School administration and board members in the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, located in Fairbanks, AK revealed that tight nutrition standards have cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars in the last ten years, according to News Miner. The district found that vending machine revenue has dropped 71 percent in the past decade and 17 percent in the past five years. Vending machine revenue often goes towards extra-curricular programs for the school district.
Although one board member recommended that administrators apply for an exemption from the Healthy and Hunger Free Kids Act, the district’s chief financial officer noted that the revenue drop over the last decade is the result of self-imposed standards put in place six years ago. The source says that the school district consolidated its vending services into a single contract and implemented its own nutrition standards for products dispensed from a vending machine. Full article.
