kids in school. and while the concept of using the revenues from the tax to be used to support the child nutrition and the activity and programs is a great idea, and i of course, i am sure with all of the rest of you look forward to the day where we don't have to rely on the sin, taxes and we have all of the money that we need to take care of our kids every day. >> thank you. >> good evening, commissioners, superintendent carranza and of course our youth delegates. my name is walton and we come to speak as a parent and as a youth advocate and as someone who works and spends a great deal with the youth here in san francisco and we have heard a lot of conversation with the health disparity and diabetes and strokes and some of the disease and some of the health issues that are caused by obesity that are caused by soda and sugary beverage and of course, a lot of our

populations suffer from most of these health disparities and i really came to together, not only about the health disparities but also about the opportunity that this is going to be and how this is going to actually effect the district in our students and our schools, and the district has already banned the soda from the schools which is a great job, and that is important, and someone who is a father, who has raised children and know how hard it is to say no to kids when they ask for things that they want, as a god parent now and as someone who works and mentors a lot of young children, it is hard, it is a hard choice, sometimes, but if we have to make it harder for the family and parents, to make a choice, that could negatively impact their child or someone else's child, and i am definitely and i am in full support of that and if we look at the economic factor and the opportunity for the district, it looks like it is going to be about a estimated 2 million dollars a year that will come into the district for the physical education programs and

programs that will allow us to educate our children and keep them healthy, and keep them from making choices that are going to effect their health, and negatively so. and i am definitely in support of this and i applaud superintendent mar and weiner and cohen for working on this legislation, and i will be there to support them every step of the way and speaking for this in the community and working with the parents and the families as we worked to make better options for our children, thank you. >> good ink, superintendent, and commissioners and youth delegate and first for the resolution, this is from antigony. for all of you, thank you. my name is mark. >> could you please >> identify yourself? >> my name is mark murphy and i am a member of the community, and very involved in the youth and the youth out comes and one of the things that is the most important to me is that insuring that our youth are

coming to school ready to learn in the right way i want to say that in 1994, head to the major u.s. tobacco companies testified before congress that the evidence that the smoking caused cancer and heart desize was inconclusive and they were not addictive and did not market to children, less than one months, a box containing a confident departments from the tobacco corporation was delivered to the university of california at the san francisco but it was revealed in these documents is that the tobacco industry had known that at the considered premature death and consider ited to be addictive and to support that the research had been a sham and i encourage you and all of you at the board to shine a bright light on the sugary beverage industry, and in supporting this resolution, the science, speaks for itself. and we know what it is, we know

what it is doing to our children, and we know what that means for our children between 7:30 and 2:40 when they are with us every day, thank you. >> good evening, superintendent and commissioners, my name is mark and i am a teacher and on special assignment in the community support department and once a week, i have the joy of working at tender loin community school, this thursday i will be teaching two first grade classes about the importance of drinking tap water and eating whole fruits and vegetables and not consuming sugary beverage and we will be using otter who loves to drink water. first graders do a good job at filling in the blanks. so, i am here to encourage the members of the board to unanimously support this

resolution, this resolution alines with and supports our work in addressing the health disparties and over weight and diabetes and heart disease in the school communities and it alines with the tier one plan and the multitiered and supports the work of the many partners and the department of public health and the san francisco health improvement partnership and the mission promised neighborhoods and the folks and all of the folks who are working to provide, healthy environments for the students and families. and i am a member of the food and fitness advisory committee and we are working on revising the wellness policy and we look forward to your continued support if we address the issues related to the sugarry beverages in the healthy school environments and the workplace environments and for the past 12 years i have coordinated the nutrition project and we have reached over 40 schools all around the school district with

nutrition and education for students. and for family and for staff. and this year, we lost 70 percent of our funding. and going from last year, of 30 schools to this year, just a small handful of schools and with this resolution, the board with its support, and it just has the potential of providing funding for the comprehensive fed, including the physical education programs and for the nutrition, and for the child nutrition programs, and so thank you. >> good evening and, thank you to everyone. i am very excited that we are here to support the tax for sugar sweetened beverages and i would like to always row model when i am in my classes so if the people have to purchase, the beverages >> excuse me. >> could you identify yourself for the record? >> okay, my name is sieta hices and i am a nutrition coordinator and i teach the

