Prince George Students Question Corporate Sponsorship

Cathryn Wellner,
Healthy Eating and Active Living (HEAL) Project Coordinator

e're desperate for money." Words vary, but cash-strapped schools repeat the phrase so often it's become a mantra. After paying fixed costs such as utilities and staff contracts, schools have little left for discretionary spending. Sports, music, arts, field trips-all part of a rounded education-are first to fall under the axe.

Soft drink companies have a seductive solution. The concept is simple. A school agrees to sell Pepsi or Coke exclusively (what is referred to as 'pouring rights') [see the Fat Chance article, this issue], and rewards flow in, mostly money for activities but also games and prizes for students.

Prince George Secondary School is one of those cash-strapped schools. Their contract with Pepsi is, in Principal Keith Eggleston's eyes, a way to support sports teams, student clubs, and academics.

However, when Pepsi replaced Coke in the vending machines last spring, a small group of students began to ask questions. What they learned alarmed them. Stephen Von Sychowski, who has since graduated, says, "We object to the contract because it is a signed agreement to trade money for the rights to use a school as a captive audience to promote a potentially harmful product produced by a multinational corporation with a poor human rights record.

"Furthermore it opens the door for further corporate control of our public education system and even the possibility of corporate involvement in curriculum. This has already begun in the United States."

Stephen and a small group of friends thought it hypocritical for the school to teach nutrition on one hand and peddle soft drinks on the other. They decided to act. They papered the halls with posters bearing slogans such as, "PGSS wants you to live a healthy life with proper exercise and nutrition. That's why they encourage you to drink Pepsi and eat from the vending machines instead of eating something good for you."

When they set up an information table in a busy hallway, school administration called them on the carpet. The students went public, and the Prince George Citizen reported on May 4th, "A group of concerned students spoke out against corporate advertising in the high school hallways. They said it 'makes instruction in health and nutrition classes a mere academic exercise.'"

A school board representative was quoted as saying, "It is not unusual for a high school to have a contract with a beverage manufacturer and have a funding arrangement with the firm....The contract can provide for popular extra-curricular activities."

Local media quickly lost interest in the issue, but Prince George Food First swung into action in support of the students, hosting a public panel on the topic "Corporate Wealth and Public Health". Von Sychowski was invited, as were Medical Health Officer Lorna Medd, an elementary school media coordinator, a teacher who raised money for needy children by collecting soup and dairy labels, and a parent who spearheaded an unusual, child-centered meal program in the tiny rural community of Wells.

Although the audience was small, interest in the divergent viewpoints was high, and a small group of people went away determined to form a school food policy task force.

The timing was against them, coming just before schools closed for summer, but the issue has not disappeared. On the contrary, although the protesting students are now in university, Von Sychowski says, "I look forward to continuing work against corporate invasion of out public schools; they are unhealthy to the public both physically and mentally."

The PGSS students also caught the attention of HEAL - Healthy Eating and Active Living in Northern B.C. (Three of Prince George's Food Firsters are on the Advisory Committee.) The three-year project is sponsored by the Northern Health Authority and funded by Health Canada as part of its efforts to prevent Type 2 diabetes.

During the first year, HEAL awarded seed money to 15 projects in northern B.C. communities. This year HEAL is inviting those projects, and other organizations, and even communities, to submit proposals for policy development. It recognizes the pivotal role that places where we spend most of our days play in promoting healthy lifestyles.

HEAL's boundaries (100 Mile House to the Yukon border) include schools in two districts within the Interior Health Authority. Rose Soneff, IHA Community Nutritionist and HEAL Advisory Committee member, has just released a survey of school food and nutrition in the area. It is a wake-up call to trustees, staff and parents who read it. Soneff, is spearheading a pilot project "to improve the nutritional intake of elementary, middle and high school students by making healthy choices the easy choices".

HEAL's growing network of community gardens, kitchens, trails, recreation programs, food boxes, health professionals and food security programs also includes youth who are being encouraged to lead the way. Whether protesting corporate influence in Prince George, planting root crops in Canim Lake, building a greenhouse in Bella Coola, making healthy-ingredient pizzas in a Chetwynd school or planning videos and forum theatre in Hazelton, young northerners are being drawn into a web of healthy eating and active living.

HEAL's theme song could be, "We've only just begun". Though rural B.C. has poorer health statistics than urban centres, the HEAL project is linking grassroots projects working to promote healthy eating and active living and reverse the flood of lifestyle-related diseases.

To find out more about HEAL or to subscribe to the e-list, contact Project Coordinator Cathryn Wellner, cwellner@grassrootsgroup.com, or call (250) 296-9155, and be sure to visit the HEAL Web site at : grassrootsgroup.com

"The Cost of Obesity in BC" : www.gpiatlantic.org/ab_obesitybc.shtml

"Liquid Candy: How Soft Drinks Are Harming American's Health" : www.cspinet.org/sodapop/liquid_candy.htm

US Surgeon General's Call To Action To Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity - The Surgeon General identifies 15 activities as national priorities for immediate action.
www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity

"Highlights of BCTF Survey: Corporate Involvement in Schools" : www.bctf.bc.ca/Education/ci

"Is Fast Food the Next Tobacco?: As Obesity Concerns Mount, Companies Fret Their Snacks, Drinks May Take the Blame" : article