Division 12. Healthy Children's Meal Requirements

It is hereby declared by the County Council of Prince George's County, Maryland that in order to foster healthy environments where families live, learn, work, and play in Prince George's County, it must engage in the promotion of healthy lifestyles through innovative approaches. The 2017 Prince George's County Health Report found that over 30% of high school students in the county were either overweight or obese, exceeding the state's prevalence at 26.4%. The 2020 RAND Corporation Report to the Prince George's County Board of Health found that Latino high school students have the highest rate of overweight and obesity in the County. Obese children are at least twice as likely as nonobese children to become obese adults. Sugar-sweetened beverages or sugary drinks are leading sources of added sugars in the American diet and are associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity and other chronic diseases. The County Council finds that consuming such drinks, including fruit drinks with added sugar, sports drinks, energy drinks, and soda pose a real health risk to children.

The American Heart Association recommends that children over the age of 2 have no more than one 8-ounce sugary drink a week. Yet children today are consuming as much as 10 times that amount with nearly two-thirds of children living in the U.S. consume at least one sugary drink daily. This equates to an average of 30 gallons of sugary drinks per year. Children in low-income families consume 2½ times more sugary drinks than their peers in higher-income families this may be due, in part, to some of the marketing initiatives by the beverage industry. People living in the U.S. consume about 34 pounds of added sugar every year just from sugary drinks. Every year, 40,000 cardiovascular deaths in the U.S. are attributed to overconsumption of sugary drinks.

The County Council finds that diet-related health conditions have serious economic costs. The medical burden of obesity in the United States is approximately $147 billion annually, or almost 10 percent of all medical spending. Roughly one-half of these costs are paid through Medicare and Medicaid, which means that taxpayers are responsible for much of the bill. Medicare and Medicaid spending would be reduced by 8.5 percent and 11.8 percent, respectively, in the absence of obesity-related spending. A 2016 study commissioned by MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society, showed that Medicaid annual spending per enrollee with diabetes ($24,387) is more than double the spending per enrollee without diabetes ($10,880).

In 2017, The National Association of Black County Officials passed a resolution of measures in order to reduce the rising rates of chronic diseases and obesity. Nationwide, American children eat 19 percent of their calories at fast food and other restaurants. Children eat almost twice as many calories when they eat a meal at a restaurant as they do when they eat at home.

A 2013 study that examined the nutritional quality of children's meals sold at 18 of the most profitable fast food restaurant chains in the United States found that only three percent of the 3,494 meal combinations assessed met the expert nutrition standards for children's meals. The beverage industry spends millions each year in targeted marketing to communities of color, such that African-American children and teens see more than twice as many television ads for sugary-drinks than their white peers, lower income neighborhoods have more outdoor ads for sugary drinks than either lower-income or higher-income white neighborhoods, and 80% of food-related ads viewed by Latino children and teens on Spanish-language TV were for sugary drinks, snacks, and candy. Many restaurants and beverage companies have taken steps to help citizens address obesity by introducing lower and no-calorie options, displaying calorie information, encouraging citizens to drink more water, removing full-calorie beverages from schools, and reducing calories from many of their products.

The Prince George's County Council is the Legislative Branch of Prince George's County Government and sits as the Board of Health to govern and guide County health policy. The County Council as the Board of Health is authorized to develop solutions to public health issues that can manifest in the form of legislation or policies promulgated by the County Council for the protection and promotion of public health.

The purpose of this statute is to support parents' efforts to feed their children healthfully by ensuring healthy meals are readily available to children in restaurants and that offering healthier children's meals will improve the overall health and well-being of children and families living in Prince George's County.