SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- School vending machines are getting a makeover. The companies that stock the machines are making a pledge to make sure half the items are healthful, but the pledge may still not be enough to make some school districts happy.

Healthier foods are coming to school vending machines, and former Olympic swimmer Janet Evans has been enlisted to help promote a new balance for life program: 50 percent of school vending items will meet strict nutritional guidelines and 50 percent won't.

"There's a time to eat good, healthy stuff, and there's a time to eat a candy bar," said Total Vending Services spokeswoman Jamie Edman.

"I can stand here and say I ate everything perfectly healthy when I was training, but I didn't. I had a candy bar here and there," Evans said.

But the 50-50 promise won't fly in districts like Sacramento City Unified, where there is a commitment to make sure 80 percent of food available at the school will be healthful by July 2006.

"The Sac City Board passed policy last spring that sets guidelines to what we can serve to students, and all vending machines have to comply with that," said Director of Nutrition Services Mark Lemieux.

The healthful vending alternatives will be marked in the vending machines with the "balanced for life" logo.