Sodapop Lobby Offers Cash Prizes To Chicago, San Antonio In Wellness Challenge
By Chuck Sudo in Food on Oct 8, 2012 7:00PM
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro announced this morning they would take part in a three-month “wellness challenge” pitting municipal workers from each city against each other in a competition to see whose city employees can lose the most weight and get healthy.
The challenge is being funded by a $5 million grant from the American Beverage Association Foundation, the lobby for the soft drink industry. This is like having the beef and pork lobby fund a drive to add more vegetables to one’s diet. American Beverage Association president and CEO Susan Neely told the Chicago Sun-Times her organization had other motives, besides the health benefits of cutting back on drinking pop, in mind. See, she doesn’t want to see Chicago become like New York and ban large pops.
“We think these kinds of things are gonna get a lot further faster than bans or fights over discriminatory taxes, which there is research after research which says they will not work,” Neely said. “They will not change behavior. Even if you would mark up a product or tax it 100 percent, you’re not gonna reduce body mass index.”
Neely hopes if city employees in Chicago and San Antonio can stay away from the Super Big Gulps—spurred, no doubt, by the possibility of cash rewards— that Emanuel and Castro will keep larger options in place for the consumer. She’s also hoping city governments will avoid raising taxes on soft drinks. Ald. George Cardenas (12th), chair of the City Council Health Committee, proposed an extra tax on soft drinks earlier this year ranging from 15-30 cents per container to a penny an ounce, in an effort to curb obesity rates.
Part of the challenge will be the installation of vending machines providing calorie information, encourages lower-calorie beverage choices and reminds consumers that calories count in all the choices they make. The vending machines will arrive in municipal buildings in Chicago and San Antonio in the beginning of 2013, and roll out to other cities later next year, as part of the ABA’s Calories Count™ Vending Program.
Emanuel said in a press release announcing the challenge.
“This program will encourage workers in Chicago and San Antonio to take control of their wellness and make healthy lifestyle choices,” said Mayor Emanuel. “I am confident that Chicago’s employees are up to the challenge and will use this competition as a way to improve their wellbeing and quality of life.”
The two cities have yet to determine what metrics they’ll use to chart the health improvements of their workers for the challenge.