Healthy Alternatives

Proposal to sell snacks and beverages at local schools

For years, a controversy has been brewing over the amount of junk food and soft drinks being

sold through vending machines in local schools.

Schools benefit from revenue-sharing

arrangements, but parents and health experts are concerned about the negative effects of

these snacks and beverages.

You and your brother have almost a decade of experience running

espresso and juice stands in malls and on street corners, and you'd like to find some way to

expand your business into schools.

After a quick brainstorming session, the two of you craft a

plan that makes good business sense while meeting the financial concerns of school

administrators and the nutritional concerns of parents and dietitians.

Here are the notes from

your brainstorming session:

Set up portable juice bars on school campuses, offering healthy fruit and vegetable

drinks along with simple, healthy snacks

Offer schools 30 percent of profits in exchange for free space and long-term contracts

Provide job training opportunities for students (such as during athletic events)

Provide detailed dietary analysis of all products sold

Establish a nutritional advisory board composed of parents, students, and at least one

certified health professional

Assure schools and parents that all products are safe (for example, no stimulant drinks,

no dietary supplements)

Support local farmers and specialty food preparers by buying locally and giving those

vendors the opportunity to test-market new products at your stands

Based on the ideas listed, draft a formal proposal to the

local school board,

outlining your plan

to offer healthier alternatives to soft drinks and prepackaged snack foods.

In addition to

conducting some research on similar projects, you can invent necessary information