Snack attack

~ While Illinois plans to ban sweets, Missouri has made no immediate plans to elminate soda and candy.

The Illinois State Board of Education proposes to ban junk food and soda sales during the school day at the state's middle and elementary schools beginning next school year.

Instead of looking at specific categories of food such as cookies and candy bars, the school board will look at the nutritional content of the food in question to determine if the food is junk food or not.

Under the National School Lunch Program, the State Board of Education has the authority to prohibit schools that participate in the program from selling junk food and soda or risk losing funding.

Under the federal free lunch program, schools can't sell any items that are in competition with the school lunch.

In November, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich asked the nine board members to replace the junk food with more nutritious items.

"Research shows that healthier students have higher attendance rates, better behavior and superior test scores," Blagojevich said in a news release.

California Project LEAN, (Leaders Encouraging Activity and Nutrition) a joint program of the California Department of Health Services and the Public Health Institute found that a fourth of all the food adolescents eat falls into the category of junk food. Children across the country are consuming an average of 150 to 200 more calories a day than in the 1990s.

Even if the proposed ban goes through, Cairo, Ill., schools won't be affected since most only have soda and candy machines in the teachers lounges, which aren't accessible to students.

"I don't really think the kids need access to that stuff. They have enough access before school and after school," Bennett Elementary principal Rose Tickett said.

Most Southeast Missouri elementary and middle schools also don't have candy and soda machines accessible to students.

Jackson Middle School has machines with juice and sports drinks available to the students. Homemade a la carte snacks such as brownies, cookies and rice crispy treats are available to the students who purchase a school lunch.

Principal Rodney Pensel said he hasn't had any parent complaints about the sweets, because they don't have that many available to the students.

Central Middle School in Cape Girardeau has fruit roll-ups for students to purchase, and ice cream is available on Fridays, principal Frank Ellis said.

Scott City Middle School is the only are school with vending machines with candy and soda that students can buy.

Students at Scott City line up as soon as the bell rings to access the machines.

The 60-cent soda machine is the most popular and the $1 soda bottle machine is a close second.

Most of the soda bottle options have been replaced with healthier drinks such as milk, juice, and water, principal Paul Sharp said, but on Friday the Southeast Missourian only observed one student purchasing a drink other than soda.

Sharp said he would support Missouri adopting a policy similar to Illinois' proposed ban.

Fifteen percent of children between five and 19 are overweight, triple the number 20 years ago. An Arkansas study showed that a condition once only found in adults, Type II diabetes, is up 800 percent among children in just 10 years.

If the proposed ban is adopted, Illinois will join 10 other states -- Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York and West Virginia -- in eliminating junk food access until at least after lunch. Florida and Hawaii ban junk food sales in elementary schools all day. Florida goes a step further to ban junk food sales in secondary schools until after lunch.

ameyer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127