Sugary Drink Tax Equity Policy Design Report
In 2020, the Praxis Project along with Healthy Food America, funded in part by Voices for Healthy Kids, an initiative of the American Heart Association, coordinated discussions with national advocates regarding designing equitable soda taxes. Collectively, the workgroup has developed a set of tools and resources to support other communities seeking to implement equitable SSB taxes.
Praxis believes that in order to address inequitable health outcomes, we need to transform the systems and structures that shape our beverage and food environments. For SSBs this includes addressing predatory marketing of Big Soda in areas whose opportunities to live healthy lives have been limited through extreme disinvestment. It is precisely in these areas where Big Soda typically engages in predatory marketing and targeted pricing that we need to make sure soda tax revenues are invested to build community power to address the determinants of health.
This report describes key elements of equitable sugary tax policy design, initiation, adoption, and implementation.