The new bill is the target of criticism from those who supported an out-and-out ban, claiming that nutritional guidelines will not help significantly decrease child and teenage obesity, a problem that the initial bill sought to rectify. Nutritional guidelines would also allow each district to decide which foods could and could not advertise in schools.
Plans for a statewide ban on junk food and soft drinks in school died a premature death in the state Senate this week, when a panel of lawmakers instead endorsed a proposal to require schools to adopt nutrition guidelines and other "student wellness" policies.
The Senate Education committee approved a rewritten version of a bill that originally sought to ban the sale of food or drink during school hours that is of "minimal nutritional value" according to federal guidelines.
The new version bans no foods or beverages of any sort.
Instead, it requires each school board to adopt a "wellness policy" that includes goals for nutrition education and physical activities and nutrition guidelines "that promote student health and reduce childhood obesity."
The bill also requires school districts to come up with guidelines on advertising foods on school campuses and sets public-participation standards for how each district develops its guidelines.
Vicki Walker, D-Eugene, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said her rewrite represented a pragmatic approach to the growing concerns over how to address obesity among children.
"I think we have a bill that can pass both chambers, that does have some teeth," she said.
Bill Morrisette, a Springfield Democrat and chief sponsor of a more far-reaching bill regulating what foods schools can provide students, voted against the rewritten bill and said he was undecided whether to support it in the full Senate.
"It's a feel-good bill," he told The Register-Guard of Eugene.
Mary Lou Hennrich, executive director of the Community Health Partnership, which was pushing for increased nutrition standards statewide, said her group couldn't overcome objections from the food and soft-drink industries.