For a few weeks now I’ve been amassing some interesting links for you on the always-contentious issues of school bake sales and sugary classroom treats and rewards:
An Overview of Practices Around the Country
Bloomberg/Businessweek recently published an interesting overview on how districts around the country deal with school bake sales, from outright bans to regulating the time and place at which they can be held.
Massachusetts Gets Cold Feet
But disregard the mention in the Bloomberg piece about Massachusetts getting ready to ban bake sales: today on Food Politics, Marion Nestle describes how an uproar immediately ensued when that plan was announced in Massachusetts, resulting in a hasty retraction.
Classroom Birthday Celebrations Quantified
One interesting tidbit from Marion’s post is that there has actually been a scholarly study of the food offered for classroom birthday parties. (How could I, of all people, not know this? 🙂 ) Here’s one notable finding: caloric intake from foods and beverages offered during classroom celebrations can contribute between 20-35% of a child’s daily caloric needs. Given my – ahem- strong interest in this subject, I’m eager to read the study in its entirety.
New Colorado Rules Draw Fire
Meanwhile, Susan Tang of Little Ladies Who Lunch recently sent me this piece about a Colorado district’s new nutrition regulations and ban on food fundraisers — and negative parent reaction to it. (More from Fox News, here.)
What About Individual Choice?
For those in the pro-sugary-treat faction who say, “If you don’t like it, just tell your kid to abstain,” please consider reading this new post from Sally Kuzemchak of Real Mom Nutrition. She’s writing about sugary soccer snacks but the post would be just as applicable to school treats. As is usually the case with Sally’s posts, I feel like she took the words right out of my mouth.
Can Schools Make Money Without Selling Junk Food?
We all know that bake sales and school stores selling junk food earn significant money for cash-strapped schools, and many are simply afraid to give up that precious revenue source. That’s why I’m interested in attending a webinar on non-food school fundraisers, hosted next Wednesday by the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity. You can join me by registering here.
Don’t Forget the Manifesto!
Finally, if you’re getting entirely fed up with the amount of sugar and junk food your kid is fed at school without your knowledge or permission, don’t forget The Lunch Tray’s “manifesto” on this topic. Feel free to copy it, share it and let others know how you feel!
Chris says
They’ve lost my $ with their current offerings.. It has taken all year, but my now 10 1/2 grrl and her teacher have been able to keep her treat free so to speak for several months.
Dana Woldow says
Bettina – I posted a version of this as a comment on Marion’s Food Politics site, but I hope you don’t mind if I repost here. Truly, the idea that bake sales are “essential” to raising money for school is such nonsense!
As an 18 year veteran of fundraising for my children’s public schools, I can confidently state that the average bake sale raises very little of a school’s budget. Typically, bake sales are done to raise money for an individual classroom’s field trip, or to help the PTA or other parent organization pay for the mnay enrichments they try to provide for the school, or perhaps to raise money to buy new books for the library. Bake sales do not pay for teacher salaries or textbooks.
In fact, after studying the issue closely, I determined that it was quicker and easier (not to mention more lucrative) to raise money through the “bakeless” bake sale – that is, to simply ask parents to NOT go to the store and purchase butter, flour, sugar, eggs, chocolate chips, etc.; to NOT spend an hour of their time baking cookies or brownies; to NOT volunteer another couple of hours of their time to sell the goodies at school; and to NOT send their child to school armed with money to buy the treats. Instead, asking parents to think about how much money they would NOT be spending (including the value of their own time to shop, bake, and sell, and what they would give their child to spend at the sale) and instead to send all or a portion of that total to school as a contribution, actually resulted in MORE money being raised than through a bake sale.
And yes, I get it that some families are low income and that sending in a contribution is a hardship, but I do not buy the argument that “the only way they can contribute is via a bake sale.” Ingredients cost money, and no one’s time – no matter how low their income – comes free. Those who truly cannot afford to contribute at all don’t have to – just as they don’t have to participate in a bake sale. With the “bakeless” bake sale, at least their kids don’t feel left out when they have no money to buy the cookies and brownies that their peers are gobbling up.
