It receives revenue of 22 billion dollars a year from selling products that cause thousands of deaths each year. No, it is not tobacco. It is vending machines.

Vending machines are an extremely large and profitable business. Just last year, Coca-Cola signed an eight-year, $652,000 agreement with the Capital School District based in Dover, Delaware to sell Coca-Cola products in the district’s cafeterias, teachers’ lounges and athletic events.

Contracts between schools and vendors vary, with some schools raising as much as $100,000 per year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures' Health Policy Tracking Service.

Critics accuse the companies of making money at the expense of children’s health.

During the same week Coca-Cola and the Capital School district made their agreement, the American Academy of Pediatrics called for the elimination of soft drinks in schools. The academy noted that 15 percent of U.S. children ages 9-16 (about 9 million kids) are seriously overweight.

A survey of vending machines nationwide showed 75 percent of the drinks and 85 percent of the snacks sold were of poor nutritional value. The study was of 1,420 vending machines in 251 schools and was conducted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

Of the 9,723 slots of vending machines surveyed by CSPI, 26 contained fruits or vegetables. That means about one half of one percent of vending machines sell fruit or vegetables.

A nationwide Gallup Youth survey of 785 young people between the ages of 13-17 showed 67 percent said they buy junk food or soda from vending machines at school, and 75 percent of the teens who described themselves as overweight said they buy junk food or soda at school.

This means students may be paying for this food in money, high cholesterol and in long term diseases such as obesity and diabetes.

The Red Clay School District and many other districts face a growing conflict of interest between the much needed money they get from vending machines to fund school-related programs and growing obesity problem among students nationwide.

The Red Clay School District has six vending machines in The Charter School of Wilmington/Cab Calloway’s cafeteria. Yet, the school’s have no control over the profits from these vending machines.

“The Charter School of Wilmington’s only connection with the cafeteria is that its students eat there everyday. Other than that it entirely controlled by the Red Clay School District,” Charter President Ron Russo said. The Charter School of Wilmington owns only one snack machine in the school and that is in the lobby next to Cab Calloway’s three drink vending machines.

Although the Red Clay School District sells mostly non-nutritious food, it is making some minor adjustments, like 100 percent fruit juice in the Snapple vending machines. Even though Snapple has a high sugar content, it is less harmful to a student’s health because it has no artificial sweeteners.

“We are slowly trying to introduce healthier food,” said Nancy Cruser, the cafeteria manager who is pushing for the healthy change.

Other states have pushed for a more radical change.

Last year, California was the first state to ban soft drink sales at elementary and junior high schools.

Last September, New York City banished hard candy, doughnuts and soda from vending machines in the nation's largest school system, serving about 1 million children.

Minnesota proposes that school districts sell milk and fruit drinks at a lower price than non-nutritional drinks.

In the obesity epidemic, The Charter School of Wilmington and Cab Calloway have been hit lightly, with only 3 percent of the students being overweight, according to But that number cannot be relied upon to stay low with the existence of non-nutritious vending machines.

Obesity may soon surpass cancer as the nation’s leading cause of death. Students have to decide if they want to outlive their vending machines.