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Kids are back in school and the long summer nights are dwindling down, which also means that San Francisco’s new fiscal year has begun as of July 1st.  The Mayor and Board of Supervisors have finalized the City budget and now communities are determining if their recommendations were heard and can be put into action.  The City budget can be confusing, to say the least, and in our case it’s the Sugary Drinks Distributor Tax (SDDT) budget.  Let’s dissect how the SDDT budget process works and more specifically – how the communities most impacted by the soda industry’s targeting and marketing tactics can provide input on where they’d like the money to go. We will also refer to it as the soda tax for shorthand, even though it’s not just sodas subject to the tax.

Before we dive in, let’s get on the same page about how the soda tax works. The Sugary Drinks Distributor Tax levies one penny ($0.01) per ounce on distributors of bottled sugar sweetened beverages, syrup or powder in San Francisco.  This also includes “self-distributors”, merchants  who bring drinks into the City for retail sale.  Therefore, distributors are responsible for paying the tax. Merchants may choose to pass the cost of the tax along to consumers who purchase sugar-sweetened beverages – and it appears to be the case that most store owners pass the tax along to their customers. The sugary drinks distributor tax is a general excise tax, which means that the money from the tax goes into the city’s general fund.  

So, what does that mean?  Well, any money collected from the SDDT will go to the city’s general pot of funds and can be used for anything the City’s elected officials want to use it for.  When the tax was approved by voters, the intent of the tax revenue was to invest the funds to support low income and people of color who are most targeted by the beverage industry’s advertising.  Annually about $15Mil is collected from the Sugary Drinks Distributor Tax. About 22% of that is taken off immediately and set aside for specific, previously voter-approved projects. The remaining revenue is then available for other projects, and that’s where the Sugary Drinks Distributor Tax Advisory Committee comes in. 

When voters passed the tax, they also approved the creation of a Sugary Drinks Distributor Tax Advisory Committee (SDDTAC). The intent of the committee is to make recommendations to the Mayor and Board of Supervisors on the effectiveness of the tax.  Annually, the advisory committee has two tasks:

  1. Submit a report that evaluates the impact of the tax on beverage prices, consumer purchasing and behavior, and public health, and 
  2. Make budget recommendations on the funding of community programs that reduce the consumption of sugar sweetened beverages in San Francisco.  

The voluntary advisory committee spends about 5 hours monthly to do this work.  During budget season, when the committee is developing recommendations for the Mayor, committee members spend, on average, up to 10 hours per month to ensure that they are hearing and proposing accurate needs of the community as it relates to addressing health disparities and breaking down structural inequities.  

How you can participate

Prior to the COVID 19 pandemic, the SDDTAC meetings were in person meetings where the public was welcomed to participate and voice their opinions/recommendations as it related to the tax. People participated in this process, but sometimes, it could be a logistical challenge. The meetings are in the evenings, parking in the city can always be a nightmare, kids are home from school – in general, life can get in the way.  However, during the pandemic, the SDDTAC meetings went  virtual (and still are!) and community members continued to provide feedback and input at the monthly meetings.  The committee works tirelessly to capture what they have heard from community members’ experiences and challenges and that the collected revenue is being reinvested back into the community where community members can benefit from the tax.  Although there is not an expected date of return to in person committee meetings, the SDDTAC is experimenting with a special hybrid meeting (in person and virtual) on September 7, 2022.  The hope is that future SDDTAC meetings can be hybrid to provide convenient options for community members to continue to participate. 

So, what happens after the recommendations from the Advisory Committee are submitted?  The Advisory Committee submits its recommendations report (budget recommendations and evaluation) to the Mayor’s Office and Board of Supervisors in early March. By April or May, the Mayor submits her proposed city budget (which includes the sugary drinks distributor tax funding recommendations) to the Board of Supervisors. At any point during this process, community members are welcome to voice their opinions to city leadership (the Mayor and Board of Supervisors) with their preferences for where the funds should be directed. When constituents from their districts share their concerns, policy makers listen. In June or July, the Board of Supervisors votes on the City budget and the Mayor signs it, which is finalized for the current fiscal year. SDDT funds are then transferred to city departments who either implement the programs/services directly or issue grants to community-based organizations to carry out their important work related to chronic disease prevention, decreased consumption of sugary sweetened beverages and community building.   

The budget process can be daunting and lengthy but the SDDT advisory committee budget discussions and negotiations are truly working towards an effort to impact our most vulnerable communities. This year, the Mayor funded 80% of the SDDTAC recommendations. With continued partnership and increased input and participation from our community throughout this process, perhaps we can get even more alignment with the Mayor’s budget. Standing tall, speaking out and fighting the good fight for a healthier San Francisco is worth it! 

Ah, summer. I miss my lazy summers as a kid… floating on a raft in the pool with not a care in the world, sipping a sugary beverage on a hot summer day. 

