Rep. Pat Jones, D-Salt Lake City, worries about the pressure students face when making food choices at school.

"Many of our parents teach correct nutrition at home," Jones said. "But there's an onslaught of unhealthy products being sold to our children in vending machines."

Schools benefit tremendously from vending profits. Jones doesn't accuse schools of misusing the funds - "schools are using the money to pay for underfunded schools" - but she does worry about how much students are spending and where.

"I don't think many parents realize how much money these schools are making," she said.

That's why she requested a state audit of schools now under way to find out how much schools make and where the money goes.

Jones worries about policies many schools institute regarding vending machines.

While federal law mandates that in-cafeteria vending machines must be turned off during lunch, schools can stack as many operating vending machines outside cafeteria doors as they want without worry.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest earlier this year gave Utah a failing grade on its national school foods report card because the state only requires schools to meet the minimum U.S. Department of Agriculture standards in regards to vending machines.

That means foods of minimal nutritional value - such as breath mints and hard candy -can't be sold anywhere in the school during lunch, but schools can vend high-fat muffins, candy bars and cookies in machines outside cafeterias.

That frustrates Nancy Denton, state assistant director for national school lunch and breakfast.

"I talked to people in many of the 28 states that didn't fail, and most of them had statewide legislation that regulated the types of food that could be sold in vending machines, a la carte, at school stores or as fundraisers," she said.

A deal struck by the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association with major soda companies will ban all non-diet sodas from schools nationwide starting in 2008. But candy machines will still stay in place.

Jones said it is up to parents not only to lobby their legislators to propose and support bills to limit vending, but to teach their children proper nutrition at home.

"This is clearly a problem, and the solution has got to start at home," she said. "It's not just talking about healthy practices, but living them."

smcfarland@sltrib.com