Is this normal? Can only donate Pepsi stuff cause of contract?

[Mackenzie]

Every day I wish a little more that I was in a position to homeschool again

So a paper comes home from the elementary school (both ds go there) that the fall festival is coming up and they are looking for donations. It has it listed out for each grade level a certain soda to donate (fwiw, one ds is supposed to bring Mt. Dew and the other Diet Pepsi... both fall into the "hell to the nah" category of things that my kids don't consume ) and at the end there is an apology for only wanting donations of Pepsi products but that the school board has a contract with them...

Now, I want to know if this is normal before I go letter writing to the school board. I mean I can put aside that I don't think that the school board should have a contract with any soft drink co but I do remember coke only machines in my high school. However, since when does that dictate what parents can donate for after school events?

[MattBronsil]

What would you write to the school board?

[Multimomma]

Depends on the contract. It is possible that the district accepted a policy to have only one product on campus, in exchange for a higher percentage of sales. Frito Lay, for example, can fire it's delivery workers for having non-FL products in the home. Not kidding...my BIL freaked when we brought some other chips when we stayed for the holidays.

[Mackenzie]

Wow... That's very interesting... So if I were to have a birthday party in class for one of them, they could restrict what I bring based on that (which is different than for health reasons which make complete sense) or what a kid brings in his lunch? I never would have thought...

[Mackenzie]

Originally Posted by MattBronsil

What would you write to the school board?

Well, if multimomma is correct, that absurdity of such a contract... Not to mention not bring allowed to donate because I'm certainly not going to contribute
something that I wouldn't consume myself, or allow my kids to consume

[Mackenzie]

Which is not to say that we *have* to donate... Cept my boys like to give :-)

[sapphire_chan]

You have to donate soda at all? That's what would bug me more than type of soda.


(Also, from a financial standpoint, it'd make more sense to get donations of money from the families and send someone with all the money to Costco/Sams and get as many cases of soda as they can. The price per can in bulk is significantly less.)

[Mackenzie]

Yup... Soda is the only thing... I'd be happy to bake something or donate food or whatever... But nope. Ds2 is to bring mt. Dew and ds1 is to bring diet pepsi...

[34me]

All I can say is wow. We have our fall carnival in 2 weeks and besides what Izze donates there will be no soda. My kids are teens and have never even had a Mt Dew.

[meemee]

our school does not ask for specific things, but for most activities they do have soda on hand too. for the parents and the children who drink. but they also have juice boxes and water. they have a list of things the parents can ask for if they want to contribute. i have never seen that list but i think it might have sodas.

but no i have never heard of one brand. however it makes sense if they do.

[lifeguard]

I think maybe someone is misunderstanding the contract. Likely the school board has a contract with pepsi so that any cafeteria or machine can only sell pepsi products. But I highly doubt that actually extends to donations that are not being purchased with school funds.

Oy.

[IdentityCrisisMama]

Holy Crap!! So much wrong with that...can't even begin. Yes, write a letter...lots of letters!! Letter after letter.

[AndrewsMother]

Take Aquafina water. It is bottled by Pepsi.

[Mackenzie]

Originally Posted by AndrewsMother

Take Aquafina water. It is bottled by Pepsi.

That is for the fifth grade to bring...

Hell, I would be okay with Sierra Mist since they recently stopped using HFCS, but I don't have a third grader

[Mackenzie]

Originally Posted by lifeguard

I think maybe someone is misunderstanding the contract. Likely the school board has a contract with pepsi so that any cafeteria or machine can only sell pepsi products. But I highly doubt that actually extends to donations that are not being purchased with school funds.

Oy.

That's what I would think as well... I mean not even addressing the level of wrongness I feel there is with having soda machines for elementary school kids (which I don't know of there being for sure, and since it is a district wide thing, there may be none for the younger kids... teachers lounges maybe) but I think it has got to be a misinterpretation of the contract, or at least I would hope it would be and not a ridiculously strict clause like the PPs fritolay example.

[IdentityCrisisMama]

Oh, no!! Is this an elementary school? :-( Mama, I would seriously contact Campaign For A Commercial Free Childhood and see if you can get them on your school district's case. I, personally, would skip the district and write directly to the state. I know we all hear shocking things all day but I can say that this is the craziest thing I feel like I've read about in a long time.

[texmati]

i don't know how i feel about this... on one hand it seems so wrong, but I know in my highschool, brandinding like this paid for a lot of extracurriculars. (we live in a hs football town).

[ChetMC]

Certainly

I've certainly seen this kind of thing happen at the university level. I've also know the details of the soft drink contracts to be secret. Universities that make the details of their contracts available to the student body usually can't negotiate as good of a contract.

It's depressing that this stuff is happening in elementary schools.

[ollyoxenfree]

Wow. Our schools have no-soft drink policies in place. In the middle school, there are vending machines (Coke or Pepsi, can't recall), mostly because there is a parallel community recreation program that uses the school facilities after school and on weekends. They are stocked with water and juice - no carbonated drinks from those companies. I can't recall ever seeing soft drinks at school events. Even the school formal and graduation dances only offered water or juice.

I think it's worth taking up with the school/school board - whoever entered into the contract. Even if they need the corporate funding, those companies have lots of beverage options. The schools don't have to allow soda. And yes, I know the sugar content is just as bad in juice and bottled water has lots of other issues. Either is a better option than soda though, which has no redeeming value at all.

[EmmaJane]

Nothing useful to say about the contract -- but I'm shocked, honestly shocked, that they are demanding that you bring soda. That's terrible.