[Home-on-the-range] FW: From NPR's Morning Edition, 5-28-2013: How Healthful Vending Machines Might Hurt the Blind

[Susan Tabor]

Hi, everyone!

 

I thought this would be of interest to the list; and a familiar name or two
here as well!  Take care, everyone, and stay safe!

Susan

 

From: Tabor, Susan E [mailto:stabor at ku.edu] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2013 11:26 AM
To: Susan Tabor (souljourner at sbcglobal.net)
Subject: From NPR's Morning Edition, 5-28-2013: How Healthful Vending
Machines Might Hurt the Blind

 

 

Why Healthful Vending Machines Might Hurt The Blind

 

by Deena Prichep

May 28, 2013 3:47 AM 

 
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Vending machines at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, Ark., were
stocked with more healthful snacks in 2006.

Danny Johnston/AP 

Look in any vending machine, and you can find plenty of snacks with dubious
nutritional profiles. Take the ones in the state Capitol in Salem, Ore.

"We've got a lot of Cheetos and Pop-Tarts and candy bars and cookies and
things like that," says state Rep.  <http://www.leg.state.or.us/keny-guyer/>
Alissa Keny-Guyer.

She notes that the
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128971052> obesity
epidemic has a direct impact on the state, so she introduced a bill to have
vending machines on state property switch to healthful options. Like many
public health advocates, Keny-Guyer stresses that she's not trying to
dictate what people eat - just make it easier for them to make a healthful
choice when they're pressed for time or seeking a snack. But it turns out
that this public health campaign impacts an unexpected group: the blind.

In 1936, Congress gave blind vendors priority to operate vending and
concessions on federal property with the
<http://www2.ed.gov/programs/rsarsp/index.html> Randolph Sheppard Act.
States then extended the same treatment to state buildings.

Why? To create jobs for the blind. And finding employment is still a
struggle for the blind today: Their unemployment rate is 70 percent, which
means that the jobs and income from the Randolph Sheppard Act still matter.

Kevan Worley, director of the  <http://www.blindmerchants.org/> National
Association of Blind Merchants, says "2,300 blind entrepreneurs go to work
every day to feed their families because of the Randolph Sheppard Act.
That's significant. It's the most successful employment program for the
blind ever conceived."

Worley says the program does about $700 million in annual sales, with
participating vendors earning a $46,000 median salary. And now blind vendors
are worried that if junk food in the vending machines is replaced with more
healthful fare, they'll take their business elsewhere. But whether this
actually happens is unclear - there's some evidence that mandating 50
percent or more healthful food in vending machines harms business.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been working together
with blind vendors and vending machine companies to find ways to positively
impact offerings and selections without affecting the blind vendors' bottom
line. Together, they are finding snacks that are affordable and actually fit
in the existing vending machines, and looking at ways to highlight these
options (such as little green tags that can inform and motivate consumers).

"Do vending machines contribute negatively to the overall diet?" asks Joel
Kimmons, a nutrition scientist who worked on the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention's vending machine recommendations. "I think the question can
be turned around, and you should ask, 'Can vending machines contribute
positively to the overall diet?' "

The  <http://gov.oregonlive.com/bill/2013/HB3403/> Oregon Healthy Vending
legislation has gone through an overhaul: Instead of mandating 100 percent
healthful snacks, the bill now calls for the creation of a task force to
gather all interested parties together.

And blind vendors, like Worley, hope this collaborative approach will be the
best way forward. "You know, I understand, if we don't reduce health costs,
that's going to be a huge economic impact. But I don't want to balance the
health of the nation on the backs of blind Americans," he says. "We can
develop ways to have our cake and eat it, too."

 

 

 

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