staff wellness to para professional and teachers. and so i like to role model and make sure that we have our water with fruit in it to give the students and the staff an alternative right up front of what they can purchase or make at home with tap water and madrines and i am excited that we have gone really far with our resolution foods, and contract, and we have our ido and we are really setting up the environment for what we want to do with foods and this is one more step and in terms of the education component and impart that have 30 percent that is left from the department and i was thrilled today to walk in the door and have a young woman come up to me and say you don't remember me. but you taught me my first nutrition lesson and now, i am, part of the sh, the liaison, working with the school district, with the police department. and so the nutrition lessons go

beyond just the health and makes the student brave to go out there in the world. one of the other things that i am really excited about is when i taught a lesson with paul reveer last year and we are talking about the soda, and he said, you mean to tell me, that if i tell my grandpa to stop drinking soda that he can begin to reverse his diabetes and so these are the things that i want to make sure that when the resolution goes forward and gets passed that we designate the funds for nutrition education. so that we can sort of educate our position out of a job because the students and staff will know what to do. thank you. >> hi, my name is anna greman and i am a research associate and i work for dr. petal whocy physician and director of pediatrics. and i am here to tell you a

couple of other storis from our work that i think will hopefully add to the convincing evidences that you will support this resolution and we do a lot of work in schools and in child care facilities to promote healthy beverage consumption and we did an intervention in 12 schools in the bay area including three in san francisco unified. and even when we installed, fancy water machine and did a lot of promotion, we saw the students drinking sugar sweetened beverages and so i owned the kids bringing in the two liters of soda and took the cups from the water machine and we observed the kids purchase being soda from the fire stations or from 7-eleven and so all of this is to say that the changes that happen in the school are not enough and we know that from our work and we know that as well because you see the kids buying the soda from places outside of school. and so we need to think of outside of school and that is why our work in the department of pediatrics.

and we urge you to think outside of the schools. >> thank you. >> good evening, commissioners, and superintendent, and commissioners. my name is jessica claw son and i am a parent of a fifth grader, and the immediate passed president of the elementary pta. and i am here to voice my support as well for the idea of a sugary beverage tax and urge the board of education to support the idea as well. research has proven a link between consumption of sugary beverages have increased diabetes and obesities, and they are a major contributor to these twin epidemics, and sadly it is the greatest among the minority and the lower income families, 17 tea spoons of sugar in one average, 22 ounce soda, this is 17 tea spoons of

sugar tha, is a lot. the cost to our hel and this to the city are huge, tens of millions of dollars in health related costs for san francisco. and i don't think that we can sit by any longer, really. and i am proud that my supervisor scott weiner is pursuing ways to reduce consumption by proposing this ten cents per ounce tax and i am happy to hear that this could lead to 31 million per year that will go towards hel and this nutrition and programs for our city. and that just makes sense. and many public health advocacy groups endorse the tax as well, such as hospital groups and the american heart association, and others. we need to take steps now to reduce consumption of sugarry beverages by our youth and let's see what is right for them and our city, i strongly urge the members of the board of education to very supporting this measure moving forward, thank you very much. >> hi, my name is andrei dean and i am a hostess at pier 23

and i just want to speak out personally about my feelings toward this tax and my subpoenaer port for the sugary beverage tax and i was a child who was over weight, and so was my brother and it kind of went on until i was about 13. and some time in middle school my school decided to start a health education program. and i don't know because i was younger but i think that my parents really took that to heart because the letters were sent out and speaking on their behalf and they started to remove the hi cfrom my house and the sodas and kind of the root beer and by the time that my bro tler and i reached high school our weight dropped down and we were more in sports after school and you know it really impacted my life. and so, and now i am a softball player. and i am not a big public speaker and i just wanted to come out and say that these programs are just so important for kids.

and what they see every day in the classroom, you know, can also effect the parents, and that effects the kids just a whole cycle. and so, thank you so much for listening to me speak and support the soda beverage tax. >> good evening superintendent and commissions i am a member of the community and a god mother. and i get to be the last person, so i have to come up with something new and clever after hearing 14 other people speak. i will say that was the fittest line of public comment that i have ever been involved in. you have heard the science, and you have heard the discussions and you have heard the personal stories, i think what it comes down to is this is going to be a tough fight this year politically. and it is going to be a lot of money coming from the american beverage association and we need all of the support that we can get to fight that in terms of the grassroots support and