One final advantage to the “bakeless” bake sale is that the number of hours the average parent can/will donate to school activites is limited. No matter how badly we want to help, we all have jobs, families, and other obligations. Using up these precious volunteer hours on bake sales which don’t raise very much money, means that those hours will then not be available to be donated to other events which might be more lucrative (like a school’s silent auction, carnival or garage sale), or contribute more to the kids’ education, like assisting with a complex classroom project, or chaperoning a field trip, or tutoring reluctant readers. Some parents feel that they can only help with one school event per year – do we really want it to be a bake sale that might only bring in a couple of hundred dollars, when it turns out that just asking for contributions raises twice that?
For more ways to raise money for your school without selling food, please visit PEACHSF.org
c says
I love this! And no kids are excluded because of medical conditions like diabetes and food allergy. 🙂
Casey says
Timely topic! Many schools rely on fundraising activities to supplement school budgets and pay for equipment, materials, supplies, and events. Unfortunately, many school fundraisers involve the sale of unhealthy foods. Given the rising obesity rates and children’s poor diets, many schools are reconsidering whether selling low-nutrition foods is an appropriate way to raise money. However, identifying and initiating new fundraising strategies can be a challenge.
Join us for a webinar on Wednesday May 23 from 1-2 p.m. EDT as we explore the current status of fundraising in schools, why healthy fundraising is important, and examples of profitable, healthier fundraising.
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/262348470
Speakers:
Mollie Van Lieu, National PTA
Margo G. Wootan, D.Sc., Center for Science in the Public Interest
Jamie Chriqui, PhD, Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago
Carey Dabney, Texas PTA
Casey Hinds, Kentucky Coordinated School Health Advisory Committee
bw1 says
“an uproar immediately ensued when that plan was announced in Massachusetts, resulting in a hasty retraction.”
HORRORS!!!! Can you believe they actually took that whole “consent of the governed” thing seriously and gave in to all those unwashed peons? Don’t they know enough to trust in their enlightened betters?
bw1 says
Left the following comment at Real Mom Nutrition:
“But there’s one mom I can’t be. ”
WON’T be. That’s your choice. It has consequences. Live with them.
“I worry that excluding my kids that way–forbidding them to join the fray–is potentially more damaging than the hydrogenated fats and high fructose corn syrup.”
That concern is misguided. You’re their PARENT, not their pal. Your JOB is to say no, over and over again, until they learn to do it themselves.
“Instead, they will be thinking this: “It’s. Not. Fair!”
Because NO child has EVER said THAT before, right? If your child never rails against the supposed injustice of what you impose, then you’re doing the parenting thing wrong.
“That’s why I want this stuff gone from the sidelines completely–so it’s not another battle parents have to fight, ”
Guess what – good parenting always has and will be a series of battles. .
“Believe me, I already say “No” to an awful lot of things. ”
Get used to it. You have many years of saying “no” ahead of you. The two single most important things you can teach your children are impulse control the value of deferred gratification. No, it’s not easy – nothing worthwhile ever is.
“Most adults, with decades’ worth of knowledge and experiences, can’t even do that. ”
Because their parents never taught them.
“And to me, That’s. Not. Fair.”
No, it’s not fair – it’s free. That’s what America is about, freedom. It’s messy, and risky, and not easy if you want to do the right thing. If that is a problem for you, the world is full of countries where freedom is suppressed in the service of someone’s idea of what’s fair. All of them will welcome you with open arms because smart people with valuable skills are fleeing them every day, but that should be a warning to be careful what you wish for.
bw1 says
Just a reminder, I’m 100% behind you when it comes to SCHOOL offering food rewards or treats in the classroom. The issue here is your failure to distinguish the vertical interaction between state actors and your kid from horizontal interactions between your child and his/her peers. Pushing back on the former is exercising liberty, asking the school to suppress the latter is tyranny.
The story about the teacher rewarding students with cans of Coke was outrageous. I’d pull the kid out of that school so fast the principal’s head would spin. I’d sell half of what I own to get them in a private school that didn’t pull those shenanigans.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
bw1: This is so interesting to me! In all the time that you and I have gone back on this topic (and for readers who don’t know, our exchanges have been the subject of a separate post), I had no idea that you were making this school/parent distinction (and if I missed it, I apologize). But do you really mean that? Would it be OK with you if my child passed out offensive literature to his young peers — pamphlets advocating violent terrorist acts, for example, passed out in a second grade classroom? Would it be “tyranny” if a parent objected to that?
bw1 says
First, I made the distinction clear in several comments, using the same language used here.
