COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, March 9, 2010 1:30 p.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO, CHAIR COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN BILL 100012 - An ordinance amending Title 6 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Health Code," by defining "Supermarkets," and excluding Supermarkets from the definition of Chain Restaurants, thereby exempting Supermarkets from menu labeling requirements applicable to Chain Restaurants, under certain terms and conditions. - - - 2
Good afternoon. The Committee on Public Health and Human Services will come to order. We are waiting for one other Councilperson, who is on her way. We will just begin the testimony, and we'll have a quorum before we exercise a vote. We don't want to keep you here. Thank you for waiting and want to begin the public testimony on this bill. So I now call on the Clerk to read the bill.
Bill No. 100012, an ordinance amending Title 6 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Health Code," by defining "Supermarkets," and excluding Supermarkets from the definition of Chain Restaurants, thereby exempting Supermarkets from menu labeling requirements applicable to Chain Restaurants, under certain terms and conditions.
Thank you very much. 3 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 The Chair now recognizes Randy St. John, Senior Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association. (Witness approached witness table.)
Good afternoon and thank you for giving us a chance to speak to you today. I'm Randy St. John, Senior Vice-President with the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association. We represent the supermarket operators in the State of Pennsylvania. We've come before you today to correct an omission made in the drafting of the menu labeling ordinance. Let me give you a brief history. In a letter written to all City Council members on October 9th, 2008, I said in reference to the proposed ordinance that a restaurant or retail food establishment is not defined in the ordinance and is, therefore, unclear 4 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 which businesses would be required to comply. In conversations and e-mails with representatives of Councilwoman Reynolds Brown's office at the time, I was assured that supermarkets were not included in the bill. I was also assured in an e-mail that the Law Office had reviewed the bill and that supermarkets were not included. Based on those assurances, the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association did not weigh in on the bill further, since we weren't intended to be included. When the bill 16 was passed and sent to the Department of Health, their attorneys felt that supermarkets were included in the language as written in the bill, and the Office of Councilwoman Reynolds Brown, upon closer examination, agreed. The supermarkets were not intended to be in the bill, but were in the bill. So that brings us to today. This proposed bill would specifically 5 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 address the intention of whether or not supermarkets should be included in this ordinance. We see this current bill as a technical correction which makes the actual language of the bill reflect the actual intent of the Councilwoman who initiated the bill. We respectfully ask for your support of this bill, which will true up the language with the actual intention of the bill. I'd be happy to answer questions if you have any.
Next we have John Weidman, Deputy Executive Director of The Food Trust. (Witness approached witness table.)
Good morning, 6 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 Councilmembers and guests. My name is John Weidman, Deputy Executive Director with The Food Trust.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the correction. The Food Trust is a Philadelphia-based non-profit working to improve access to affordable, nutritious food. I am here today in support of Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown's menu labeling amendment to exempt supermarkets and grocers from Philadelphia's excellent new menu labeling law. I first want to thank Councilmembers for passing menu labeling and for the Health Department for implementing it. Philadelphians truly love this new tool to help them live healthier lives. Just last week, my wife went to the Corner Bakery, not an actual corner bakery, but the restaurant called 7 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 Corner Bakery, and she was there with a friend of hers, and they were going to have a light lunch and they were going to have salads. They looked up and saw salads were 700 calories and they switched to soups for 400 calories. That's a true story that just happened last week. So this is really working and it's exciting. The Food Trust supports exempting supermarkets from the menu labeling law because we feel that supermarkets are a major part of the solution to the obesity epidemic. That's why for the last ten years we have been working with State and City government officials to bring more supermarkets to underserved areas in Philadelphia. Just last month, First Lady Michelle Obama visited the Fresh Grocer in North Philadelphia to praise the store and the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative as national models that should be replicated throughout the country. 8 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 In almost every other state and city law that calls for menu labeling, supermarkets have been exempt. The main targets of menu labeling laws are chain restaurants that sell cheap, high-fat, high-sodium, high-sugar fast food. One simple reason for the focus on fast food chains is that they are a big part of the obesity problem. The other reason is that they're the best equipped to comply with the policy without any significant burden. Other businesses like non-chain restaurants, which are also exempt, and supermarkets face different challenges, higher costs in complying, and the intent of the law is not to hurt business in Philadelphia, but to empower our residents with good information to help them lead healthier lives. There is strong research that shows that supermarkets have a positive impact on public health. Studies have shown that not only does having a supermarket nearby increase fruit and 9 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 vegetable consumption, but they've also shown that it's associated with a lower body mass index among adolescents. That is why all major public health organizations now, including the Centers for Disease Control, the Institute of Medicine, the American Heart Association, they're all endorsing the efforts now to bring more supermarkets to these underserved areas. Philadelphia is a national leader in the fight against childhood obesity. Passing this amendment will ensure that we continue to focus on bringing more supermarkets into neighborhoods that need them while also providing our citizens with important nutrition information when they choose to shop at chain restaurants. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for your testimony. Any questions or comments from members of the Committee? 10 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 (No response.)
