Senior Andrew Reman is known as the Coke dealer. He has been selling regular Coca-Cola as a fundraiser for Japanese club, making $15 a day in profit.
Student demand of this sugary drink has grown exponentially since Niles West reformed its cafeteria and degraded the selection to all diet sodas and other healthy foods. Reman said his sales will help Japanese club members attend ACEN, an anime convention.
“Everyone likes soda, and since the school sells only diet, I figured people would like this more,” he said. “We’ve been selling two boxes a day, and that makes about 15 dollars profit.”
Junior Bryan Taico, who buys Coke from Reman, said, ” Nowadays, yes, I’ll find myself drinking a lot of Coca-Cola, about four cans a day and one more at lunch, if I ever feel bad I just drink another.”
The new Child Nutrition Act, which President Barak Obama signed today, sets national standards for food sold in schools. Under this bill, cafeteria and vending machine options have to healthier, meaning the selection of these foods and drinks are mostly diet and low calorie.
So far Japanese club has not been restricted despite the Child Nutrition Act and continues to sell Coca-Cola at Niles West.
The director of student activities and president of ECC (Executive Coordinating Council) Jessica Ogulnik, said clubs that fundraise are not affected by the new bill and other policies like it because the school is only limited to sell diet foods when the food is being sold as nutrition, so it does not affect school group fundraisers.
“Well it’s ironic because it’s actually code that school groups cannot compete with the cafeteria, that’s why whenever a group has a fundraiser it is always donuts or ice cream, it can’t be pizza because pizza is sold in the cafeteria,” she said.
Ogulnik also said that if other groups wanted to submit forms to sell soda, that she would approve them.
Gwen • Dec 16, 2010 at 10:15 PM
This is pretty cool. It’s always so frustrating when I want to buy some real soda and all the vending machines have is diet. To be honest, diet soda is roughly as unhealthy as regular soda so I don’t see the point in keeping it out of the vending machines.
I just wish there was more variety other than Coke.