State’s junk food ban could take bite out of school fundrais

[AndCanItBe]

Bake sales, the calorie-laden standby cash-strapped classrooms, PTAs and booster clubs rely on, will be outlawed from public schools as of Aug. 1 as part of new no-nonsense nutrition standards, forcing fundraisers back to the blackboard to cook up alternative ways to raise money for kids.

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[burien1]

I can see removing all the vending machines with soda, and candy that replaces a nutritious lunch, but this goes way too far. How long before they forbid us to buy these products for our underage children, or even ourselves ?

[AndCanItBe]

Certainly not long if they get their way.

[Jericho]

I can see removing all the vending machines with soda, and candy that replaces a nutritious lunch, but this goes way too far. How long before they forbid us to buy these products for our underage children, or even ourselves ?

Yup, that is the problem with letting government decide whats good and what's bad for us, it's a slippery slope. You know back in Jesus' day when food was all natural and they didn't have processed and fast foods, people still got sick. Eating healthy is good but it's not the end all be all.

[Abiding in His Word]

I can see removing all the vending machines with soda, and candy that replaces a nutritious lunch, but this goes way too far. How long before they forbid us to buy these products for our underage children, or even ourselves ?

I foresee a new area for blackmarketing....

[GodsStudent]

Maybe moms like me pushed for this? I have a child that is struggling with food addiction. She doesn't have any self control, and though I've tried to help her make sensible food choices, have had to take food out of my pantry and lock it behind the guest bedroom doors....will spend untold thousands of dollars sending her to a weight loss camp this summer......her weight continues to climb.

It's difficult to be a part of...and school makes it that much more difficult. Processed foods for lunch, snack vending machines all over the campus...and this is middle school. When I was in high school, we had vending machine liberties...this day and time, we are extending those liberties to our middle schoolers....

I can't control my daughters obsession, but why should these machines lurk around every corner....compelling our irresponsible children? I might add that she is chunky, as are quite a few of her piers. Processed high calorie foods don't mix well in a world that isn't safe enough to send our kids out to play in the neighborhood in the afternoons in.

[Abiding in His Word]

GodsStudent, this isn't a problem that can be curbed by constraints in middle school or high school. It's not just processed or fast-foods that's the problem. It's more the result of an epidemic of self-indulgent citizens of a country that has not known the meaning of moderation in any area of life. We're a nation that is saturated with food, alcohol, fashion, drugs, sex, and any other means of self-gratification.

And obsession with food didn't just start with this generation.

Part of the reason for the continuing rise is that the population is growing and aging. People ages 45 to 64 are most likely to be obese, Finkelstein said.

Today, more than 78 million U.S. adults are obese, defined as having a body-mass index of 30 or more.

No end to obesity epidemic, 20-year forecast shows

When I grew up with 8 brothers and sisters, we ate a balanced meal of meat, potatoes, and vegetable. It was a rare occasion that we had dessert, in fact, I don't remember a time. Mom bought 1 6-pack of soda occasionally, and with 11 people in the house, sharing was a necessity. In the evening when we wanted a snack, we drew straws to see who had to go downstairs and make the peanut butter toast. That was a treat.

All that's to say.... the government is a bit too late in wanting to control this particular epidemic imo. Not that I agree with their effort to control this, but again, there are many other ways that will be used to satisfy our never-ending need for self-gratification. If you read about the "Prohibition" of the 1920-30's, the government's effort to eliminate places where alcohol was available, didn't work for very long and a nightmare ensued in an effort to enforce it. Hence, my remark about black-marketing. When restrictions by the government are deemed to be restrictive of personal freedoms, people will find a way to ignore it by doing so outside the view of law enforcement.

I'm not sure what the solution is, but I don't think what people eat or where they eat should be the government's concern.

[GodsStudent]

You make some good points, Abiding. As I think of my own family and even extended family and friends, it's not hard for me to see why fixating on food has become so pervasive in my daughter's life. We celebrate everything with a big feast, the holidays are always a reason to get together and eat, many holidays themselves are events that include sweet treat handouts everywhere you go, and if we havent seen each other in a few weeks, we need to meet and eat.

It makes me disgusted, but yet I am a participant. I am starting to have disdain for our American way of life as it is, IMO, making all of us sick or fat. I don't know how to stop living this convenient foods lifestyle, yet almost all the time, I am sickened at what we are doing to ourselves.

[AndCanItBe]

Hi, God'sStudent! I agree with Abiding too, although I don't really see a problem with banning the vending machines only. If it ended there and didn't end up with lunches kids bring from home being policed. I just think this law is far too broad and it is ridiculous to ban bake sales, particularly ones after school hours. It seems like we are stopping our kids from getting any kind of experience with small business, from lemonade stands to yard sales to this. In my experience it is kids who get adults to bake the goods and kids who get adults to buy the baked goods to support a cause at bake sales. Certainly adults can choose not to buy. It's not the same as having vending machines in cafeterias at lunch time where kids can choose to spend their money on the junk instead of something more healthy, IMO. Since school lunches are barely more healthy than the vending machine anyway, it seems like they should start there by cutting way back on the carbs and upping the protein and fiber.