How Salud America!’s new sugary drinks campaign advances public health
by: Fernando Quintero
posted on Monday, July 07, 2014
When I saw Salud America!‘s new campaign to get sugary drinks out of summer camps, my first thought was that this is a critical step toward supporting kids’ health across the country — after all, children’s surroundings shape their health. But my second thought was that this is a critical step toward supporting everyone‘s health, even adults — including those without kids. 
That’s because a policy effort like this one doesn’t just change the rules on what beverages are or aren’t provided to young people when they’re away from home. It changes the public’s collective ideas about health, who’s responsible for ensuring it, and what steps we can take to do so. In other words, it helps to change norms.
It will take many voices — and might even take more than one attempt — to persuade the American Camp Association to require camps to have a healthy beverage policy to be accredited. But whether the campaign’s success comes quickly or happens over the long haul, as BMSG director Lori Dorfman would say, it is another pebble in the water. Each time advocates propose a policy to rein in soda sales or consumption, it’s like throwing a pebble into a stream. It may initially disappear beneath the surface, but if we throw enough pebbles in, we will eventually be able to walk across.
“The more a policy is proposed, the more people discuss and understand it,” writes Dorfman. “Policy proposals create opportunities for news coverage that set the agenda for public discussion. But each new attempt also communicates the fact that someone — and, as policy attempts mount, growing numbers of someones — support the policy.”
Public health advocates have thrown countless pebbles into the river of tobacco control, and we now have a wide bridge spanning it. We can do the same with sugary drinks. With the continued introduction of bold policy proposals like ballot measures to pass a soda tax, California’s recent bill to put a warning label on sugary drinks, and, now, Salud America!‘s push to make summer camps a soda-free space, we can make sure that the next generation of children grows up in a world that protects, rather than undermines, their health.
To get involved in the campaign, sign this petition or use the hashtag #NoCampSugaryDrinks on Facebook or Twitter to tell the American Camp Association (@ACAcamps) that you want them to add a “no sugary drinks” rule to their camp accreditation standards.