everyone coming out and speaking and endorsing it and i think that something from the board of education being powerful in the public eyes if they have to go to the ballot box and make a decision, where are you going to down in the history, are you coming out on behalf of children and defending theirth and welfare and i encourage to you do the right thing and support this resolution, thank you. >> public comment is now closed. and any comments from the board of supervisors? >> excuse me. ei have my light o >> oh,, sorry. >> for sure. >> thank you. >> is that okay? >> thank you, i just want to thank all of the speakers who came out to speak in favor of this resolution, and it is really, really important to get every, and as zoe, said to get

every drop of community support that we possibly can, and for this effort because it is going to be a tough fight. and i just want to say to my colleagues and i mean that the medical case and the public policy case has been made very able ly and what i have heard against this is more about fear than it is about whether this is a worth while thing to do. and i think this is definitely worth while thing to do for the health of children and it also would never have brought this forward if i thought for one minute that it was going to jeopardize our school district and i think that this can only help our school district. and i have no idea, whether this resolution, or whether this legislation ultimately will pass at the ballot box and i hope that it will. but i think that what is important is for people who care about children, and the health of children, to get on board now. and so, i really hope that you will all support this

resolution. and i think that it is a moment where, and it is a really defining moment for us. you know, in 2004, when mayor newsom decided to start issuing marriage licenses and a lot of people said that you should not do that and it will jeopardize the election and he did the right thing and issued the marriage licenses and initiated a tough fight and maybe, you know, it did have political implications but in the long run that was the right thing to do and this is the right thing to do and to be fearless about it and i hope that you will all vote yes on this resolution with me. >> commissioner wynns? >> thank you. i want to thank all of the speakers for being here and for the support. and i just wanted to, and i want to thank, supervisor mar who does not seem to be here any more for making reference to the work that we have done around in the nutrition in the school district and i just want

to remind people that all of those positions, who were out in front of everyone else too, and that when we stopped selling soda in schools, the people said that we can't do that and we will not be able to support and we will not make enough money and it will cost us enough money that was not true, it didn't. it did the option. and when, and when we said, that we are going to raise the nutrition standards and we are going to stop selling junk food in schools and everybody said that we can't do it and we could not do those things and it would be too hard. and this is probably going to be even harder because, this is and this will be a battle. but, i want to echo what was said, that we are going to need all of the, all of the resources that we can use. and that battle and this is one that we can provide. and they are just, i just swore

to the superintendent that i got an e-mail that someone forwarded to me about a school district ha has seen a huge jump if their attendance when they started to attend free lunch and free breakfast to every student. and so remember, remember, remember, that we believe and we know from everything that we have learned, that healthy food and nutrition education, and making sure that our students are well nourished, is a core educational strategy for us. and this is about doing our jobs better. and so i want to thank everybody and urge everybody in support for this and thank the supervisors for putting forward the proposal. >> commissioner haney. >> i want to echo the support for the commissioners and for your leadership on this. and i think that it is a difficult fight this fall and it is one that we are going to take on together and this is absolutely for me a no brainer

in terms of the support that we should have here as a school district for this issue and it is in line with ground breaking decisions that we have made as a school district and the city and the connection between health and academic achievement which all of the speakers spoke about tonight and i think that this is the next step for us and i think that this has been tried in a couple of other places and they have had a hard time and i think that the coalition that was here tonight can win and the school district, i hope, our colleagues, tonight, will join us in supporting this measure, and that we will win in november, and i think that we can do it. and it is something that i believe you know, not just the scientific case has been made but it is important to note that when we spend the money on the health and well-being of our kids that it comes back to us ten fold and that the benefits of prioritizing the health of our kids and more

physical activity which this will allow us to do, and are extraordinary. and so, i want to again, recognize the folks who come out tonight and thank you, and i know that it is going to be a tough fight and i look forward to seeing supervisor mar on the daily show, and advocating for this and we will be right there with you, so thanks for coming out tonight. >> commissioner maufas >> i want to thank everybody that came over here i appreciate that. so what i have been doing is following and listening and participating in the meetings that you all have been having over at city hall. and just so i am better informed about what is going on, and the process, and i did happen to listen to the very long meeting at city hall and at home i actually watched it where there were a lot of

doctors talking and i appreciated their information and i am not refuting any of the science or any of what we know about the sugary beverages i need to still get more information and stay more informed about how we come about this process, and what everybody i think has said and acknowledges is the fight that we are in for. and a little bit of what i have heard, and sort of talking about, what the november ballot is going to look like and being, a bit dismissive about the wrong research that sfusd has done to make certain that we do the right thing all of the time by children and when we ask the other people to join us, financially, in that endeavor, that we are cognoscente that we want them to help us for decades.

