By Avi Rose
As a new member of the Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) team, I was thrilled to apply my background in youth engagement to help put on a special youth event in celebration of the 5-year anniversary of the SF soda tax.
Since the soda industry spends an exorbitant amount of money tailoring their marketing to young people, we thought it important to highlight the multiple ways the soda tax revenue benefits young people and counters these effects. Not only are young people themselves particularly attuned to these tactics, they are also powerful agents of change in their communities. So, it was a great honor to partner with the Sprout Out youth apprentices from Urban Sprouts internship program to plan and lead this lunchtime event at June Jordan High School for Equity in celebration of the 5-year anniversary of the San Francisco Soda Tax.
To kick off the celebration, Dr. Susan Philip (SF Department of Public Health) addressed the students over the loud- speaker, welcoming them to the event and sharing a bit about the soda tax. Dr. Philip also identified some ways the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) directly benefits from the soda tax revenue, which includes the installation of hydration stations, upgraded kitchen infrastructure, school-based oral health screenings and sealants, student run programs like Sprout Out, and the implementation of SFUSD wellness policy.
Once the bell rang, the students gathered in the garden to participate in engaging sugar education activities led by the Urban Sprouts youth apprentices. The student-led activity booths included:
- A sugar jar guessing game, where the students could visualize and guess how many sugar cubes (or teaspoons) of added sugar an average American consumes in a month- a whooping 527!
- A Sugar line up activity where the students had the chance to guess from highest to lowest, how many teaspoons of added sugar they thought were in some popular store-bought drinks
- A smoothie bike demonstration where the students could ride a bike and blend a banana date smoothie
- A water tasting station with water infused with fresh herbs from the garden
In addition to these student- lead booths, SFUSD student nutrition services (SNS) and Revolution Foods joined us to offer free lunch samples and the June Jordan wellness center shared some resources. Once the students visited all the booths, they were entered into a raffle for the chance to win a gift card. Ultimately, 3 students won a gift card from the raffle and one student won the sugar jar game with a guess of 550 sugar cubes! Overall, the event was a great success with smiling faces and around 50 students in attendance.
It was a pleasure to see the June Jordan students so engaged in the activities and the Urban Sprout apprentices shine in their leadership roles. In Principal Chui’s words, “It’s always uplifting to see visitors be uplifted by our own students. A beautiful and educational event for our school community! A special thank you to SFDPH and SFUSD SNS for facilitating an engaging event.“
Thank you to Urban Sprouts and June Jordan School for Equity for a fun event!
Click here to view photos from the event.