Junk food is slowly disappearing from Oak Harbor schools. Candy bars, soda pop and other sweet treats are being phased out from school shelves over the next three years.

Students, school groups and families are already seeing the effects of the new policy, which state law required the school district to adopt.

“It’s been kind of a challenge,” said Eric Peterson, DECA instructor at Oak Harbor High School. “Right now, it’s a struggle.” The business-oriented DECA club raises money from store sales.

The student-run store at the high school had to reduce the amount of junk food it sold by 30 percent this year. Next year, it has to reduce the amount by another 30 percent, and then remove the remainder in the third year.

After that, all food available to students in Oak Harbor schools must meet specific nutritional guidelines that limit the fat and sugar content.

Peterson said he is grateful that he has three years to implement the nutrition policy. Other school districts pulled all junk food from their schools cold turkey. DECA programs in those school districts are struggling because they’re having trouble finding alternative products that appeal to hungry students.

He said students doing the ordering are busy trying to ensure a balance of one healthy product for every two junk food products.

The students started offering smoothies this week at the student store. Though sweet tasting, the new product meets the new school district’s nutrition requirements.

In addition to the smoothies, the student store is offering granola bars, cereal, nutrition bars and baked chips.

The DECA program is self sufficient. The student store raised $10,000 last school year. That money funded student trips to leadership conferences and state and national competitions.

Other programs in the school district have also changed the food they offer.

The parents of seniors traditionally sell cookies on Thursdays to raise money for the senior graduation night party. To comply with the 30 percent rule mandated this year, they stopped selling two varieties: brownies and macadamia/white chocolate chip. They already had two varieties that met nutritional guidelines: peanut butter and oatmeal raisin.

“It really has been a pretty minimal impact,” said Larry Ferguson, a parent chairing the fund-raising effort.

However, the cookies that meet the nutritional guidelines don’t sell as well as other varieties.

Ferguson said parents sell 20 to 30 bags of peanut butter cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies a day while they sell 240 bags of the popular chocolate chip cookies. Parents bake and sell cookies outside the cafeteria every Thursday. The bags cost $1.

He said the group needs to raise approximately $30,000 to help offset costs for the senior party, which provides seniors a safe place to celebrate their graduation.

While the parents had a quick solution to meeting the nutrition requirements this year, Ferguson said it will be more difficult to meet the expanded guidelines in the next two years.

He, too, appreciated the three-year transition period the school district instituted. That gives time for groups selling food as a fund-raiser to find acceptable alternatives.

Az Franciose, a nurse in the Oak Harbor School District, said it was better to give people time to adjust to the new policy.

“I think it would be a total failure if we slammed it 100 percent,” Franciose said school employees are also busy informing parents and students of the new guidelines.

At the elementary schools, the food that students bring from home to share with fellow students, such as cupcakes to celebrate a birthday, also have to follow the district’s nutritional guidelines. While kids can still bring the sweets, the students are given a page outlining the nutritional policy. Teachers are also busy informing parents and information is also being given out in school newsletters.

The school district was required to adopt a nutrition policy put in place to help reduce the number of overweight children by establishing requirements for nutrition and physical fitness.

In Island County, between 8 percent and 10 percent of teenagers are in the top 5 percent body mass index. Sixty-five percent of adolescents in Island County engage in physical activity three days a week while 15 percent engage in physical activity five days a week, according to the Health of Island County report published in 2003.

School officials will soon have a better idea of how many students are overweight. Students in all grades this year will soon take a fitness program, said Robbin White, nurse in the Oak Harbor School District. They will have their height and weight measured, which provides the basis for the body mass index.