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Refreshments Canada , a lobby group for Coke and Pepsi, announced it will remove soft drinks from Ontario elementary schools starting next fall. The sale of fruit drinks, sports drinks and junk food, all of which, according to critics, are equally harmful to student health, are not affected.
Junk food may be a leading cause of adolescent obesity, but for schools, it's a lucrative and necessary business. Contracts with soft-drink companies generate huge dollars that boards use to finance programs like extracurricular activities that are not covered by government funding.
A typical school can make upwards of $20,000 a year from vending machines. There is doubt whether vending machines filled with water and fruit juice will generate as much revenue as Coke and Gatorade.
Critics point to other problems in the school junk food business like the corporate "branding" of students as life-long consumers, the growing and potentially harmful intrusion of private corporations into public education and the dependence of schools on private money in lieu of government funding.
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