In second grade, a classmate invited some of us into his garage to view some adult magazines he had obtained from another classmate. My parents found out; I forget how. My parents called his parents, the materials were confiscated, and we were both grounded and forbidden to associate with the student who originally supplied the “literature.” There was no suggestion that the school had any role to play in preventing it.
In fourth grade, a classmate gave me a copy of Bleatty’s “The Exorcist.” My parents caught me with it, told me it was inappropriate for my age, to return it immediately, and I did. There was never any thought of blaming the school.
Kids’ peers are going to expose them to all sorts of things of which their parents may not approve, including junk food, drugs, sexual temptations, atheism, religion, aberrant philosophies of politics, morality, or interpersonal relationships. If you’re a fundamentalist, a classmate could slip your kid an erotic novel. If you’re an atheist, it could be a Christian apologetic book. If you’re an ardent socialist progressive, a copy of Atlas Shrugged. If you’re a conservative, it could be the Communist Manifesto. Do you begin to see the problem?
Since you didn’t read my previous comments very closely, then maybe you might now pay attention and respond to the scenario I presented – school bans birthday treats – birthday kid announces that he’ll be passing out cupcakes on the sidewalk 10 feet outside of school grounds after school. What would you have them do? Alternatively, he passes word quietly during recess that anyone in class who knocks on his door (conveniently located halfway between school and your house) to wish him happy birthday will be given a cupcake, What would you have the school do? Starting to see the problem, and the inherently fascist nature of what you’re demanding?
In a free and increasingly culturally fragmented society, the public schools become an ideological and cultural minefield of influences you might prefer to which your child not be exposed, but in such a society, you have no right to call for their suppression. I recommend private schools and fervently pushing for more voucher programs. If you wanted to ban birthday treats at your child’s PRIVATE school, I’d have absolutely no objections. That would be strictly a matter between you and the school management, and the rest of parents at that school.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
bw1: I feel you and I could go round and round on this point, which is really central to our disagreement. I’m going to simply repeat what I said before about why I feel that what goes on within the school walls (not someone’s garage, not the sidewalk, not a home near a school) is distinctly different from the rest of the world:
I’m not trying to squelch debate, bw1, but I do think we’ve reached that juncture where we might need to agree to disagree, no?
Kristin says
We ban guns, knives, gum, cell phones, medication, drugs, cigarettes, and a litany of other things in schools (for very good reason!). Sugary treats on a regular basis are just as dangerous to health, well-being, and focus as these things I have mentioned. Banning things at school is not a new idea and just comes with the territory.
bw1 says
OK Kristin, let’s make a deal. You get to force feed me a cupcake, and I get to shoot or stab you. No? Fine, then get real.
Kristin says
You can die from eating too many cupcakes. Just ask anyone who has a family member who has died from complications related to either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes (type 2 can happen at any time and even type 1 can happen in adulthood). It is WAY more ubiquitious than you think. One cupcake here and there is fine, but not at the rate they (and other sugary treats) are consumed today. It is the cupcake for every child’s birthday, plus all the other sugary treats offered to kids each day for different reasons that is the killer. You ought to go read some statistics and get real yourself.
bw1 says
“You can die from eating too many cupcakes. ”
Yeah, right, get real. You can die, directly and immediately, from drinking too much water. Cupcakes don’t kill; overall life habits kill. The human digestive tract lacks the capacity for sufficient cupcake consumption to harm someone involved in active training for an Ironman or ultra-marathon. Show me the exercise regimen that will enable one’s skull to stop a .40 hollow point.
So, while you all are getting hysterical about cupcakes, the belief that walking to school is frought with peril has taken root to the point where parents have actually been charged with child endangerment for allowing their kids to walk or ride bikes to school rather than be driven or bussed. How many of the cupcake haters here drive their dears to school? If you’re so all fired concerned about obesity and diabetes, maybe you should wake up and smell the gasoline. Three generations ago, there were no artificial sweeteners or butter substitutes, and people ate a load of sugar and butter, but they lacked the gasoline legs of this generation. ACTIVITY LEVEL IS WHAT HAS REALLY CHANGED.
Years ago some nutritional scold organization did an evaluation of college food. Guess which school ranked the unhealthiest? The United States Military Academy at West Point was ranked worst for sugar, other carbs, fats – the whole spectrum of nutritional bogeymen. Would you care to wager how a comparison of any metabolic health metric between the cadets and the student body of any other university might go? Of course the authors overlooked that the student body is required to run about ten miles a day.
