BALTIMORE — Thanks to a city ordinance that went into effect Wednesday, Baltimore now is the biggest U.S. city - and the first on the East Coast - to prohibit restaurants from including sodas and sugary drinks on kids' menus.

The ordinance, which was signed by Mayor Catherine Pugh earlier this year, is designed to stop children from consuming so many sugary drinks, which is seen as a key factor contributing to high rates of chronic diseases such as diabetes. Shawn McIntosh, executive director with Sugar Free Kids Maryland, said milk, 100 percent fruit juices, water and flavored or sparkling water without added sweeteners will now be the default options at eateries city-wide.

"Well, right now the default beverage is typically a sugary beverage. And so a parent doesn't really have a choice when they look at a children's menu on the healthy beverage; it doesn't offer that as the default choice,” McIntosh said. “So now the choice is in the parents' hands."

McIntosh said 1-in-4 Baltimore children currently drinks at least one soda each day.

The ordinance is opposed by the Restaurant Association of Maryland, which issued a statement Wednesday saying "public policy that interferes with the minutiae of restaurant operations exacerbates the business challenges already facing city restaurants."

Seven California cities and Lafayette, Colorado, have enacted similar ordinances, according to health officials. McIntosh said she hopes other cities will jump on board with similar changes to protect the health of the population.

"We really hope this sweeps the country,” she said. “There are actually national chains doing this, so it's not something new. It's something that we're hoping that all restaurants will now do. "

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1-in-3 school-aged kids in Baltimore is obese. Restaurants that don't comply with the ordinance will face a $100 penalty.


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Better health and educational outcomes are being touted as Arkansans recognize March as School Breakfast Month.

Research has proven providing students breakfast at school can lead to better attendance, fewer trips to the school nurse, and improved classroom attention and behavior. One in five children faces hunger in Arkansas.

Patti Barker, campaign director for the No Kid Hungry Campaign at the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, said breakfast is still the most important meal of the day, especially for at-risk students. Barker noted the alliance has partnered for a decade with other advocacy groups who want to improve options for kids.

"Our goal is to make sure kids have access to the good nutrition they need every day all year round, whether they're in school or out of school or at home," Barker explained. "The best way to access that good nutrition at school is to make sure those kids or eating both school breakfast and lunch. "

Barker pointed out the USDA's School Breakfast Program also plays a role in ensuring all Arkansas students are healthy, active, and ready to learn every day, helping them thrive.

Vivian Nicholson, breakfast program director for the No Kid Hungry Campaign is encouraging school districts to sign up for the "DIG IN-to School Breakfast" challenge, which includes increasing kids' participation in school breakfast and creating the most innovative breakfast promotion using social media.

"[A] third category is new innovative breakfast items, new items that engage kids to come and eat breakfast," Nicholson outlined. "We use examples of smoothies or yogurt parfait, Apple nachos, and sliced apples with yogurt and granola on top."

Nicholson added they will collect recipes and participating school districts will have a chance to win prizes ranging from $500 to $1,500. She added there are also grants programs in place to provide breakfast throughout the school day to kids who need it, not just in the cafeteria before the bell rings.


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Preliminary data shows schools are serving fewer meals than they did last year, largely due to the end of nationwide pandemic-era waivers which allowed schools to serve meals at no cost to all children. According to a recent report, Kentucky saw a 34% increase in lunch participation and a nearly 3% increase in the number of kids who ate breakfast at school over the past few years.

Clarissa Hayes, Deputy Director for School and Out-of-School Time Programs at the Food Research & Action Center, said the gap between Kentucky kids receiving breakfast and lunch now appears to be widening as kids and families go back to the tiered eligibility system used to determine who qualifies for free school meals.

"For Kentucky, what we saw is that for the breakfast-to-lunch comparison, for every 100 children receiving a lunch, about 65 are receiving a breakfast," Hayes said. "So, that's a little bit lower than the year before where, for every 100 children receiving lunch, 85 are receiving a breakfast."

Research shows regular school meals improve kids' academic performance, mental health and nutritional intake. Federal data from 2019 shows nearly 15-million students ate a school breakfast and nearly 30-million students ate school lunch on a typical day.

There are pathways to ensuring that consistent access to healthy school meals is a reality for all kids, Hayes said.

"Ideally, that would be expanded, expanded on the federal level, but we are seeing many states that are taking it upon themselves to pass legislation to make sure that all kids are getting those meals at no cost," she said.

Some states are stepping up to fill the gap to cover the cost of school meals regardless of kids' eligibility, including California, Maine and Colorado.


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Red tape and other hurdles are getting in the way, especially for those children who aren't getting nutritious meals at home, the people in charge of keeping kids fed in Kentucky schools said.

Leah Feagin, Nutrition Director at Mayfield Independent Schools, said administrative burdens and differing guidelines for federal programs have left her with mounds of paperwork, including having to provide attendance rosters in order to feed kids after-school snacks and supper, which she says is time-consuming.

"Why are we having to jump through all these hoops when, if I'm doing this for breakfast and lunch, I'm obviously going to do this for snack and supper? I'm not going to do it a different way," Feagin said.

Groups fighting childhood hunger are rallying today at the State Capitol in Frankfort for state policies that would give schools more flexibility to offer meals to kids, boost safety-net programs like SNAP and WIC, and expand the state's Farms to Food Banks program.

Cassidy Wheeler, advocacy coordinator at Feeding Kentucky, pointed out because pandemic-era "free meals for all kids" policies have ended, not all students qualify for school meals, leaving the school districts with lower reimbursement rates.

"Their budgets are really suffering, you know," Wheeler said. "They're having a really hard time being able to serve nutritious meals that meet all of the USDA standards, because they just don't have the money for it."

Feagin said many children come to school in the morning on an empty stomach, go without lunch, and added those kids will remain hungry, unless they eat at school.

"My problem is those parents that aren't sending food for their kids. So, if I quit offering the program, I know those kids are being missed - and that's hard to contend with," Feagin said.

Nationwide, almost 1.5-million children regularly received an after-school supper through Afterschool Nutrition Programs, according to 2020 data from the Food Research and Action Center.