Ban on school bake sales for fund raisers in new bill . . .

[DollyM]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40497637/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/?gt1=43001

I am sorry but I can't help but feel that this part of the new school nutrition bill is just part of a good total package. Yes, it will require schools and parents be more creative in fund raising but gee, isn't creativity in the education process to be encouraged? I am sure that Fox news will have a hey day with this and make it seem like Obama hates schools and wants them to all go under because they do not hold bake sales. I for one see this as a much needed positive change.
I remember when I was in school, a "few" years back, and working as a teacher's aid as a high school student. We had a substitute teacher for a few days and she was collecting money that day for school lunches. We also had a bake sale that day at noon. The next day, an irate mother showed up at the classroom door, reaming the sub teacher out because her daughter received FREE lunches and the money she had collected from her daughter had been for her to spend on the candy sale that day. Even as a teenager, the irony of the situation did not escape me. It's far past time that we revamp what are children are able to get to eat at the school.
PS.the bill did not say that parents could not hold a bake sale off campus, many times a store or public place is the best place to hold a bake sale.

[ixion]

1. bake sales have been going on for decades

to outlaw them is silly and petty.

[DollyM]

3. again, it would only apply to on campus bake sales . . .

A parent group can still set up at the local grocery store, post office, city hall, festival, fair, etc. and sale. Most any of these would not charge a non profit group to set up and really, you can reach more people as well as accept cash donations (something children are not likely to have) if you set up at a non campus place.

[Initech]

4. The worst example is New York.

There it's illegal to sell home-baked goods but at "bake sales" you can sell crap like Doritos and Hostess cakes. :wtf:

[aquart]

2. STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!!

Now, instead of being able to control the ingredients in the baked goods, parents are expected to encourage their children to eat portion-controlled corporate dreck in plastic wrappers.

[Adsos Letter]

5. Ah, Aquart...It's always so difficult to tell how you stand on any given issue.

:D

.

[aquart]

21. Hi!

Where have you been? Arsenic is alive! The stars have multiplied and the Holy Land was polluted with copper smelting three thousand years ago! You need to keep up.

[Adsos Letter]

24. I was stuck in antebellum America, finishing the reading for the comp. exams for my MA in History...

so I had to lay much of my DU time aside. All completed now, though!

I understand the French recently discovered buildings in northern Syria dating back to the 5th-4th millennium, BCE.

http://www.english.globalarabnetwork.com/201012038268/Related-news-from-Syria/french-archaeologists-buildings-dating-back-to-4th-millennium-bc-unearthed-in-syria.html

Hi back-atchya! :hi:

[aquart]

28. I adore you. Hadn't heard a word about it.

What made that spot so extremely popular?

And what part of antebellum America was your focus? (Says Abby who marched through the Children of Pride letters like Sherman picnicking across Georgia.)

[aquart]

29. 7000 year old dolmen tombs there!

http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2010/11/tombs-dating-back-to-5th-millennium-bc.html

[bitchkitty]

6. I think it's ridiculous.

Bake sales are traditional, and they're fun. They give parents and kids the chance to do something together to help their school. No doubt, it would be okay if they bought mass-produced cakes and pies from some GMO food company, sweetened with high fructose corn syrup and god knows what else.

[KoKo]

15. My daugher is teacher at Fancy Private Schl in Florida...They Banned Bake Sales

by Parents. Said the "School didn't want to accept "liability" if parents might not have "proper home hygiene in their kitchen and ingredients" so they declared it a health hazard to the kids. Their School Insurance Policy apparently MANDATED this! They blamed it on McDonald's Hot Coffee Cup Incident Scalding a Drive Through Window Person...and said that "Tort Lawyers" were the ones causing them to enforce these new restrictions on parents participating in "Bake Sales.

(Now...granted that Chris Evert's kids are Students at daughter's school and I don't know if Chris wouldn't just go to the local Gourmet Bakery to get her "Bake Sale Items" she would donate to the School's Bake Sale...but what my daughter told me was that this was Florida Law and Private Schools Insurance Companies had told them to comply with it.

My daughter remembers all those brownies and "Apple Cakes" (my specialty (organic apples and no HFCS in MY CAKES) that I baked for Her Growing Up to fund her own School...and she was really upset about the policy change ...but said it's what it is ...these days.

[SoCalDem]

23. I think that times just have changed, and bake sales

morphed into "whatever-Mom-picked-up-in-a-kamikaze-pre-school-trip-to-a-grocery-store".

With so many Moms working full-time & then some, most probably have no time to do much baking anymore.

I remember my son once waking me up at 5 am to "remind" me that he needed to bring 3 dozen cupcakes to school THAT MORNING :).. I said remind..but in reality, he forgot to tell me :rofl:

The Bake Sales of old, were usually the BEST recipes that Moms had to offer, and with time & know-how on their sides, I recall some fantastic baked goodies.

In times-past, many kids also had Grandmothers living with or near them, so baking was a part of their everyday lives.

