Right now I’m taking a short break from the twelve hour Election Day bake sale I’ve agreed to run this year (seriously, what was I thinking?). And all morning, as I preside over the cupcakes and brownies, I’ve been thinking about a post that I’ve long been meaning to write: my feelings about sugar- and/or junk-food- based school fundraisers.
On the one hand, the bake sale I’m running today couldn’t be more Norman Rockwell: there are flags and buntings everywhere, kids clamoring to take a turn behind the cash box, and almost all the goods are homemade. On the other hand, even though the intended consumer for this sale is the adult voter coming through the school to vote, a lot of the treats do wind up in kids’ hands. As I’ve talked about here since day one, it’s not that any single treat in a vacuum is at all harmful, but in today’s world, where kids get so much of this stuff so often, I do feel we have to look at these sales with a more critical eye. (And right now I’m not even talking about sales of real junk, like the chemical-laden cookie dough that, according to my friend Mara, can sit on your pantry shelf for a month or more without spoiling.)
Anyway, I’m too busy selling the sugar today to write about the sugar, but I noticed that, coincidentally, Dr. Susan Rubin has a post up this morning on this very subject. Take a look at what she has to say, and I’ll swing back around to this topic in the coming days.
And in the meantime, don’t forget to VOTE!
[…] while back, I sent you a dispatch from my kids’ elementary school Election Day bake sale in which I shared my ambivalence about […]