| Comment Number: | 516960-00004 |
| Received: | 6/3/2005 11:23:28 PM |
| Organization: | West Valley High School |
| Commenter: | Becky Pope |
| State: | CA |
| Agency: | Federal Trade Commission |
| Rule: | Food Marketing to Kids Workshop |
| Docket ID: | To Be Added |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
I am a high school teacher and while I have no scientific evidence to offer, I see the effects of my students' nutrition habits on a daily basis. A number of students come into my first period class with a soda in hand (which I make them toss). and when I talk to them about what else they've had for breakfast, they indicate that the soda is all they need or want. (The exception to this is when they add a Twinkie or a bag of chips to their soda breakfast.) Those same students often appear listless and tired, and regularly ask to go to the office for Tylenol for their headache. It also is easy to see evidence of the rise in childhood obesity when one looks around the campus. Our school has in the past benefited from contracts with soda companies, such as obtaining stadium scoreboards in exchange for our agreeing to sell their products to our students. We are now realizing that trading our students' health for the sake of obtaining nifty things is not worth the price our students pay. Our school health council, which includes administrators, teachers, and representatives of our local public health department, are working with our local Pepsi and Coca Cola companies to replace soda in our machines and cafeteria/'snack bars with products these companies sell that are not deleterious to our students' health. However, we are fighting an uphill battle when the students are inundated by marketing designed to get them to make unhealthy choices. Please, please consider the future of these students and, as the saying goes, be part of the solution, not the problem. Our children are too valuable a resource to use as a stepping stone to the company bottom line.