Vending Contracts in Schools

What are they? Vending contracts give food and beverage companies selling rights in return for cash and non-cash benefits to the school or district. Schools and school districts can influence vending contracts in several ways. They can cancel contracts, not sign contracts, not renew contracts, or negotiate contracts that encourage healthy eating.

Many existing vending contracts require schools to allow the marketing of products high in added fats and sugars. Others provide incentives for schools to encourage their students to choose those products. Following are some of the provisions that have been found in school vending contracts.

When you see 8 year old kids making the choice to buy a bag of chips and a coke for lunch, there's a correlation between the need for corporate sponsorship in public schools. The money that coke is providing to that school is used to buy added necessities like football helmets or graduation gowns. Schools are dependent on big money to afford "more" for the "benefit" of their kids....but, it comes as an unquantifiable price farther down the line.

Get Educated about Vending Contracts in Schools.