Thank you very much. Next, Tom Miller, Vice-President of Acme. As my aunt calls it, Acme. (Witness approached witness table.)
Only a local Philadelphian would really know the correct pronunciation of that. Very good. Good afternoon. I am Tom Miller and I am Senior Vice-President of Operations for Acme Markets. We operate ten stores in the City of Philadelphia and have approximately 1,200 employees in the City. Thank you for the opportunity to offer testimony on this important amendment today. First, I want to assure the Committee that Acme is committed to the health and wellness of our customers and we offer healthier choices, through 11 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 programs such as Nutrition IQ and store dieticians who offer healthy food recommendations. However, the logistics of a menu labeling requirement is a challenge. To further illustrate the point that you're going to hear from our friends at ShopRite here in just a moment, I would like to give you a quick sense of how an Acme Market would differ from chain restaurants. Chain restaurants are what City Council aimed at regulating. After reviewing your ordinance, Acme Markets would have a number of items that would be subject to menu labeling. The number likely far exceeds the number of items that are subject to the ordinance for chain restaurants like a McDonald's or Wendy's, and as has been said earlier, chain restaurants have a corporation to whom they could go and collect nutritional information for the limited number of items that they sell. We do not. 12 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 In fact, not only do our ready-made food counters have menus that may change on a daily or even an hourly basis, the recipes or offerings may be different from store to store. The ready-made food that we serve on site is prepared family-style. Trying to find out what is served on a whole chicken pot pie or ready-made cake is extremely difficult. Having a standard reference of nutritional labels would be challenging to achieve, and our associates would be responsible for the signage requirements that would be confusing and time-consuming to remain in compliance. To comply, we would also have to do an analysis for each ready-made item, with a variance in each item, placing a disproportionate burden on the supermarkets. In this time of severe economic depression, this would be a very difficult expense to bear. We would also have to modify our scales and printers to 13 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 create appropriate labels. Additionally, federal law already requires pre-packaged food to be nutritionally labeled, and these foods are the majority of the items that are currently in our stores. We hope that you will vote yes on this bill and restore the language of the bill to its original intention.
The Chair recognizes Ms. Bria McMenamin. MS. McMENAMIN: Good afternoon, Chairperson Marian and distinguished members of the Committee. My name is Bria McMenamin and my family owns and operates the ShopRite of Roosevelt Boulevard and the ShopRite at Morrell Plaza right here in Philadelphia, and I 14 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 am here to comment on the menu labeling amendment. Our stores are a part of the Wakefern Food Corporation, which is a retailer-owned supermarket cooperative. Wakefern provides marketing, distribution, procurement and warehousing services to its member companies. The cooperative's members are independent owners who operate supermarkets under the ShopRite banner. As independent store owners, we are similar to independently owned restaurants that have been exempted by the law. ShopRite store owners individualize, to an extent, items made in the deli, bakeries and prepared food areas based upon the consumer preferences and demand. The ordinance recognizes that an individual restaurant would have difficulty complying with the menu labeling ordinance, and we believe that since we are similar to these restaurants, we too should be exempt. 15 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 We would appreciate a yes vote on this bill. Thank you.
There being none, thank you very much. Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you, Madam Chair Lady. I just would like to put on the record that we have received testimony from the Department of Public Health and Dr. Don Schwarz wherein, and I quote, The Department of Public Health understands both of these issues and based on these issues, there is no 18 objection to this amendment by the Philadelphia Health Department. And I must acknowledge that we also received testimony from Mr. Patrick Conway, who is President and CEO of the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association, and the record should reflect that they were not in support of this amendment. 16 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you very much. Let me recognize Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, which establishes our quorum in the presence of Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, Councilman Goode, myself, and so now we will move out of the public hearing and go into the public meeting. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown for a motion to move Bill 100012.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I do move that Bill No. 17 100012 be moved out of Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended so as to permit first reading at our next scheduled session of City Council. (Duly seconded.)
Excuse me a minute. I'm sorry. Is there anyone else here to 17 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 testify on this bill? (No response.)
Okay. Thank you. I didn't have anybody else on the list. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We're here just to answer any questions if there were questions for the Health Department.
Let me back up. It has been moved and seconded that Bill 100012 be reported out of Committee with a favorable recommendation and that the rules of Council be suspended so this bill can be heard at Council's next session. All in favor will say aye. 18 3/9/10 - PUBLIC HEALTH - BILL 100012 (Aye.)
There being none, this motion is carried. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Madam Chair. (Committee on Public Health and Human Services concluded at 1:40 p.m.) - - - 19 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on March 9, 2010, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)