Author: Katie Cristol Source: Cavalier Daily Coca-Cola has contracts with nearly half of this country's school districts. There are vending machines in almost 99 percent of high schools, nearly 75 percent of middle schools and 43 percent of elementary schools. It's no small wonder that the number of overweight schoolchildren has tripled to 9 million, or 15 percent, since before we started school in the late 1980s.