Fast forward to the present day. School has been out for weeks, the fourth of July has come and gone, and parents are busy shuttling their kids from one summer camp to the next. Camps are different today insofar that sugary drinks are no longer as prevalent. In fact, in SF they should be close to non-existent… because we worked toward that outcome.

So much has happened to bring us to where we are today. Sugary drinks are linked to a whole host of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, tooth decay, and heart disease. 

So just how did we get here? Please join me for a walk down memory lane as I reflect on the work of Shape Up SF and the many partners who have helped lay the foundation for the soda tax in SF through education and systems-level approaches.

It all started with a Soda Free Summer. Alameda County Public Health Department launched the first Soda Free Summer in 2007, educating residents about the health harms of sugary drinks and challenging them to go soda-free for 10 weeks and to drink healthy alternatives like water, milk or 100% fruit juice.

The campaign was so successful that in 2008, the Bay Area Nutrition and Physical Activity Collaborative (BANPAC) took the Soda Free Summer campaign regional. Six Bay Area counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Santa Clara, San Francisco, and San Mateo) participated in the campaign thanks to funding from Kaiser Permanente Regional Community Benefit and The California Endowment who funded the evaluation.  Over 100 organizations in San Francisco participated including schools, child care homes and centers, churches, and community based organizations. 20,000 commitment cards were sent to families through these organizations. Nearly half (47%) of survey respondents reported they were drinking less soda and sports drinks since being exposed to the campaign. 

Soda Free Summer was becoming a household phrase. In 2009, the Board of Supervisors and the State of California declared it a Soda Free Summer! The education efforts continued, but with a new focus on families with young children and infants. SF FIRST 5 funded Shape Up SF to develop Soda Free Summer (SFS) materials for early childhood and “‘Drink Water!’ Said the Otter” (DWSTO) was born. Over 5,000 DWSTO books were distributed to every pre-k and kindergarten class in the SFUSD and hundreds more to SF Children’s Council, Kaiser Permanente, and other partners. 

In 2010, the “Rethink Your Drink” movement gained speed. The awareness efforts continued: SF ran NYC’s Pouring on the Pounds campaign on MUNI. The beloved Otter of “Drink Water!” fame was translated into Spanish and distributed to hundreds of providers across the city. 

But there were exciting systems-level changes happening too. Mayor Newsom issued an executive directive establishing healthy vending guidelines for vending machines on City property; and that summer, SF’s Recreation and Parks Department included a “no soda” policy in the Summer Camp manual that applied to campers and counselors. 

The awareness and education coupled with policy changes were beginning to have a big impact. In 2012, Kaiser Permanente funded Shape Up SF to support three organizations to adopt healthy beverage policies. Over 63,000 people were impacted by the healthy food and beverage policies at the YMCA, Bayview Hunters Point Foundation and SF Children’s Council!

In 2013, Shape Up SF partnered with UCSF’s Center for Vulnerable Populations and Youth Speaks to focus on the negative impacts of sugary drinks on health and how Big Soda targets young people and communities of color. Watch the powerful videos at TheBiggerPicture.org.

In 2014, there was a big push on awareness and education as key partners prepared for a soda tax on the November ballot. Shape Up SF launched the “Choose Healthy Drinks” campaign with other Bay Area counties to increase awareness about the amount of sugar in drinks. These ads saturated the community at corner stores, billboards, and on public transit. SUSF developed a training of trainers that focused on how sugary drinks are making us sick and Big Soda’s tactics. Although the tax did not pass in SF, Berkeley became the first city in the US to pass a voter approved soda tax despite Big Soda spending over $10 million in the Bay Area to defeat these efforts.  

2015 started with the launch of our Open Truth Campaign, which opened doors and paved the way for new  partnerships and exciting victories against Big Soda:

  • San Francisco State University students, led by the Real Food Challenge, kept Big Soda from entering into a pouring rights contract and having a beverage monopoly and significant marketing presence on campus. 
  • SFDPH continued to “walk the talk” by issuing a directive that sugary drinks are not allowed for any event led by DPH or on DPH property; or to be paid for with DPH funding. Zuckerberg SF General Hospital also adopted a groundbreaking sugar-sweetened beverage-free policy in the fall. 
  • SF Supervisors introduced three landmark policies to reduce sugary drinks impacts on SF: Mandating warning labels on SSB ads in SF; Prohibiting SSB ads on public property; and Prohibiting use of City funds to purchase SSB. 

2016 proved to be a standout year for the movement to decrease consumption of sugary drinks. 

  • Philadelphia, Boulder, and Cook County all passed soda taxes! 
  • Shape Up SF led the transcreation of Open Truth Campaign into Spanish: Destapa la Verdad; and partnered with SFHIP to support health equity coalition members educate the Chinese, Black, and Latino communities about sugary drinks through grassroots education and advocacy.
  • Decreasing consumption of sugary drinks is important, but we also needed to promote the consumption of healthy drinks like tap water. Shape Up SF partnered with SFHIP, the City and County of SF, and SF Public Utilities Commission to ensure equitable access to public sources of clean drinking water they can trust, resulting in the installation of hydration stations in schools and public spaces across the City. 

