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Table 4 Sample quotes or explanations for the themes that emerged for theFood and Beverage Sales in Schools (FBSS) guidelines

From: From policy to practice: implementation of physical activity and food policies inschools

Themes

Sample quotes

Relative advantage

We needed this “Well I think it’s,it’s late in coming but it’s about time,yeah” (Middle/high school teacher)

It would be better if we didn’t lose revenue““I understand the meaning of itand…the students do need to eat healthier,but…it didn’t change, like the desired effectwas for students to eat healthier but the majority of themit didn’t change much, it just sent the moneyelsewhere, so. I don’t know what the answer is but, itwas a huge negative impact and it really, it really affectedus quite a bit.” (Middle/high principal)

Compatibility

It fits with my philosophy “I personally Ivalue what the province is doing, I understand it and Ithink they’re right minded with trying to changebehavior patterns with the young through the schools soI’m supportive to that in the philosophy that ithas.” (Elementary principal)

The school community was on board “Herethey’ve responded well. I think everybody seems to beon board.” (Elementary principal)

There are favorable social norms “Mostlystudents, all the teachers are on board with it, cause weall, you know, I think healthy eating is definitely onething that – well obesity is a problem right with, allacross north America… we’re trying to promotehealthy living, so.” (High school teacher)

Whose responsibility is it? We believe it is the family“Well personally I think that it’s thejob of parents to be properly feeding and clothing theirkids.” (Principal 1536) versus schools have asocial responsibility to not profit from sellingchildren unhealthy food “Personally Idon’t believe that we should be selling pop inschools, I don’t believe we should be sellingchocolate bars in schools. I think that those are items thatif parents choose to have their children eating themthat’s their own choice, but I don’t think thatwe should be promoting or profiting from the sales ofanything that isn’t healthy.” (Elementaryprincipal)

We can’t follow it all the time; we need “onetime exceptions” “So what was at thegrad barbecue? Well, there was regular coke and stuff likethat. They wouldn’t fall under the guidelines, so. Wejust kind of ignore the guidelines and because, if webrought in juices and stuff like that, probablywouldn’t be drank at an event like that.”(Middle/high school principal) and“There are timeswhen we do fundraising, obviously a pizza sale one day for atrip…it’s not following the Guidelines, butit’s for fundraising for the school.”(Elementary principal)

Complexity

We found it difficult to understand the scope of theguidelines (just vending or all food served) andwhere they apply (fundraising activities, activitiesorganized by Parent Advisory Council, bake sale items,classroom treats, outside school hours activities,advertizing in school, accepting sponsorship from companies,and accepting incentives from vending machines company)

We have to figure out what to do about decreasing profitmargins “Well it’d be revenue from thevending machines, but also the cafeteria. Cause theycan’t sell – cause like a lot of the junk foodwere good money makers… Higher margin of profit,whereas quality food, the profit margin is not there.”(Middle/high school principal)

We (teachers and Parent Advisory Council (PAC) struggleto find suitable fundraising alternatives “ Soas I said, for our PAC (Parent AdvisoryCouncil)…certainly they’ve communicated theyfind it somewhat…restricted in what they can sell (forfundraising).” (Elementary principal)

We can be perceived as overstepping our boundaries aseducators “Looking at kids’ lunches andrecognizing the things that are healthy and commenting onit, … that gets the ire of some parents up becauseyou’re embarrassing my children when you’retalking about their lunch. You shouldn’t be doingthat. If you want to talk to me as the parent about it,that’s one thing, but don’t talk to thekid.” (Elementary teacher)

This pits the administrators against the parents“And we were greeted by a big cheer…the parentsthought “yeah, great”. And so… we stillhave parents who come every day and drop offMcDonald’s lunches and stuff, you know, we weresaying, we can’t stop them from doing that, butwe’d say “you can’t bring pop, you have tobring something else for them to drink.” And mostparents would go “Oh, OK, I didn’t know. Yeah,fine.” “And it was going OK for awhile, untilone of our PAC executive members…took exception to thepop-free rule, saying that it…infringed upon parentalrights, because it was the parent’s right to decidewhat the children ate, what they put in their child’slunches… we were now putting a child in a compromisedposition… the parent might be in a…situationwhere they have nothing else at home to feed theirchild….so we had to [sigh] for the sake of, Idon’t know, relationships…repeal that policy,and we sat down together – administration and PAC tocome up with a statement that we all agreed upon and thensent it out to the community” (Elementaryprincipal)

We struggled with food insecurity “We’rean inner city school…in some cases feeding kids ismore important.” (Elementary principal)

Facilitator

Having provincial resources helped us withimplementation (e.g., booklet provided by theMinistry of Education, website, and the Fruit and Vegetableprogram)

Having access to a local nutritionist is helpful“I mean, we’re lucky in the sense thatfood and beverage is with the cafeteria program. Thedistrict does have a director that’s in charge of allprograms, so she (district nutritionist) oversees, evenschool stores, what’s being purchased … I meanthat’s beneficial so we have to follow thoseguidelines, just like the chef has to order specific things,sometimes not happy about it, but to follow thoseguidelines, she does.” (Middle/high schoolprincipal)

Having local suppliers that comply with the guidelines isnecessary “Finding a vendor, like this vendoris now out of XXX,… we get a new delivery person everymonth …they know what they’re supposed to put in[the vending machine], but they’re visiting, Idon’t know how many sites a day, and “Oh, Idon’t have any of this stuff left, so I just want tofill the hole, so I put in Coke Zero” orwhatever…We probably had to phone 10 times during theyear…“Get that guy back here and tell him topull out that Coke.” You know, that’s the lastthing I wanna have to waste time on… So, we’vehad some problems in that general area.“ (High schoolprincipal)

Having mandated guidelines is a useful ammunition foradministrators “Having the (FBSS) guidelinesis helpful because it gives you sort of that ammunitionbehind you to say ‘well there’s a provincialguideline and it’s expected.” (Middle/highschool principal)

Observability

Some of us have noticed positive impacts(students/teachers are healthier, increased awareness abouthealthy eating, positive attitude shift toward healtheating, and involved in more “green”initiatives) Oh definitely so, yeah. I foundthis (the FBSS guidelines) made a difference to kid’sattitudes and especially their behaviour, you know,especially with a lot less sugar.” (Elementaryprincipal)

We lost revenues – without being prompted manymiddle/high school principals noted a revenue loss of$10,000 to $45,000.

We had to reduce curricular and/or extracurricularactivities “…it’s great to bepromoting healthy food, on the one hand it’s, youknow, our athletic program half the funding we used to havefor running our athletic program was coming from theprofits.” (High school principal)

We have noticed students selling unhealthy food– entrepreneurial student took upon themselves to“illegally” sell less healthy food items.

 

More students leave school grounds at lunch – asresult they skip more classes and we are more concernedabout their safety “If I had the vendingmachines capability, I bet I would keep another 50, 60, 100kids on site, which I would prefer because it’s whenthey go off site that I lose them, that’s where theyskip, or get into trouble, or decide to buy something theyshouldn’t be buying. And if I can keep them on-site Ihave more, for lack of a better word, control of whatthey’re doing with their lunch breaks.”(Middle/high school principal)

  1. * All quotes are in parentheses and clarifying text is not.