Yesterday, I was alerted on Facebook to a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article about the growing trend of districts selling sweetened coffee drinks to high schoolers on school campuses.
The article reminded me of this 2016 Lunch Tray post, “Daily Coffee and Donuts for School Breakfast: Why It Makes Perfect Sense,” in which I told you how one Houston-area district is having great success selling a la carte “whole-grain rich” donuts to kids (in all grade levels) on a daily basis, and then using coffee to lure high schoolers into the cafeteria to buy these and other breakfast items.
I also discussed all the perverse incentives that can lead schools to offer foods and beverages like these, which do nothing to improve student nutrition but everything to help a district’s bottom line.
So what do you think about the sale of coffee in schools? Is it a good idea, since kids are buying coffee off campus anyway, or does the practice bother you? You can leave your thoughts in a comment below.
[Hat tip: Sunny Young Baker of The Mississippi Farm to School Network for alerting me to the Star-Telegram article.]
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