A new report from a group of retired military leaders decries the amount of junk food sold in public schools.
The group Mission: Readiness is pushing for regulations about what’s sold in school vending machines.
It says the 400 billion junk-food calories consumed by students each year, converted to candy bars, would equal more than 2 billion such treats—and weigh more than the aircraft carrier Midway.
The nonpartisan group points to national surveys conducted for the military and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that one in four young adults would be ineligible to serve in the military because of excess body fat.