I am currently a pre-nursing major at Kapiolani Community College (KCC) and pursuing a degree in Natural Science, specifically microbiology. If you ever take a microbiology class, you will be educated on the impact of certain molecules, such as saccharides (sugars) on our bodies. High-fructose corn syrup, a disaccharide with fructose, which is damaging to our health with prolonged exposure, is plaguing our food supply, but the most common exposure comes from soft drinks.

As a student, one class requires about six hours of studying per week at the minimum, and any student can concur that sleep, nutrition and hydration have a huge impact on our ability to focus. Unfortunately vending machines offer a variety of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). From my own experience, even a few cents’ difference in price can affect buying decisions at the grocery stores. Similarly at a vending machine, the addition of a 2-cent fee to sugar-sweetened beverages will help students like me and my peers make better, healthier choices.

The fact that the SSB fee would help fund our Healthy Ohana programs is another reason to move Senate Bill 2211 forward and enact it into law. Humans are creatures of habit. Their craving for soft drinks is a habit that could yield a benefit if the added fee goes toward programs that encourage children to make better choices that put them on the path to better health — and not on a path toward the diseases that plague too many of us.

Last year, the bill to impose a very small fee on sugar-sweetened beverages did not even get a hearing. This year we are still waiting to hear if Health Chairman Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole will schedule a hearing for the bill. What’s the holdup? Obesity rates are rising at an alarming rate. More than 1 out of 4 middle- and high-school youth and more than half of adults in Hawaii are overweight or obese. More than 60% of Hawaii adults suffer from a chronic disease, such as diabetes, heart disease or cancer.

This is no time to resist smart measures like an SSB fee that could help fund our Healthy Ohana programs. As someone who hopes to make a career in nursing, I hope our lawmakers will do the right thing and enact an SSB fee. Politicians often make speeches about how much they love our keiki. If they truly do, and if they care about public health, they will waste no time in scheduling a hearing for SB 2211 and make the SSB fee a reality in Hawaii.

As we come out of the current COVID-19 pandemic, let’s make sure we are better prepared to withstand the next one by ensuring the health of our children through common-sense preventative measures.

SB 2211 is one such measure. It deserves to be heard.

Sheila Mendez is a pre-nursing student at Kapiolani Community College pursuing a degree in microbiology.