Wake County Schools receive $2 million from vending agreement
July 31, 2002 - In its first year, a vending agreement with Pepsi provided the Wake County Public School System $2 million, helpful revenues for schools in lean budget times.
Wake schools entered into an exclusive vending agreement with Pepsi Bottling Ventures in 2001, negotiating an agreement for the entire system that replaced the agreements that individual schools had made in prior years. As a result, the district earned more than $1 million for only using Pepsi products and schools earned $549,347 in commission sales.
"In terms of the sales, the real difference is that instead of each school having an individual agreement, there is one agreement for the entire school system," WCPSS Associate Superintendent Del Burns said. "The commissions provide great benefit to the schools. The funds can be used to purchase additional instructional supplies, textbooks to activity buses."
The 16 high schools earned $367,499 of the commission sales through vending machines sales, and event concessions. Twenty-five middle schools earned $73,447, and 78 elementary schools earned $93,372.
Non-carbonated drinks such as fruit juices and water accounted for 57.8 percent of the sales. Non-carbonated drinks are available in the school cafeterias. Principals arrange to have vending machines placed in other areas of their schools.
Most elementary schools had one or two vending machines at their school for faculty and staff use. Wake Forest Elementary had five vending machines and earned $2,836. Most middle schools had three or fewer machines. Zebulon Middle had seven machines and earned $4,904. Most high schools had more than eleven machines. Wakefield High had 19 machines and earned $22,191.
Southeast Raleigh High earned the most of any school at $43,377. The school has 14 vending machines and had the highest vending and concession volume, and the seventh highest cafeteria volume among Wake schools.
"The contract with Pepsi is a win-win situation at a time when resources are scarce," said John Modest, Southeast Raleigh High principal. "Dr. Burns has directed that these funds be used to enhance student achievement. To that end some of our funds have been allocated for our recent ninth grade orientation program held July 15-19 with over 350 incoming ninth graders participating. These funds have also been used to pay for professional development activities for our faculty."
At West Millbrook Middle vending machines with juices and water are in the cafeteria and are used at lunch and briefly after school. There are two machines in the gym lobby that are only available after school.
"We like the idea that we are offering something the students feel is a treat at times that does not impact our curriculum," Principal Kaye Evans said. "It does seem that our students much prefer the juice drinks to the sodas."
In Feb. 2001, the Board of Education approved a contract with Pepsi Bottling Ventures providing an exclusive beverage vending agreement for a period of five years. The contract provides revenue to the school district in exchange for selecting one vendor.
The agreement provided $1 million in marketing fees and 42 percent commission on sales generated in the first year. High schools have been provided $12,000 in marketing fees annually. All schools received commissions on sales.
In subsequent years, $525,000 in marketing and fees and commissions will be generated with schools receiving marketing fees and commission revenue as in year one. The plan called for schools to receive at least the level of revenue generated from the beverage vending agreement they had before the district agreement was reached.
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