatens to drown out such arguments. For them, the notion that a 14-year-old can find corn dogs, cookies and all the Mountain Dew he can afford at school is simply unacceptable.

For many students, especially those whose families may be struggling to make ends meet, school meals may be the centerpiece of their diet, said Dr. Terry Brooks, a pediatrician, district parent and Wellness Policy Committee member.

"By default, the schools are a place where good health needs to be emphasized," said Brooks, who is also a member of the Lane Coalition for Active Healthy Youth, a countywide citizen coalition focused on strategies to combat childhood obesity.

The Lane County chapter of Stand for Children, a statewide citizen advocacy group whose primary battles have been fought in the school funding arena, shares that view and is pushing for a more stringent policy. Member Stephanie Young-Peterson, a district parent and former Lane County Public Health specialist, said kids have ample opportunities to exercise choice off school grounds.

She notes that students aren't just creatures of habit - they are also creatures of convenience.

"If the healthy choice is the convenient choice, they're going to pick that," she predicted.

Wednesday's hearing will no doubt have a familiar ring for Beth Gerot, committee member and school board chairwoman. She hadn't been on the school board long in 2000 when it approved controversial contracts with Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola bottlers that increased the number of soda-pop vending machines in the high schools.

A series of public hearings advancing the vote drew loud criticism over commercialization and the nutritional pitfalls of soda pop.

The board last year discussed the option of buying out the eight-year contracts early, but there seemed to be little interest in doing so, as it would have cost nearly $300,000. However, sales haven't met targets; in the 2004-05 school year, the Coke and Pepsi machines generated just $25,538 for the district, which gets a 25 percent commission.

Gerot said she's not sure what decision the board would make if confronted with the choice today, given the national momentum to stem the rising tide of obesity.

While she agrees that soda has no place in elementary and middle schools, she remains firmly on the side of giving high school students the opportunity to choose for themselves.

"What we heard our students say, loud and clear, is that they were at the point in their lives where they should be allowed to make some choices, and I still support that," she said.

Eugene is further ahead on its wellness policies than most other local districts, including Springfield and Bethel. In its five months of work, the Wellness Policy Committee has studied the science and statistics on childhood obesity and its attendant health problems; researched policies in other communities such as Berkeley, Calif., Portland, Spokane and Appleton, Wisc., which gained fame in the documentary movie "Super Size Me"; scrutinized the foods and beverages available on campus; and listened to testimony from various experts.

PUBLIC HEARING

The Eugene School District Wellness Policy Committee will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Education Center, 200 N. Monroe St. In addition to having an opportunity to speak, audience members will be polled on various policy questions using a clicker system that immediately registers votes.

The committee is also accepting feedback through an online survey. Visit www.4j.lane.edu to fill out the survey. The draft policy itself, as well as a summary of highlights and frequently asked questions, are also posted on the Web site.

CAPTION(S):

A Eugene School District bus drops off students recently while a soda company truck drops off beverages in front of Sheldon High School. Krystal Fischer, a Sheldon High sophomore, grabs a soda during a recent lunch break. The district is mulling curbs on junk food in schools in response to a federal mandate. The Register-Guard