Feeding frenzy: Schools, parents at odds over sales of snacks

By Emily Richmond

Monday, June 24, 2002 | 11:30 a.m.

Debralyn Avelar always gets the Corn Nuts. Ashley Holifield prefers the Cheetos. Iris Bumgardener chooses the Hot Fries, even though her mother has told her to skip the junk food offered at Rowe Elementary School's Snack Shack.

"My mother says, 'Don't get gum, get water,' " said Iris, a fifth-grader at the Las Vegas campus in the east region of the Clark County School District. "I don't always do what she tells me."

Some parents say school stores like the Snack Shack are getting kids hooked on junk food, raising the chances that the students will develop diabetes, high cholesterol and suffer obesity-related health problems. Administrators say the profits from the stores are badly needed as the school district is cash-strapped, leaving little money available for necessities such as textbooks and no funds for extras like field trips or playground equipment.

For Diane Schramel, the argument that the funds are necessary to education don't outweigh the potential harm of schools shilling ice cream, Slim Jims and soda pop.

"It's disgusting that the district has become so addicted to the money, they can't see themselves as getting our kids hooked on junk food," said Schramel, the parent of a Sig Rogich Elementary School student in Summerlin who questioned campus food services and junk food sales last November.

Just how much money Clark County's students are pouring into campus stores and snack bars isn't known -- each principal handles the sales and receipts individually and doesn't need to report earnings to the central office, said Richard Ennes, business manager for the district's operations unit.

"It's not something we've kept track of," Ennes said.

That's something that is expected to change with the coming school year in August, as district officials intensify their scrutiny of campus food sales from both financial and nutritional angles.

No one in the school district argues that good nutrition has a direct relationship to a student's ability to concentrate in class. And no one disputes that a child would be better off eating carrots instead of candy bars.

"Of course we care about the health of our students," Clark County schools Superintendent Carlos Garcia said. "What we need to do is strike a balance between offering good nutrition and finding items the kids will actually want to buy."

While one committee hammers out recommendations for healthier vending options, another committee has already begun tackling the fiscal side. This fall the number of vending machines on campuses will be limited for the first time to one machine for each 150 students.

The decision to limit the number of machines was made based on economics -- an annual power bill of $1.4 million to keep the machines operating is too steep a price to pay for the convenience of a cold soda, said Dale Scott, energy manager for the district's facilities division.

Ennes, who is chairing a district committee studying campus vending issues, sent a survey to 30 high schools asking for details on student stores and vending and received 20 replies. For the 2000-01 school year, the 20 high schools did more than $1 million in sales, ranging from a campus low of $7,000 to a high of $126,000, Ennes said.

At the middle school and high school level, the stores are often more sophisticated set-ups, selling pens, notebooks and even gym uniforms. At most elementary schools the "store" is often a table set aside in the cafeteria, or, in the case of Rowe Elementary, a converted supply closet.

Iris and her classmates said they each spend about $5 a week at their school store on lunchtime snacks, and the profits at the year-round campus add up to about $1,200 a month, according to Principal Marianne Long.

The profits from Rowe's store are spent on assemblies, field trips, prizes for the reading and sports programs and to reimburse teachers for supplies, Long said. During the lunch hour Friday students shot hoops using basketballs purchased, essentially, by their classmates, she said.

Without the funds there would be no money to pay for dinner on family nights when the parents of non-native English speaking students are invited to come and learn along with their children, Long said. About 60 percent of the school's students qualify for free and reduced-cost meals, and for some families the offer of dinner is what convinces them to attend the study sessions, she said.

"We need that money, every penny of it," Long said. "Without it, these children would not have costumes for talent shows, software for our computers or sports equipment for gym class. Those dollars make it possible for me to say yes when my teachers ask for extra help."

Rowe students can earn coupons to the store through good behavior, academic achievement and participation in the "100 Mile Club." Eight laps around the school field is a mile, and students are given small plastic feet to mark every five miles completed.

A school store's success depends on its patrons -- the students -- having disposable income. At Guy Elementary School in North Las Vegas, the student store sells Popsicles, popcorn and chips, taking in about $30 to $50 a day, said campus office manager Karen Houston. There is little, if any, profit, Houston said.

"We just make enough to re-stock the store," Houston said, adding that the items are offered at a steep discount.

At the other side of the northwest region, the student store at Lummis Elementary School in Summerlin banks about $1,000 in profits each month, office manager Sally Gannon said. The money contributes to field trips and assemblies, including a recent visit by the Nevada Ballet Theatre, she said.

In her five years at Lummis, Gannon said she has heard from no more than two or three parents concerned about the nutritional contents of the store's wares.

"I agree it's important to monitor what goes into kids stomachs, but it's also important to have some kind of money source coming in," she said.