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Non-nutritious foods and drinks -- including those used as club fundraisers -- likely will be banned from Pittsburgh Public Schools and district buildings next school year, but which foods will be cut has not been decided, district officials said Thursday.

The board is expected to vote Wednesday on whether to ban non-nutritious foods and drinks beginning Aug. 31. If the board approves the concept, a task force of students, parents, teachers and administrators would recommend to the board which foods would be eliminated, said chief operations officer Rick Fellers.

"Obviously, high-sugar snacks are going to be high on the target list," he said.

But where to draw the line is not always as clear, such as whether diet sodas, salted peanuts, pizza or hoagies would be permitted, Fellers said. The move is an attempt to fight near-epidemic childhood obesity and diabetes and lessen students' sugar buzzes, he said.

School groups wanting to sell candy bars or other non-nutritious foods would have to do so off school property, Fellers said.

A new federal law, which takes effect in June 2006, and pending state legislation that would take effect on July 1, 2006, require school districts to establish nutritional guidelines for food available on campus.

"You probably can tie a very, very close line to students who are having problems learning and with their behavior and their diet," said board member Mark Brentley Sr., who supports a ban.

Board member Jean Fink, a member of the district's health and wellness committee, said she is unsure whether a ban is a good idea.

"There's a lot of borderline foods," she said. "Regular (cola) is going to be banned -- that's a given -- but we don't know about diet."

Fink wants the proposal tabled until a list of banned foods is developed and other questions are answered, such as whether the ban should extend to stadium food sales or whether children would be allowed to bring banned foods in their lunches.

She also envisions some potential problems with a ban.

"We will have a clandestine entrepreneurship in Ho-Hos," Fink said. "I can just see sparkling little faces selling Twinkies out of their lockers."

Other school districts in Allegheny County already restrict certain foods or drinks in vending machines.

The Quaker Valley School District forbids carbonated beverages in vending machines, which instead offer water, juices and ice tea.

In North Allegheny schools, carbonated beverages are not sold in cafeterias but are part of the vending offerings.

In Pine-Richland and Bethel Park, vending machines are turned on only after school ends.

"We don't sell candy bars in the machines, but snack foods like cookies or chips are available a la carte at lunch," said Pine-Richland spokeswoman JudiBoren.

In the Riverview School District, students are banned from buying snack foods until they've eaten all the nutritious foods on their trays.

Parents have enough trouble getting their children to make good food choices without schools undermining their efforts by allowing students easy access to junk foods, said Jeff Cronin, spokesman for the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, based in Washington D.C.,

"Ideally, schools should be one where we're setting examples," he said.

For more information: http://cspinet.org/schoolfood.

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