Cupcakes Banned in MA Schools

I'm in Ireland, my son's school seems to have a really good structure in place - they all bring packed lunches but their lunch must contain at least one piece of fruit daily. They're not allowed bring crisps (potato chips), soda, cakes, biscuits, chocolate, but on Fridays they're allowed to bring a chocolate bar or a cupcake or bun. I think it's a good way to teach them moderation. They also have swimming, football and gardening (!) during the week.

For all I give out about it, I guess we're actually pretty lucky!

QUOTE:

I'm in Ireland, my son's school seems to have a really good structure in place - they all bring packed lunches but their lunch must contain at least one piece of fruit daily. They're not allowed bring crisps (potato chips), soda, cakes, biscuits, chocolate, but on Fridays they're allowed to bring a chocolate bar or a cupcake or bun. I think it's a good way to teach them moderation. They also have swimming, football and gardening (!) during the week.

For all I give out about it, I guess we're actually pretty lucky!



I disagree. I packed my kids lunches every day and I would be really angry with the public schools (gov't run) telling me what I can and can't feed my kids.

While I don't think this decision is going to prove very practical or effective, I do have sympathy for government personnel. When they do nothing, they are criticized for doing nothing. When they do anything else, they are criticized for interfering.

Public health is an incredibly complicated issue, further complicated by the fact that the government's interest in promoting public health competes against the interest of private companies, who profit from our overconsumption and profit again via the weight loss industry. Whenever there are attempts to bring in food regulation (for example, to reduce the sodium in processed foods) it is opposed by lobbyists who use the rallying cry of freedom of choice to defend their "right" to sell whatever food they want.

Another problem is that schools are chronically underfunded in the United States. School boards have not cut funding for gym class and after school sports because they're evil or hate children - they are responding to budget pressure, and they choose to cut gym to keep math. The solution is to properly fund schools, which requires taxing individuals and businesses. If people want to see more programs in schools, they have to be willing to pay for them.

This might be a silly law, but the underlying idea of public policy being used as a tool to encourage public health is not inherently bad.

While I don't think this decision is going to prove very practical or effective, I do have sympathy for government personnel. When they do nothing, they are criticized for doing nothing. When they do anything else, they are criticized for interfering.

Public health is an incredibly complicated issue, further complicated by the fact that the government's interest in promoting public health competes against the interest of private companies, who profit from our overconsumption and profit again via the weight loss industry. Whenever there are attempts to bring in food regulation (for example, to reduce the sodium in processed foods) it is opposed by lobbyists who use the rallying cry of freedom of choice to defend their "right" to sell whatever food they want.

Another problem is that schools are chronically underfunded in the United States. School boards have not cut funding for gym class and after school sports because they're evil or hate children - they are responding to budget pressure, and they choose to cut gym to keep math. The solution is to properly fund schools, which requires taxing individuals and businesses. If people want to see more programs in schools, they have to be willing to pay for them.

This might be a silly law, but the underlying idea of public policy being used as a tool to encourage public health is not inherently bad.

Something else that people are overlooking is that, in the case of bake sales, all parents can get involved by doing more than just trying to convince people to buy things they don't want, like overpriced paper and candles. Everyone pitches in and bakes something at home, often times with their kids, and AGAIN it's HOME BAKED goods that no one has to buy. I don't know about you but I don't cook with MSG or corn syrup solids or any preservatives and chemicals. This is something that has been done since the beginning of kitchens - baking at home. So, we bake and we all bring it in and the kids know what their mom's baked. No one is selling a bag of Cheetos here. THIS IS NOT CAUSING OBESITY!
And for the person who was talking about what I feed my kids - I had 6 boys at home. To this day, not one has a weight problem and my youngest is a college freshman. I baked for them EVERY DAY for their afterschool snack. That's right! And their lunches, even with baked goods in them, had less calories and more nutrients than any school lunch.
The fact that some parents choose to feed their kids nothing but junk at home and let them spend all their time playing video games and then feed them the garbage "chicken product" nuggets and pastuerized process cheese food, instead of real cheese, that the school passes out does not mean the solution to these kids being fat (yes FAT) is to not allow parents to have bake sale, where they SELL healthy home baked goods to help fund the athletics programs that do more to fight child obesity than a class on MYPLATE or the FOODPYRAMID ever will!