Short version:
We won! Thank you!

Long version:

Thanks to all of you who have contacted the School Board and/or press about last Tuesday's report that district administrators are already negotiating with Coke about a renewal of the 5-year exclusive pouring rights contract. A BIG thanks to Karen Farnsworth for her work in activating our phone tree on this!

We sent out a press release and were interviewed by the P-I and KIRO-Newsradio, did a show on community access TV last night (Thanks Scott MacGowan and Shelley Curtis!) and have been approached by KUOW to do a show on 'The Conversation' in a couple of weeks. Thanks also to Geov Parrish who came to the School Board meeting today for this.

Special thanks to those of you who showed up at today's School Board meeting and supported those who testified on this: Shelley Curtis, Sarah Luthens, Chris Jackins, Garrett Kischner, Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles, and myself. Thanks to Eva Boyd for preparing the info packets for the School Board!

We also distributed a letter to the School Board, Superintendent and press with 60 signatures from all over the community...and we got those signatures in 48 hours. Thanks to all of you who signed! ---------

The District is now saying that:

a) They are NOT negotiating with Coke. They are 'having conversations' with Coke, primarily to let Coke know that next time around they will be interested in stocking relatively healthy products and want to find out what's possible.

b) The deadline for a renewal decision is NOT December of 02 as we had been told last Tuesday but is July 03 (the contract officially ends on Aug. 31 03) and there is still time for a thoughtful decision.

c) The vending machine decision(s) will be a model of public process, with ample opportunities for public input. They are NOT planning to rollover the existing contract but to issue a new RFP (request for proposals) to vendors next Spring/March.

d) They want to improve health by improving what is sold in vending machines when this contract is up (they say they mean: juice-drinks, water, sports-drinks, maybe [most likely flavored and nonfat] milk)

e) This will NOT be an administrative (procurement) decision but any contract will have to come before our elected School Board for a vote on the record.

-----------
In other words: They now say that all the things we were alarmed at being told are not true and in fact, they are doing exactly what we wanted them to do. Whether they would be talking this way without the pressure from us, we will never know, but thank YOU so much for helping to shine a very bright light on them regarding this Coke contract.

Our message today and our response to the above points has been:

a) We are delighted that they are not negotiating. However, regardless of what they call it, they need to 'converse' with the public before spending time 'conversing' with Coke. It should not take a month for us to get an appointment with Steve Nielsen, only to have him break it with no notice and then be unavailable even by phone for a week. (He has now told us that he is too busy to meet with any of us until at least mid-October).

b) We are delighted that we have 6 months until an RFP is issued. However, we have already waited from July 2 until Sept. 18 for the district to respond to our previous letter asking them to improve the health in the schools. The School Board keeps assuring us that there is a District Health Initiative which we will be part of. Steve today told me he cancelled the meeting with me last Tuesday because he has been very busy with other duties and hasn't actually done anything on the Health Initiative and has nothing to report (clearly it didn't dawn on him that we might have something to tell him at this meeting!).

c) We are delighted that there will be ample public process on the vending machine decision. Sarah told them that we want input on developing the RFP itself, and to start considering the idea that a company's track record of social (ir)responsibility be among the criteria used in weighing proposals and that independent local vendors not be shut out of the process as they say they were 5 years ago.

d) We are delighted that they want to improve the health of the children but we challenge the need or wisdom of making money by selling food and beverages to children via vending machines at all. All school children should have access to fresh drinking water at no cost, and also be allowed to bring it from home. Juices are already available through the food service program.

According to Steve, the Coke contract brought in a total of $500,000 to the schools last year to use for student activities. That sounds like a lot...but is actually only $25 per kid. We recommend using alternative ways of raising those funds, such as student activity fees, grants, etc. In short, we urged them to separate food/beverage decisions from funding decisions, so as not to compromise the nutritional environment in the schools.

Our message today: Healthy kids need healthy schools Healthy Schools are Commercial-Free Schools