VENDING INDUSTRY RESPONDS TO CSPI STUDY:

The National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA) today released the following statement in response to a recent study conducted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest about vending in our nation's schools:

“Because we too are concerned about rising childhood obesity rates, we applaud the CSPI's interest in learning more about this complicated problem. We too are mothers and fathers and certainly want to protect our children's health and future well-being. Whether students are choosing from a vending machine or from a convenience store, we want them to understand how to balance and integrate different choices into an overall healthy diet. We want to be partners with our nation's school systems as together we work to educate our children and solve this serious problem.”

“We disagree, however, with many of the organization's conclusions. As a result, we believe the organization's recommendations for preventing childhood obesity are too narrowly focused and that our children will continue to suffer from this complex problem.”

“For example, our research shows that vending has very little, if anything, to do with rising obesity rates. Specifically, a recent study of more than one million school children found that students purchase less than one salted snack or candy per week. The same study found that students purchase less than 16.42 ounces of soda per week. Clearly, with students consuming so little of their daily food choices from vending - again, one snack and one soda per student per week - it is obvious that vending plays little or no role in this health crisis.”

“We believe the best way to solve the problem is to teach children about healthy lifestyles, including how to make choices and the importance of exercise. We think students need better education about nutrition and the importance of physical activity. In fact, NAMA is so committed to addressing the nation's growing obesity crisis that we are launching a national education campaign to teach our nation's youth about how to make healthy choices and maintain a healthy diet. And, to make choosing healthy products even easier, many of our supplier members are leading the way to offer healthier versions of their products.

“Everyone in the vending industry is dedicated to protecting our children's health and is working to offer a variety of healthy food choices. Look around in schools today and you'll see milk, fresh fruit, juices and water. The truth is that our members are already working with individual school districts to tailor choices that work best for the schools and vendors alike. You'll still see popular candies and snacks, but children who are educated about making healthy food choices will know how to make the choices that are best for them. Of course we have always supported laws that require vending machines to be un-accessible to students during the lunch hour, and have urged our members to follow those policies as well.

NAMA is the national trade association of the food and refreshment vending, coffee services and foodservice management industries including on-site, commissary, catering, & mobile. For more information contact Jackie Clark at (301) 987-7113.

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