[vendtalk] FW: Fly-In and Healthy Vending Update

[Kevan Worley]

  _____  

From: Sean Whalen [mailto:swhalen at linchpinstrategies.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 4:19 PM
To: 'Sean Whalen'
Cc: 'Terry Smith'; 'Eric Bridges'; mbrunson at acb.org; 'Allen Tharp'; 'Eugene
Breaud'; 'John Jones'; rkvend at aol.com; 'AB Swanson'; 'Don Hudson'; 'Charles
Glazer'; 'Donald Johnson'; 'Joe Blackstone'; kevanworley at blindmerchants.org;
'Shelly Martin'; 'Ken Gerlitz'; 'Harry Eberle'; 'Jody Shaw'; 'Robert Ott';
'Ron Oxley'; 'Raymond E. Hopkins'; vdesantis at dhs.state.nj.us; 'Jim Ed Rice';
'Bill Spencer'; 'Allen Harris'; 'Roland Marshall'; 'Harvey Johnson'; 'Skipp
Styron'; 'Ernie Sledge'; 'Michael Lee'; 'Catriona Macdonald'; 'Patrick
Cannon'; 'Sue Luzenski'; 'Nick Gacos'; 'John Pare, Jr.'; 'Anna DeSantis';
'Mark Harris'; cantuserv at sbcglogal.net; 'fredric schroeder'; 'Mike Barclay';
'Peter Nolan'; 'Robert Humphreys'; 'Dennis Donnelly'; ajkielly at comcast.net
Subject: Fly-In and Healthy Vending Update

 

Dear BEA Members,

 

 Just a brief reminder, the BEA will be conducting its 2010 Fly-in on the
9th of June. Participants should plan to arrive in DC on June 8 and attend a
legislative training and update from 9:00 to 11:00AM on June 9. It is
critical that anybody wishing to educate Members of Congress get in contact
with Sean Whalen so he can work on setting up appointments with your
Senators and Representatives and their staff. If you plan to be a part of
the Fly-in, and have not already made Sean aware of this, please either
email him at swhalen at linchpinstrategies.com or call him at 866 443-0998.

 

As you know, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Senate version of
healthcare reform legislation and today the President signed it into law.
The bill includes language which requires calorie disclosure for food and
beverages sold in vending machines.  In sum, anyone who owns or operates 20
or more vending machines "shall provide a sign in close proximity to each
article of food or the selection button that includes a clear and
conspicuous statement disclosing the number of calories contained in the
article". If calorie information is readily available prior to purchase -
i.e., a sign that proclaims "100 calories" on the front of the package - for
all items, then the requirement does not apply.

 

The next step is for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop
regulations to implement the new requirements.  It is given one year to
publish a draft.  The regulations will be made available for public comment
before they are finalized, and, as in previous cases with new regulations,
we will be drafting sample letters and urging you to customize and submit
them.

 

The BEA will be working directly with FDA, and through the Congressional
sponsors of the legislation, to protect the interests of blind vendors while
helping to support the goal of this legislation.  We have met with staff for
Senator Harkin and Congresswoman DeLauro, the authors of the legislation, to
talk about our concerns, including making sure there is flexibility in how
information is signposted, including an option for one "menu" for a bank of
machines, permitting vendors to complete stacks or rows with different
products that may have different numbers of calories, and granting legal
protection for mistakes in stocking the machine.  Both offices were
supportive of our position and felt that our concerns were reasonable and
could be addressed.

 

We will keep you posted as this moves forward.

 

All the best,

 

Catriona and Sean