Cupcakes can’t harm your kids unless you first allow them to be too sendentary.
bw1 says
You’ve pointedly avoided the hypotheticals I put forth. Do you then, also think the schools should step in to prevent your child’s exposure, by his peers, to points of view you oppose?
If the school bans birthday treats and the practice is taken underground off school grounds, what have you accomplished? Now, since some kids’ failure to show up at birthday boy’s door results in a surplus, your kid might actually get two or three cupcakes. You’re not only ignoring the draconian implications of what you demand, you’re disregarding the strong chance that they won’t produce the desired result.
If you don’t teach your kid to resist peer pressure and bodily urges now on the little stuff, he won’t be ready when it comes to the big stuff. You can’t count on schools to combat peer pressure – schools RUN on peer pressure – “school spirit” is nothing more than institutionalized peer pressure and groupthink – most pep assemblies resemble the Nuremburg rally.
My mother in law teaches first grade – she has caught male first graders pointedly asking their female classmates to have sex with them. If you really care about these things, vote with your feet and leave the public schools. As I said, in the context of private schools, I’m with you 150%. In the public school context your demands that birthday treats be banned are no different from demanding organized prayer each day.
Make no mistake, if I were king, cupcakes would be banned outright, because I think they’re the height of culinary banality. But I’m not king, and you’re not king. We live in a society based on the principle of limited government, embodied in a document that, if you were admitted to the bar, you swore an oath to uphold, and not just until your ox was being gored.
Kristin says
Do you even have kids? I think you are living in some kind of lala land. 1st graders selling cupcakes on the sly?? I actually know people who did this when I was little — sold candybars in class under cover, but it was in high school and it wasn’t any kind of stampede to get those candy bars. And what elementary kid would actually DO that–bake cupcakes for anyone who would wish him a happy birthday — I mean COME ON. That’s ridiculous. Ok, maybe one or two socially awkward kids may, but a whole class full? I had a friend in junior high who’s parents owned a convenience store. She would give kids candy if they were nice to her, but everyone thought of her as desperate. On the other hand, having a teacher HAND a child a cupcake is different, and many more children will consume these things if they are given in this manner. If you had a child you would know this.
And honestly, you can’t really expect a young child to turn down treats during a birthday celebration when all the other kids are consuming them. THAT is the oddest idea you have had yet. Kids just are not like that and they do not learn this self control until they are older. My daughter has dietary restrictions, and she has been told she could die if she ate what she is not supposed to. Even so, I have to coordinate with teachers to have her save whatever she is given so she can eat it with me, under supervision. It is a constant battle to get her to refuse the foods she is not supposed to eat. You act like it is easy! Like you’re just a bad parent if you can’t do it. Why don’t you try? If you have a child, tell them to refuse a banal cupcake next time they are served and see what happens — actually tell them to do that for a year.
bw1 says
“I think you are living in some kind of lala land. 1st graders selling cupcakes on the sly??”
READ BEFORE RESPONDING – I never said anything about selling anything. Let’s get something straight. I’m not talking about a TEACHER handing a student anything – I’ve been abundantly clear that I don’t in any way condone that.
“And what elementary kid would actually DO that–bake cupcakes for anyone who would wish him a happy birthday — I mean COME ON. That’s ridiculous.”
Birthday treats are provided by PARENTS, many of whom are angry about birthday treat bans. Parents put their kids up to many such things – you don’t think a second grader got it in her head that the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance violated her First Amendment rights, do you? Her FATHER put her up to it.
“Ok, maybe one or two socially awkward kids may, but a whole class full?”
First, it only takes one to start a trend, and second, the birthday wishes are a peripheral part of the scenario. The concept is telling kids that, because the school has banned birthday treats, their treats will be waiting for them after school beyond the school’s reach. But it really doesn’t matter – the scenario was to support a question – IF that happened, what would you then do?
“On the other hand, having a teacher HAND a child a cupcake is different,”
I NEVER CONDONED THAT. In every classroom I’ve ever seen, when a kid brings in a birthday treat, that kid distributes it, and NOT during class time.
?And honestly, you can’t really expect a young child to turn down treats during a birthday celebration when all the other kids are consuming them.”
I’ve seen it done. When I was in school, there were kids in my class whose parents were virulent racists and they refused birthday treats from students whose ethnicity didn’t meet with their parents’ approval. If a racist scumbag can instill his twisted values in his kid, what’s stopping you?
