While the Liberals are planning to ban junk food in schools if re-elected, local Green Party leader Adriane Carr is pressing local schools to do it now.
Carr, a resident of the Coast, plans to lobby the local school board to change the food in vending machines to healthier choices.
She says her party's official stand on junk food in schools is to ban it province-wide, providing healthy options in their place. She also said the Green Party wants to tax sales of junk food in vending machines and stores across the province, providing the revenue for things like sports or anti-bullying programs in schools.
"It's a creative solution that some states in the U.S. use. The average tax rate in those states is 6.5 per cent and in Minnesota, which is about the size of B.C., they've raised $40 million," said Carr.
"They do it in Washington state and their revenues go toward anti-violence and anti-bullying programs because they've found a correlation between eating junk food and aggressive behaviour," she added.
Superintendent of Schools for School District No. 46 Stewart Hercus said he had not yet received a call from Carr to talk about the issue locally but said the issue is on the minds of the school board.
"It is a very timely issue. There was never a decision to put junk food in schools; it just evolved," he said.
He said there are no vending machines offering junk food in local elementary schools, but high schools on the Coast do offer pop, chips, candy and chocolate in their vending machines.
"I think the direction I see us going in is moving to healthier choices in the machines and cafeterias. But we also want to educate the students about making healthy choices so they have that internal control. They can get junk food somewhere else," Hercus said.
He pointed to a pilot program done in West Sechelt Elementary School last year with a grant from the B.C. Children's Hospital.
"The staff there have worked on developing a healthy lifestyles curriculum, which is in place at that school," said Hercus.
Caroline Spence, principal at the school, said the Healthy Living Program has seen great success in her school.
"We've noticed a change in what the kids are bringing to schools in their lunches, and overall fitness levels have increased," said Spence.
The pilot program has a classroom nutrition component and a physical education component where older students are matched with younger students to teach them games and play together in the gym or outside.
"Through the grant from B.C. Children's Hospital, we were able to buy a lot of new gym equipment that we now get to keep," said Spence.
She said teachers at her school are finalizing a report about the program and its success, which will be handed over to the hospital that officially owns the rights to the program.
"We hope this is something that can be funded and implemented district wide," Hercus said.
He noted revenues from vending machines in high schools go toward funding sports programs and field trips in the respective schools.
