Free enterprise always kicks central plannings ass.
AUSTIN
No sweets in school? Fat chance
Candy ban spawns black market; now some treats have returned.
By Matthew Obernauer
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, February 19, 2005
When Austin High School administrators removed candy from campus vending machines last year, the move was hailed as a step toward fighting obesity. What happened next shows how hard it can be for schools to control what students eat on campus.
The candy removal plan, according to students at Austin High, was thwarted by classmates who created an underground candy market, turning the hallways of the high school into Willy-Wonka-meets-Casablanca.
Soon after candy was removed from vending machines, enterprising students armed with gym bags full of M&M's, Skittles, Snickers and Twix became roving vendors, serving classmates in need of an in-school sugar fix. Regular-size candy bars like the ones sold in vending machines routinely sold in the halls for $1.50.
"There was no sugar in the vending machines, so (student vendors) could make a lot of money," said Hayden Starkey, an Austin High junior who said he was not one of the candy sellers. "I heard kids were making $200 a week just selling candy."
The Austin High administration, which won't elaborate on how much or little it knew about the candy black market, has since replenished the vending machines with some types of candy.
Principal Barbara Spelman said the school did so after becoming more familiar with the minimal nutritional standards.
According to the state, milk chocolate, for example, meets minimal nutritional standards because it does have milk in it. Candy with peanuts contains protein. The vending machines still don't carry Starburst, Skittles and other so-called pure sugar products.
As for students peddling such contraband, Spelman would only say, "I'm sure there's a temptation to do that. Is it something that we condone? If there's something that we hear about that's going on, we do deal with that because they shouldn't be doing that."
Regardless of the reason, Austin High's retreat on treats highlights the limits to which school districts can create a healthier eating environment for students on school grounds as education officials around the state and the nation work to combat the growing health crisis of childhood obesity.
In 2000-01, 16.5 percent of children 6 to 19 years old were overweight, and an additional 15 percent were at risk of becoming overweight, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The picture is more bleak in Texas, where the rate of overweight and obese children is almost 50 percent higher than the national average. In a September Governor's Conference on Childhood Obesity, Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, state health commissioner, said that one in three babies born in Texas is projected to develop Type 2 diabetes as a result of obesity-related problems — a far cry from 10 years ago, when children were rarely diagnosed with that form of the disease.
State lawmakers have proposed a number of options to address the obesity problem. State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, has introduced a bill to provide incentives to school districts to keep campus facilities open for recreation after school hours. In January, Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, filed a bill that would require schools to calculate each student's body-mass index and send the assessments to parents along with report cards.
But at the local level, the effort to trim expanding waistlines has focused largely on purging schools of junk food and replacing it with healthier options.
In August 2002, the Austin district took all carbonated beverages out of its schools. Renegotiating the Coca-Cola food services contract to replace sodas with options such as sports drinks and bottled water cost the district $2 million over five years, Superintendent Pat Forgione said.
The district also shrank the portions of its cafeteria offerings to more accurately reflect USDA-approved serving sizes. And this year, it redesigned its menus, replacing candy bars with multigrain snacks and low-fat, baked potato chips.
Three weeks ago, Austin schools introduced lunchroom stations serving made-to-order wraps, and Austin district food services manager Chris Carillo-Spano said that made-to-order sub sandwiches will be coming soon.
But when students go off-campus for lunch, they often go to fast-food chains such McDonald's or Wendy's, or "greasy-spoon" establishments close to school.
In the Austin district, only seniors are allowed to venture off campus during the school day, and Reagan Assistant Principal Paul Darby said that on his campus, "there are consequences" for underclassmen leaving school grounds, starting with a one-day, in-school suspension for a first offense.
But students at Austin and Reagan said that they know of many underclassmen who go off-campus for lunch anyway. Others get seniors to bring food back for them.
Then there are the students' reports of the underground candy market.
School officials at Austin High removed all candy from the vending machines during the summer, replacing it with items such as tuna kits, granola bars and baked chips. They began bringing the nutritionally acceptable candy back in November.
During the prohibition, one student, who asked not to be identified, said that he sold candy at the school and made as much as $50 in a day.
Students said that while they did not know of anyone being disciplined for selling candy on campus, some were called in by administrators and told to stop. However, ninth-grader Justin Francisco said, the underground market only slowed "after they put candy back in" the vending machines.
And if the supply of sweets runs low again, there's always the candyman, waiting in the wings.
"It's all about supply and demand," said Austin junior Scott Roudebush. "We've got some entrepreneurs around here."
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