By Jay Bucci & Brandon Kim Sports Editors
There has been a recent change concerning student health and school food. The school system is implementing a county-wide mandate restricting the content and sale of vending machine snacks.
Highs schools in the county were previously allowed to stock foods that were in line with their respective vending machine contracts. Now with the new guidelines, schools in the process of renegotiating or renewing their vending machine licenses must also adhere to Tier Two content standards set by the Institute of Medicine.
Food and drink from vending machines must now have no more than 35 percent of total calories from fat, less than 10 percent of total calories from saturated fats, less than 200 calories per portion, along with several more restrictions limiting the amount of sugar, fat, and calories in food.
The guidelines placed on the vending machines also prevent students and faculty from accessing the vending machines during the school day. Machines are not accessible between 12:01 AM and 30 minutes after the final bell.
These changes, while appearing pretty with students’ health in mind, are inconvenient in that students will not be getting the food they want, and therefore render the machines useless. The fact of the matter is, both students and faculty will not go out of their way to eat food coined healthy by the Institute of Medicine. Making the vending machines unavailable during the school day only pushes them further into disuse. If students are trusted to make their own decision on their health, they must be trusted to do so in school as well.