Release: Broad coalition asks Dufty’s vote on healthy meal law with full-page ad

 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—A broad coalition of city public health professionals, educators, parents, businesses,  and organizations including Corporate Accountability International are asking Supervisor Bevan Dufty to join them in supporting the Healthy Meal Incentive law in a full-page ad published today in the The San Francisco Examiner. The measure, which is up for a final vote Tuesday, would limit toy giveaways in children’s meals that have excessive calories, sodium, sugar and fat. 

 

Dufty will cast the deciding vote. Without his support the measure faces a veto from Mayor Newsom. According to the Chronicle’s Matier and Ross, Newsom seems to be “losing his appetite for healthy food laws” in light of state political aspirations.

 

But Dufty has told SF Weekly he will not “rush to judgment”and has a track record of paying attention to the grassroots. And to be certain, since the measure was proposed, Dufty, and the Board at large, have heard from constituents, receiving hundreds of supportive phone calls and emails.

 

Both hearings on the measure were also dominated by proponents – ranging from pediatricians at UCSF and officials at the Department of Public Health to school teachers and parents. At the second hearing not a single opponent of the measure spoke. 

 

“So many of us are on the front lines of this children’s health crisis,” said Dr. Carmen Rita Nevarez, Vice President of the Public Health Institute. “One in three kids are, or will become, sick from the food they eat. We see it not only in our city’s waiting rooms and classrooms, but in our soaring health care bills. It’s time for fast food promotions to stop contravening our efforts to change this reality.”

 

Each year, the Federal Trade Commission estimates that major food and beverage corporations spend at least $1.6 billion marketing food to children. That means in just four days the food industry outspends the nation’s single largest initiative to reverse obesity trends (each year the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation spends $100 million on related health education and advocacy).

 

Toy giveaways and corporate mascots are the centerpiece of these promotions, helping move more than a billion unhealthy kids meals each year to children under 12. And a recent National Bureau of Economic Research study finds that eliminating even one form of predatory marketing could reduce the number of overweight kids by nearly 20 percent.

 

“San Francisco has long been a national leader in promoting public health, from the work of Shape Up SF to pioneering smoke-free places,” said Kelle Louaillier, executive director of Corporate Accountability International. “Supervisor Dufty can ensure the city again takes the lead this Tuesday, by standing with public health professionals, educators, parents, small businesses, and so many more in supporting this common sense measure.”  

 

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors Land Use Committee unanimously voted in favor of the measure on October 18th, it will go before the full board tomorrow. If passed, San Francisco will become the first city in the nation to take such action.

 

To view the ad click here. 

 

For more information on the ordinance and what it would do click here.

 

To read the report “Clowning With Kids’ Health” click here. 

 

 

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