Bake Sale: Doritos and Pop-Tarts, but not homemade brownies
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Michal Czerwonka for The New York Times
Recently, fund-raising food sales was banned in city schools, but today a city panel voted on amendment that student groups can sell “items like Pop-Tarts and Doritos during the school day, but not brownies, zucchini bread or anything else homemade”, the New York Times reported.
The New York Times explains that, “the new regulation is meant as a compromise between the city’s concerns about childhood obesity— which they cite as the reason for the restrictions — and the fund-raising needs of student and parent groups, some of which are struggling amid difficult economic times, especially after losing one of their most lucrative sources of revenue. Under the new rules, students may sell fresh fruits and vegetables, or one of 27 specific packaged items that have been approved for sales in city vending machines, between the start of school and 6 p.m. on weekdays. The same goes for parent groups, except for an exception carved out for one no-brownies-barred Parent Teacher Association bake sale during the school day per month. No homemade or unpackaged items are on the list of “approved” foods because “it’s impossible to know what the content is, or what the portion size is,” said Kathleen Grimm, the deputy chancellor for infrastructure and portfolio planning, who oversees the regulation.”
There were scores of comments on the initial New York Times report of the amendment, most of them similar to this comment:
The only one benefiting from these new regs is the vending company.
Bake sales of home made pastries is as American as apple pie, and no more unhealthy.
This is taking away what little fun is left in school after all the test prep curriculum was instituted.
— DonO
but this particular comment really summed it up for me:
Deputy Chancellor Grimm will go down in history for making one of the most egregious decisions concerning children’s health and well-being. When reading Sharon Otterman’s article yesterday, I was incensed to learn that “approved items include two of the 21 varieties of Frito-Lay Doritos: Cool Ranch Reduced Fat, and Spicy Sweet Chili (1 ounce packages). The Cool Ranch variety contains three food colorings — Red 4D, Blue 1 and Yellow 5 — and two laboratory-produced flavor enhancers — disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate. The criteria don’t ban these additives.”
The article goes on to say: “Some groups used to raise money by selling bagels, pizza, rice and beans, sushi, or other items during lunch hour. No more.”
So here’s to the garbage in those Doritos, Deputy Chancellor Grimm. You’re denying schoolchildren a fair way to raise funds with decent homemade food, and instead selling out to the corporations that produce garbage such as Cool Ranch Doritos.
And yet we’d all still prefer the kids eat apples.
— Steven M.
