In the Schools

We have a long-standing tradition of supporting schools in our communities and have helped many schools encourage healthy active lifestyles among students. In countries throughout the world, we abide by voluntary guidelines that are designed to help schools benefit from partnerships, while retaining local control and flexibility needed for the school to meet the needs of the community. In each country where we operate, we respect parents, teachers and students' right to choose the beverages for their schools and work with local authorities and the community to determine appropriate school guidelines.

As an example, The Coca-Cola Company and its U.S. bottling system use the Model School Guidelines for School Beverage Partnerships to guide all school agreements in the United States. Developed in direct consultation with leaders from the education community, the Guidelines are designed to support parents and educators in guiding young people to learn how to make responsible choices. Consistent with these guidelines, the Coca-Cola system supports the American Beverage Association's policy regarding the sale of beverages in the schools.

Throughout Europe, the Coca-Cola system supports the UNESDA (Union of European Beverages Associations) commitments regarding marketing to children and the sale of beverages in the schools. The commitments for the sale of beverages in schools include no engagement in any direct commercial activity in primary schools and in the secondary schools, offer a full range of beverages (including water, juices and other beverages in both regular and low-calorie/calorie-free versions) in appropriate container sizes that allow for portion control and respect the commercial-free character of school by providing unbranded vending machines. Commitments also include increasing the number of new low-calorie or no-calorie beverages and availability of individual packaging sizes. To learn more about the beverage industry commitments, please visit www.unesda-cisda.org.

The Coca-Cola system also actively continues to promote the well being of young people by supporting healthy and active lifestyles through access to a wide range of youth development and educational programs with an emphasis on physical activity, academics and nutrition education. Learn more about some of our physical activity and nutrition education programs, go there »

Other Resources:

To learn more about the beverage consumption in U.S. schools, visit the American Beverage Association.

To learn more about local school wellness policies in the U.S., visit schoolnutrition.org.

To learn more about school-business partnerships in the U.S. and promoting health and wellness in the schools, visit the Council for Corporate & School Partnerships.