The drinks brought from home are not sold they are just donated to the classrooms that are having a party or something. We never sell nothing that is donated from home. The drinks donated from the soda company are sold. I feel that they should be given away since they are donated.
Our school has a contract and we honor the contract at our fundraisers. We do not sell anything that is not that product. However, if we have sodas donated to us, we use them. The contract is only for drinks sold, not brought in.
Our district has a contract also. When PTO has an even we contact that company and they make a donation of drinks once a year to the PTO. We don't have to purchase anything from them. Now, when the children are asked to bring soda drinks from home it's any kind they have never stipulated a certain brand. Try to contact those companies and see if they will donate for one event at school and make sure it's the one with the most attendance.
There are so many different ways that each person can interpret what the new quidelines are and usually each person states something a little different than the next.
Our school is under contract too! The best bet for each PTO to do is to contact your district Superintendant and request a copy of the real contract. This way it will be spelled out what you can and can't do under the contract.
We were very confused in the beginning and put out with the district for limiting our donations under the so-called new contract. What we found out was a little different. First of all, our contract is for all vending machines or fundraisers put on by the school that were limited to X-brand. When a fuction was sponsored by the PTO, it could not stipulate what brand to use because we are a separate entity from the school. That also went for contests that were sponsored by the PTO. As far as classroom parties, these items are donated by the parents and the way we handled this was to request X-brand products but that was only a reccomendation. If Y-brand was sent in, it could still be served.
Also we were made aware through our Principal that the X- brand company that the district contracting through, was also able to make a donation to each school in the district one time a year. This donation almost covered what we needed for our annual carnival. We did have to order about 4 extra cylinders of X-brand so we would have enough drinks at our event. These did not cost much at all.
Another school in our district gets all there donations in cans. They are not allowed to sell these cans. They can only be offered as part of a reward for a contest or be served for free at a meeting. That is an awful lot of freebies that could have been profit.
Just an F.Y.I.
I realize that soda is big business, but this is a joke, right? I mean if "x" cola is under contract with my district and I have a pizza joint that is donating sodas, but they only carry "y" soda I am supposed to tell them thanks, but no thanks? Or we are sponsoring an event and budget for 15 cents per can, but "x" cola can only be purchased for 25 cents per can so we either go in the hole, or don't offer soda? Maybe I am reading this totally wrong????? I know that we have "x" cola soda machines at our school, but when we have an event we head out to whoever is willing to donate, or to Sam's Club. Wow - never realized it would be taken to these extremes. For those that it is, does a rep from one of those companies show up to ensure you are only using their product? I am still stunned.
Our district contracts with a national brand beverage company. Each school is set up on a different account, but all that is sold is considered fundraiser. PTO does NOT get the proceeds on this one, but our Literacy department does. We are not bound to sell these items by the contract for fundraisers, but anything sold out of our vending machines are. With as many soda's and bottled waters that we sell in these machines, we make a good amount of money. We then recyle the cans for a bigger profit!