On January 1, 2018,  the voter-approved “soda tax” went into effect, collecting millions of dollars to fund health education, access to healthy food, opportunities for physical activity, awareness campaigns, oral health, access to water, and so much more. 

As you have read, a lot of hard work and collaboration led to the passage of the SF soda tax. To everyone who has helped pave the way and to all organizations who are passing the policies, providing the services and programs to create healthy environments for our communities… thank you!!

Four and a half years after the hard-fought SF soda tax was implemented, the results are in: the tax is working as scientists had predicted. In the two years after the tax was implemented, UC researchers* reported a statistically significant decrease in the amount of sugary beverages purchased in San Francisco, compared to Richmond, CA. The researchers found a 20% decrease in sugary drinks bought in SF compared to Richmond; they also found that purchases of sugary drinks at supermarkets in San Francisco decreased by more than 50%. But that is just the beginning; these numbers don’t tell the complete story.

With that, we welcome you to the SF Soda Tax Blog. This blog will keep you posted on the latest SF soda tax news, stories and results from funded organizations, sugary drink science, and more. We’ll have monthly blogs, sometimes more frequently, sometimes less frequently. If you have a topic you want to hear about let us know!

The Soda Tax is officially called the Sugary Drinks Distributor Tax (SDDT) because it covers non-alcoholic drinks with more than 25 calories of added sugar in a 12 ounce serving, but we’re using Soda Tax for short. There’s also the Sugary Drinks Distributor Tax Advisory Committee (SDDTAC) which we’ll refer to as the Committee.

In this first blog, we’ll review what’s happened since the Soda Tax went into effect; these findings come from the 2019-20 Evaluation Report and the 2020-21 Evaluation Report developed by our evaluation partners Raimi+Associates. You’ll find even more info on this newly updated website. 

Most soda tax grantees received their funding in July 2019; half a year before our lives were irrevocably changed in ways unimaginable. Grantees were just getting their programs running when they pivoted to a whole new shelter-in-place world. COVID-19 magnified the inequities that systemic racism has perpetuated; adding yet another layer of injustice. Luckily Soda Tax funding helped strengthen relationships between SFDPH and community-embedded organizations, enabling those organizations to quickly deploy emergency food assistance to community members hardest hit by the pandemic and related economic impacts. 

During Fiscal Year 2020-2021, more than 40,100 people participated in Soda Tax funded grant programs like sealants on elementary kids’ teeth, healthy snack champs at SFUSD, wellness and healing programs in the community, free fresh fruits and veggies, doulas for pregnant Latinx, Black/African Americans and Pacific Islanders; nutrition education, and lots of opportunities to get physically active! 

Most of the participants in Soda Tax funded programs were Black/African American and Latinx. These are the populations often targeted by the industry and subsequently also have the highest prevalence of diet-related diseases. Additionally, the majority of people were under 25 years old; and more than 3,000 were pregnant when they participated.

Eighty-eight percent of Soda Tax funded staff were people of color and 77% were SF residents: these numbers align with the Committee’s desire to pay people in the priority populations to do the work. And the majority of soda tax funded program participants and program staff lived in Bayview Hunters Point, Civic Center/the Tenderloin, the Excelsior, the Mission, Potrero Hill, and Visitacion Valley.

Lastly, several research projects identified the SF Soda Tax and the Committee as effective in addressing health disparities resulting from the consumption of sugary drinks as well as addressing long-standing inequities. Specifically, the Committee’s values ensured that Soda Tax funded programming focuses on and effectively engages communities most burdened by inequities. And organizations and agencies used Soda Tax funding to help communities experiencing the worst health and economic impacts of the pandemic meet basic needs while simultaneously supporting the structural changes necessary to promote equity.

Those are a few highlights from the past several years. As I wrap up this inaugural blog, I’d like to share that I had the incredible honor and privilege to work with our city leadership to help draft the Soda Tax legislation. To get to help implement the Soda Tax revenue is truly the ultimate dream come true for a public health groupie like me. To witness the incredible good that the Soda Tax has supported and see its potential gives me great hope in an era that is so often beset by pain and despair. 

I raise a tall glass of San Francisco tap water in honor of our Soda Tax-funded organizations for taking this important public health work to the next level! 

Cheers!

Christina Goette
Healthy Eating/Active Living Program Manager
SDDTAC Backbone and SDDT Grants Program
SF Department of Public Health

*This research was conducted by Justin White and Dean Schillinger at the University of California, San Francisco, Sofia Villas-Boas and Kristine Madsen at the University of California, Berkeley, Scott Kaplan at the U.S. Naval Academy, and Sanjay Basu at Waymark Health. These findings have been submitted to a journal for publication and were in the peer-review process when this evaluation report was finalized in February 2022.