“Kids just are not like that and they do not learn this self control until they are older”
Really? I’ve personally lived and observed empirical counter-examples to your claim.
“It is a constant battle to get her to refuse the foods she is not supposed to eat. You act like it is easy!”
I never said it was easy. Easy and parenting should
never appear in the same sentence. If it was easy, anyone could do it, but our society is full of proof that that is not the case.
“Like you’re just a bad parent if you can’t do it. ”
No, I’ve made it clear that one is a bad American if one asks the government to make coersive impositions upon others in order to avoid that burden. There’s nothing wrong with finding a private school that shares your views and sending your children there, resting comfortably in the knowledge that the school will never allow a cupcake to darken its doorway.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
bw1: Asking a school to keep sweets out of a classroom is not the same as “demanding organized prayer each day.” In fact, it’s the complete opposite. When a school imposes prayer, it overrides the different religious beliefs (or absence of belief) reflected in the classroom. Similarly, when food is brought in, it overrides the varying parental philosophies on feeding, nutritional needs, allergen concerns and religious dietary restrictions reflected in the classroom. Both intrude on on how individual parents wish to raise their kids. The absence of both allows every family to do what they think is best.
But listen. While I applaud the enthusiasm and dedication you bring to arguing your side of this issue, you and I have been going round and round on it for weeks and I don’t think there’s much more to be gained here, for us or readers of this thread. I’m going to bow out – feel free to have the last word if you wish. Cheers.
bw1 says
“When a school imposes prayer, it overrides the different religious beliefs (or absence of belief) reflected in the classroom. Similarly, when food is brought in, it overrides the varying parental philosophies”
PHILOSOPHIES – thank you. That’s the point. As I pointed out with Chic Mummy, there are opposing views held by reasonable people on what constitutes a healthy diet. Hence, when a school coersively enforces one parents’ food BELIEFS, it overrides those of other parents who don’t share them. Remember, since you and your followers keep missing it, I’m talking strictly about restrictions on the presence and sharing of student-sourced food.
on feeding, nutritional needs, allergen concerns and religious dietary restrictions reflected in the classroom.
Thank you again – you have properly placed nutritional philosophy alongside religious dietary restrictions as viewpoints about which reasonable people disagree. So, why shouldn’t the vegans (one point on the spectrum of dietary philosophies embraced by reasonable people) raise hell when schools allow kids to bring baloney sandwiches to the lunch room, or even condiments containing gelatin? In a free country, there is nothing so dangerous as zealous true believers, whether religious or dietary.
Both intrude on on how individual parents wish to raise their kids.
So does your ban on birthday treats. Many parents see that practice as a valuable way to teach generosity and that giving is as pleasurable as receiving, by turning an occasion of receiving gifts into an opportunity to share.
I’m going to bow out
I’ve pointedly responded to all of your points, while you’ve pointedly avoided addressing many of mine. I’ve asked direct questions which you’ve ignored. WOULD you call for schools to ban kids sharing their religious, political and other potentially hot button views with other students? What would you do if birthday treats were taken off school grounds and your kid came home with cupcake crumbs on his shirt from a sidewalk birthday treat distribution. Answering these questions would go a long way to freshening the discussion.
Casey says
Bettina, thank you for clearly making the case for why this is problematic. Like Kristin, I also wonder if bw1 has children because his grasp of the situation does not match what I see happening in my children’s schools.
Kristin says
Personally, I think every time there is any kind of bake sale or celebration at school that includes food it sets a discriminatory tone against those kids who can’t have any of it. I mean, WHY can’t people get more creative with the things they are selling or with birthday celebrations? I am so sick and tired of my daughter, who is 5 years old with Type 1 diabetes, being reminded almost every single day in the classroom that she is different from everyone else and can’t participate in the jovial celebrations that accompany food at school. It sets her apart — she retreats within. I already have to come and inject her with insulin for lunch, but in addition to that, she has to sit by idly while other children consume treats. For birthdays, why not just have a ceremony and ask the parent to send the child with 1 picture for every year then go through a timeline with them of their life for the class, or something similar? There are so many other nice things to do for children — give them privileges for a day, make them “special person” for the day…I think parents who bring treats are trying to satisfy some kind of insecurity they have whereby they have to bake or buy something special to show the child how much they care. Perhaps parents should just get over that because it really is harmful all around. Or if parents want to participate in their child’s celebration at school, just go have lunch with them for a day. My kids are overjoyed when I have lunch with them at school (my older one is 9 years old). I’ve had enough of this, and am voting with my two feet. We are homeschooling next year. This has nothing to do with “Freedom,” (bw1) — it has to do with parents’ total lack of sensitivity and creativity.
