Junk food: bad for students, good for school district budget

Banning soda and snack food from the Philadelphia School District in 2006 was meant to make students healthier, but it has also had an unintended effect: the loss of $2 million to $3 million in revenue to the district each year.

School officials revealed this yesterday at a hearing called by City Council's Education Committee to probe the safety and nutrition of the district's lunch program following February's federal recall of beef products to schools.

About 10 members of the public testified on topics including poor-quality lunches, the lack of organic foods, the underused free-breakfast program and scheduling problems that result in a small number of schools serving lunch as early as 9 a.m.

"The school district has lost a tremendous amount of revenue as a result of . . . healthy snacks because kids don't like that as much as the stuff that ...