Longmont City Council, Tuesday night, voted 5-2 for an ordinance that requires local restaurants that serve children’s meals to offer healthy beverages as the default option.
A majority of council members said the ordinance would have little or no economic impact on local restaurants while promoting healthy alternatives to sugary soft drinks.
The ordinance “doesn’t make any big changes for anybody and doesn’t cause an expense for anybody,” said Councilmember Marcia Martin.
Councilmember Joan Peck also said the ordinance is not an example of government overreach, as some critics have said. “We’re here to protect the health and safety of citizens,” Peck told the council.
Government has done the same when it requires seat belts, no smoking areas, stop signs and speed limits, she said. “We’re not saying you cannot give your children anything on the menu. That is your choice.”
Mayor Brian Bagley and Mayor Pro Tem Aren Rodriguez voted against the ordinance. Rodriguez said the city needed more time to promote and educate the public about the new law.
Bagley said he wants more parents to educate their children about better food choices and local governments should not legislate food decisions, Bagley told the council.
“Society has to do a helluva lot more and as parents, but not the government,” Bagley said.
The healthy beverages ordinance is backed by St. Vrain Healthy Kids and Healthy Longmont as well as Boulder County Public Health as a way to reduce the negative impact of surgery beverages on childhood obesity, according to a city staff report.
The draft ordinance makes healthy beverages — water with no added sugar, dairy milk or non-dairy milk substitute with no added sugar — the default beverage with advertised children’s meals, the staff report states.
The ordinance does not prohibit a restaurant’s ability to sell, or a customer’s ability to purchase, any other beverage that is available if requested by the purchaser of the children’s meal, the staff report states.
Members of the Boulder County Sugary Drinks Youth Committee asked the city council in May to support the ordinance and to increase access to healthy beverages at local schools and recreation centers.
They also presented research that indicated soft drink companies actively target low-income and minority youth to boost sales.
City staff, in June, reached out to restaurant owners and the general public to let them know about the proposal and to gauge their opinions about the ordinance.
The city received 297 total responses (292 in English, five in Spanish) while nine responses were from restaurant owners, the staff report states.
Five restaurant owners indicated they support the ordinance while four owners did not support the measure. Among community members, 46% supported the measure and 54% opposed it, the report states.
Supporters who answered the survey said the ordinance would be a small “thing” that can help reduce obesity and that it would be a simple way to create big change.
Detractors said the city has no right to regulate how people raise their children and the ordinance “infringes on our freedom, is overreach, and micromanaging,” the staff report states.
