CONTACT:
Brita Butler-Wall
206. 523.4922

Shelley Curtis
206-324-0340, x17

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 10, 2003

**Soda Pop Lobby Beats Citizen Groups on House Junkfood Bill**
Soda Jerks Stop Vote on HB1866

Over 65 local and state organizations representing hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians were no match for the powerful soft drink lobby in influencing legislators in Olympia this session. Substitute House bill, HB1866 would have established a model policy on sales of junkfood and sodas in schools and passed the House Health Care committee only to be blocked from even coming to a vote in House Appropriations on Saturday. The compromise bill, sponsored by Reps. Eileen Cody-D 34th and Cheryl Pflug, R-5th had a fiscal note of less than $10,000 and would have led to enormous savings in state health care costs.

The fight against junkfood sales and marketing in public schools was led by the Citizens' Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools and the Children's Alliance, statewide advocacy organizations. The final draft of the House bill had the support of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Washington State Dietetics Association, the Washington Federation of Teachers, Washington State PTA and many others. OSPI has indicated they will go ahead and develop a model policy on junkfood in schools, with or without a mandate to do so.

"Citizens will be outraged that soda lobbyists have prevented this bill from even coming to a vote," aid Brita Butler-Wall, Executive Director of the non-profit Citizens' Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools. "The fate of these junkfood bills in Washington state clearly shows that large corporations already have far more say in what goes on in our schools than parents, teachers and citizens combined, even when children's lives are at stake."

"There are obviously many contributing factors to the childhood obesity epidemic but schools are in a unique position to model and reinforce healthy eating habits that will last children a lifetime," says Shelley Curtis, Food Policy Manager for the Childrenšs Alliance. "Childhood obesity can be prevented, and an important step is improving the school nutrition environment."

Currently, federal regulations govern nutrition standards in school lunch and breakfast programs, but give states and school food authorities the authority to regulate 'competitive' foods sold in schools such as ASB vending machines, fundraisers, and student stores. In recent years, sales of competitive foods have led to dramatically decreased participation by children in the federally funded school meal programs.

In the policy committee, votes in favor of HB1866 came from Reps. Cody, Morrell, Clibborn, Darneille, Edwards, Moeller and Schual-Berke. Health Care members who opposed the earlier draft included Reps. Pflug, Bailey, Benson, Campbell, and Skinner, although Pflug co-sponsored the final version of the bill.

According to Public Disclosure Commission information, the Washington State Soft Drink Association spent thousands of dollars contributing to the political campaigns of many Washington legislators.

A similar Senate bill SB5436 was introduced by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles and met a similar fate a week earlier, when it was killed in the Education committee following an hour-long public hearing.

The Citizens' Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools can be reached at www.scn.org/cccs.