Summit Vending Seattle

meet yvonne butler (seattle summit report #1)

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson

Ten years ago Yvonne Butler, a forty-ish elementary school principal, banned foods high in sugars and fats, as well as processed foods, from the school cafeteria. The results, she says, “were immediate: a significant drop in absenteeism, improvements in attention, and a general increase in energy levels and grades.”

It wasn’t easy to do. Children think principals can do anything, but in fact they’re often caught in a political vortex, subject to pressures from school system administrators, parents, and everyone who thinks s/he knows something about education or, in this case, nutrition. But Yvonne Sanders Butler, second of eight children born to Mississippi sharecroppers; holder of two doctoral degrees; recovering sugar addict and stroke victim, knew a thing or two about education, and nutrition – and politics. She gathered her facts, marshaled support, and she won.

Here’s a one-minute summary of what she accomplished. At the end of this article, you’ll find a link to the entire presentation.

Her first addiction was to chocolate milk, which she discovered in second grade. Soon she was playing marbles with the boys in her school, and selling the marbles she won back to them for their milk money, which she spent on sweets. Overweight as a child, she was obese in her thirties. She suffered a stroke before she turned 40. Her doctor told her the next stroke would be her last and that she needed to lose at least 50 pounds. Butler’s mission in life became clear to her while she was recovering.

Today, she says, more children in fourth and fifth grade are committing suicide than any other age group. “Can you imagine being in the fifth grade and 250 pounds, not able to run and play with your classmates?” she asks. “Don’t our young people deserve the same chance that our parents and grandparents gave to us? Don’t they deserve to be happy? Do they deserve to be on dialysis at 18 years of age?

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