bw1 says
“Personally, I think every time there is any kind of bake sale or celebration at school that includes food it sets a discriminatory tone against those kids who can’t have any of it…..I am so sick and tired of my daughter, who is 5 years old with Type 1 diabetes, being reminded almost every single day in the classroom that she is different from everyone else and can’t participate in the jovial celebrations that accompany food at school.”
So, what about the paraplegic kid – should everyone else be restricted to wheelchairs because he can’t walk? Should music be banned to avoid reminding the deaf that they are different? Holy Harrison Bergeron, Batman! We are ALL different and unique. Should art be banned because one kid can’t draw? Should the homecoming dance be cancelled because some kids are homely and can’t get dates? Where does it stop?
Chic Mummy says
My issue is “where do you draw the line?” I have no problem with banning bake sales and events where food/treats are offered to all students. I also have no problem with mandating what can and can’t be sold in the cafeteria. What I do have a problem with is someone dictating what I can serve to my own child. For example, I am a firm believer in the science that shows that dietary saturated fat is not related to heart disease. So my children’s lunches almost always include full fat milk and cheese. I’m also a believer that juice is a treat, not a healthy option. Does that mean they will no longer be allowed to drink the full fat milk? I’m not saying that the school should have to sell it, just that it should be my choice whether I want my kids drinking it, and that this probably applies to the soda as well.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Chic Mummy: Just FYI, I totally agree that no one should tell a parent what to pack in a lunch, except to the extent that there are food allergic children who might be endangered. How you feed your kid is your choice, period. I even have less of an issue with the after-school bake sale, which is very different from a treat given to my kid in the classroom without my knowledge or consent. With a bake sale, parents usually know it’s going on, kids have to pay for the treat, etc.
bw1 says
But kids trade lunch contents all the time.
Also, why should she have to jump through hoops to keep the full fat milk cold and fresh when those who believe skim is healthier get to have their preference made so convenient, and at the expense of my tax dollars?
Chic Mommy subscribes to a different theory about milkfat, one that is well supported by research. Why should one side of that debate get subsidized refrigeration and delivery service? The government isn’t supposed to be taking sides, choosing the winners and losers, subverting the scientific process.
Amy says
I don’t think our governments should get involved to the level of restricting certain foods in schools. However, I do think that school districts, which are supposed to have childrens’ best interest in mind, should set guidelines. And if your compass is “What is best for the children?” I think you’ll realize that 26 (or however many kids there are in a classroom) days of “extra” snacks, in the form of cupcakes, cake, or donuts, is not best for the children, especially when combined with all the snacks after sports and other activities that the average kids is exposed to.
Teachers have developed all sorts of coping mechanisms in order not to have these sugary snacks affect learning. They offer the snacks right after lunch, before a bit of recess so the kids can run it off. Or, as in the case of my oldest kid’s first grade teacher, carve out a few minutes right before carpool to hand out treats, thus ensuring precious school time was not lost to the hyped up sugar/artificial dye reactions and letting parents deal with the fallout from the snacks.
I am so happy my kids are older and not subjected to this continuous onslaught of bad food anymore. You’re kidding yourself if you think this encouragement of snacking does not contribute to poor eating habits. Further, because most of the “treats” are often of the lowest-quality pre-packaged foods, they are loaded with chemicals that no one needs and that serve to alter taste perception to the point that a seasonal strawberry seems lackluster in comparison to an artificially flavored strawberry donut.
Other countries (Canada, France) do not allow this incessant snacking in schools. Why is the United States so intent on it? I don’t get it.
bw1 says
“However, I do think that school districts, which are supposed to have childrens’ best interest in mind”
That’s rich – school districts having the childrens’ best interests in mind. If you believe that, I have a bridge for sale.
Amy says
Sorry state of affairs if your school districts can’t be counted on (not bashing you – my kids attend independent schools because of our poor school system). But my point is that someone, perhaps the principal or even the teacher, needs to think about what is best for the children and be guided by that compass.
bw1 says
That’s the PARENT’S job. The teachers belong to a union that actively works against the best interests of students.