not just a couple of years. and i am not going to be supporting this tonight but i am not losing myself from the conversation because i am definitely paying attention and i am definitely participating. . and what we will bring to the voters and what they will support and i am not refuting the science, and i think that

what we have done speaks for itself and how we care about kids and how, they they live and breathe in our cities and schools with our family and i am grateful that there is a discussion about doing something about that even beyond the school system but we are really talking to the people in their communities and what we can do to help. but again, i am not going to be supporting this tonight, but i am not divorcing myself from the conversation and passion participation in the conversation and i need a lot more information about how we go about the process.

>> so i want to thank everybody that came out as well and i have a tremendous amount of respect for all of the supporters that came out and share their thoughts and opinions about why this is so important and i agree, it is extremely important and i think that the research and issues related to the sugary beverage is alive and real. and health effects are very real. and the challenges that we have to keep our students away from them, as well as our, you know, the young kids and families is tremendous. and i am really proud of what the district has already done, and we are one of the first districts to remove the chips and sodas out of the schools and we are also one of the districts that have salad bars in our schools and revolution foods was a huge accomplishment to get into our schools and we have a pe master plan that we

pride ourselves on in wanting to get our kids out and about and i don't have a political or a personal agenda, but i think that we will be remiss if we didn't think that this will be a political fight. and so i don't discount that at all. and i do believe in supporting clear policy and putting the value on influential support that the school board has to get behind solid policy. and i have a tremendous amount of respect for the supervisor weiner who has continuously put forward the policis that are very thoughtful and very city-driven as has supervisor mar but i have to say that my priority right now, is the public education enrichment fund and the children's fund. and and that is it. for right now.

and i was, and when i first heard of the tax, i was you know, excited about it but i did hear from many folks that the idea is that this will be the third leg of the stool and that this would be attached to the children's fund, and renewal and we heard it from supervisor mar and which i never heard from him but it makes me more nervous that that is the plan for the campaign around this sugar tax and i say this for a couple of reasons. it is, i think in everybody's mind a slam dunk for us to pass the children's fund who is not going to support, you know, 2.5 billion dollars that we invest in a very small population of kids and families that we have in our city. it is a tremendous amount of money, and people have voted time and time again for the children's issues.

and i weigh that, against, and we had any opposition but if we did have opposition and we have all sat on a variety of different campaigns for a variety of different measures that we have passed. but every single measure that we have cleared the field and made sure that we don't have any opposition and that is what has made us successful and we have been clear about wanting to make sure that anybody who is going to bring anything up is satisfied in whatever way it is. and that we have a really clear message, and i feel like this is that i am not sure, we are ready to do that. and i also worry about the amount of money that it costs us to raise money to run a campaign for the children's fund and whether or not the folks that have historically

supported us will be willing to come out and support us again, knowing that there is a bigger pot of money that is going to go against us. and so that is, and those are my kind of very strong feelings around this issue, again, you know with all due respect to my colleagues, i think that, i think that our endorsement is something that is going to be extremely valuable and we should just be thinking about some of the things that are really extremely valuable for all of our children in san francisco. so in terms of issues, the impact of the tax, i'm still not completely clear about. and in terms of you know, will this prevent people from actually buying, verses the amount of education that i think that we need to be providing to our students, and you know, i have heard, you

know, part of the otter and all of the things that we have down doing and nick who has just blown up, so much of the nutrition, and of the sustainability work that we have been doing and working closely with so many folks to help make that happen. but, i am also worried that the language is not fully flushed out and i know that the supervisors are working on that to endorse something that is not fully flushed out. when you know, all kinds of things can still get added to it that we may or may not support is concerning to me. the benefits from the program, and how the dollars will be allocated are unclear to me and i want to make sure that because this is being proposed as a progressive tax that what we are willing to use, and coming in and we have a plan of how it is going to go out because it will decrease over

the years. but what i, when i am most concerned about and what would change my mind about, and you know, again, i think that this is the right thing to do. but why i would not vote tonight is because of the timing. and the urgency around in doing this in the children's fund has not been enough to me. yet. and so, the big lift, is the big lift that we are all going to have to do for not only the sugary tax but also for the peace and the children's fund and because those will be the two things that they will attack in addition to the sugary tax, and so i would, i would ask, that you consider putting this on in june or in november