'Junk Food' Sales Drop as Healthy Foods Increase in Region 13

Region 13 school officials agreed this week to continue participating in Connecticut's Healthy Food Certifcation program.

The program limits the district, including students, in what types of foods can be sold in cafeterias, vending machines and fundraising activities. By participating, the district is reimbursed an additional $0.10 for each lunch served over the course of a school year.

While the district will collect about $12,000 this year from the program, vending machine sales have fallen from $15,000 to $5,000, officials said.

The program also severely restricts fundraising efforts by students who are required to get an exemption from the board for foods that do not qualify as healthy foods.

"I have a real problem with this," said board member Merrill Adams. "I don't think people should be telling others what they can sell and what they can't sell as far as cookies. I don't think it's worth $10,000 or $12,000."

Mark Basil, director of Food Service for Region 13, said the state is expected to toughen nutritional standards further next year. As a consequence, generating revenue through vending machine sales would likely become more difficult, he said.

"They're changing this meal pattern and these requirements, or nutritional standards in the school weekly and they're pushing this down our throats," said Basil.

"We're not going to have a chance, even if we opted out of healthy foods I still think they're going to push it to the point where I'm not going to be able to do the things we used to do anyways."

A motion to accept the Healthy Food Certifcation program was approved, with Adams and Jeremy Renninghoff voting against it.