Since Monday's finalization of Wake County school system's exclusive beverage deal to make Pepsi its sole soft drink vendor, debates over the decision have pitted school officials who hail the deal's fund-raising potential against a coalition of parents, nutritionists and board members worried about the health impact on students.
Under the five-year, $6 million contract, Pepsi machines will replace all existing vending machines in Wake County's middle and high schools.
According to the Wake school system's financial officer Mark Winters, Pepsi will give the system $1 million dollars the first year and $525,000 each of the next four years; individual schools will receive a 42 percent commission for each drink sold.
"For the first time, we are getting compensated for these machines," said school board chair Bill Fletcher. "This is a way of fundraising without taking taxpayers' money. If we were properly funded, we wouldn't have to go here."
Fletcher explained that this contract does not signify an increase in the number of vending machines or the use of advertising. Rather, it takes the existing machine locations and puts them under one contract and one vendor. The principals of each school will determine whether to add or introduce new machines.
Board vice chair Kathryn Quigg stressed that the school board's vote was not over whether or not to have vending machines, but whether to have one vendor or separate vendors. "Nothing is being done differently than what has been done over the last 30 years."
Board member Susan Parry disagrees. She said that while she worries about the health implications of "the constant lure of junk food," her top concern is the "creep of commercialization into an academic setting." Parry explained that students are a captive audience and it is contradictory for a commercialized school to try to teach them to be independent thinkers.
Dietitian Terri Brownlee of the Duke Diet and Fitness Center explained that by drinking soda, children increase their phosphorus and caffeine intake, which negatively affect bone health. Additionally, soda also tends to replace products like milk, which is good for the bones.
"Kids are always going to choose the sweeter soda over the healthier beverage," she said.
Wake County Superintendent Bill McNeal pointed out that products in the machines will remain the same and that bottled water and juices still will be available. "Currently the number one best-seller in the vending machines is bottled water," McNeal said.
Federal and state laws prohibit the sale of soft drinks during lunch time in secondary schools and during the school day to children in kindergarten through eighth grade. Wake County's deal is the first of its kind in the area; Durham County Public Schools has no such deal as of yet.
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