Fat-fighting plan causes indigestion on council

The city of Minneapolis was worried about its employees getting too fat. So it appointed a "Wellness Committee" that came up with a solution: offer healthy food in vending machines, city cafeterias and meetings with city-funded food.

That "City Healthy Food Policy" lands on the menu of the Minneapolis City Council Friday, where it will get a final vote, but some vocal opponents emerged at Thursday's Committee of the Whole meeting. The proposed mandate to provide healthy food options would also extend to private vendors in city buildings.

"I'm a little bit mortified that we have a whole staff team that spent God knows how many hours talking about whether or not there could be carrots in a vending machine," said council member Lisa Goodman. "I think the public is going to see this and say are you kidding me? You're spending a bunch of time having a taskforce meeting to discuss food at city events?"

She added: "What this says to me is that there's too many people working in the Health Department."

Goodman noted that there are few city events featuring food, and employees are free to bring food from home if they are not satisfied with their options. She wondered aloud whether employee birthdays would now be celebrated with fruit plates, instead of cakes.

Council member Meg Tuthill concurred, adding that she takes a libertarian view of dictating the menus of private businesses like the mini-cafeteria on the first floor of City Hall.

"I think those folks can sell whatever sells for them," Tuthill said. "And that's what they need to do to be able to meet their expenses and meet their overhead."

"I'm just curious if I'm the only one who thinks this is crazy?" she said.

Council member Diane Hofstede said the discussion was becoming overly "extreme." "No one is suggesting that you can never have a Ho Ho in this building for the rest of your life," Hofstede said.

Council member Cam Gordon also came to the policy's defense, noting that the city bears immense health costs because of unhealthy eating habits. He said the policy is a good – and relatively small – investment.

"I think in the long run it has the potential to actually save us money," Gordon said.

At one point in the conversation, councilmember Kevin Reich quipped about the distinction between a mini and full-sized donut in regard to the new policy – drawing immense laughs. Unfortunately, MPLS was unable to decipher exactly what he said.

So what does healthy food include? The policy features the following list.

Update from Steve Brandt: The City Council's food fight was settled Friday morning when the policy was adopted with one vote to spare. Voting against the policy were Kevin Reich, Sandra Colvin Roy, Gary Schiff, Meg Tuthill and Lisa Goodman. All other council members except the absent Barb Johnson and Don Samuels voted for it.