Patrick Leahy: “I am today introducing a simple, yet forceful, bill designed to address a growing problem among school children. I am…”

“I am today introducing a simple, yet forceful, bill designed to address a growing problem among school children. I am tired of major soft drink companies trying to take school lunch money away from children. It is one thing for the school bully to take lunch money from school kids, it is another for Coca-Cola or Pepsi to take it. In some areas, school scoreboards and school uniforms are now plastered with soda ads under exclusive contracts with vending machines all over the place. According to a report issued by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, 20 years ago boys consumed more than twice as much milk as soda, and girls 50 percent more; now boys and girls consume twice as much soft drink as they do milk. I had a huge battle with Coca-Cola in 1994 when they tried to derail my child nutrition bill--``The Better Nutrition and Health for Children Act'' because I wanted schools to know they had the right to ban soda vending machines if they chose.”