Now that corporate vending machines & sponsorships have invaded school districts, they probably resent ANYTHING that might "rob" them of even a few dollar bills fed into their junk-machines.:(

In some areas, it might also have something to do with the variety of ethnicities, and prejudices.

The candy bar hucksters who push boxes of prepackaged candy-for-sale on kids probably has a big part in it too.. (I refused to let my boys sell that stuff).

Schools have gotten themselves into a real bind, and probably all the bake sales in the world would not help them all that much.

[eleny]

7. I like bake sales but also enjoy a good rummage sale

So if they can't do the edible goodies then bring on that "junque" from the attic!

[DollyM]

9. Exactly!

It is time to be creative. We are a culture obsessed with food and parents lose control of their children's nutrition when they start to school. Our son had never been given candy until he went to pre-school. I went from having a child who loved vegetables to one who begged me for candy and sweets.
We also had a foster child who was malnurished due to her mother pacifying her with sweets rather than nutritional food. She was on a strict regimen at our house of what to eat and when in order to get her weight back up (she was about 20 pounds underweight)and her nutrition needs met. I was at school one day during lunch and noticed she had a chocolate milk on her tray. I asked her about it and she said the lunch lady put it there each day even though there was white milk setting there available. I checked with the "lunch lady" and this was indeed what was happening. This child had such a sensitivity to sugar that she literally would eat nothing else if she had sugar so she was picking at her school lunch. It took me going to the Principal with a doctors letter stating that this child needed to have white milk rather than chocolate each day. I found that they were still putting chocolate milk on her tray each day after this and finally told her that she was to give it back to them and ask for white milk. It was a hassle all the way around but it was necessary for her health.
And now we are shocked that are kids have behavioral problems in school and are nearly all overweight! (Studies on schools that have switched to more fresh vegetable choices show behavioral problems are greatly reduced with such a diet. )

[KoKo]

17. Here's the thing, though, "eleny." What if some of the rummage is stuff declared "toxic lead" from

CHINA? I know I bought some bracelets (cut charms for seasons) for my three neices a few years ago and then found out they were recalled for Lead Poisoning from China! My neices were 7/10/12 at the time and so wouldn't have been licking them or chewing on them like toddlers would..but, their mother was horrified hat I would give my neices jewelry that might harm them.

With rummage sales, these days...I think some stuff gets the same scrutiny. But,...do you throw the lead stuff from china into the DUMP where it can leach out for years? What does one do. There's just so much crap in rummage sales these days that could be harmful...yet the good old quality stuff..folks just don't want to buy "real wood"...real Old Toys, plates, glass, collectibles...because it's NOT NEW LOOKING! That stuff that was made in USA is now "OLD" but, parents complain about lead and crap from China... So what do you do?

What do you see selling well at rummage sales for charities these days? I could use some good info...

[eleny]

22. I'd be concerned about the lead, too, even at regular retail

I'd just look for anything interesting and inexpensive. When I go to thrift stores I like certain kinds of vintage cookware and I also always look at the pictures. I've found some neat old paintings and drawings for my home. If I like it and the price is low, then it comes home.

Recently I found a nice Pendleton jacket that was so inexpensive that I bought it even though it was pretty snug on me. But I'm swimming several times a week now and that coat should fit pretty soon. :D

I also always look for real wool yarn and other craft supplies and fabrics. People toss some very good quality things when they aren't into the hobby. At the thrifts you can find lots of yarn all bagged together for great prices.

For the best advice there are some experienced DUers in this group-->http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=403 Check it out!

:hi:

[MrModerate]

8. It chokes me to agree with even a scintilla of what Sarah Palin says . . .

But while a fresh look and more healthful guidelines for school lunches is definitely a worthwhile thing, getting into the weeds with activities like bake sales is just silly, as well as being a serious overreach. Sometimes reformers can be too earnest.

[Safetykitten]

10. I thought this was an Onion article. Sadly it is not. This is why we are where we are.

[MadHound]

11. I think that this is needlessly cruel to schools

Given that funding for schools and school activities has seriously gone down hill for the past forty and program after program has suffered cuts. Bake sales have been the staple of keeping things like band, debate, clubs, etc. alive and functioning for the students. Now this is being taken away. Another blow in the war on public education.

[emilyg]

12. dumb.

[DBoon]

13. Are schools allowed to have vegetable sales instead?

I know home grown produce may not pass strict health inspection regulations, but the benefits of growing and eating your own produce are so great I think it is worth an exception

[DollyM]

14. sure

lots of people around here have gardens and just set up a roadside stand in front of their house and sell vegetables. I wanted to correct the title too, it is not a total ban on bake sales, it is just going to limit them to once a month on school grounds.

[tabasco]

16. Thank God for the government!

Keeping us safe from bake sales and marijuana!

[niyad]

18. my favourite t-shirt from northern sun:

"it will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need, and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber"

used to wear it whenever the recruiters were around. gee, for some reason, they didn't like it.

[KoKo]

19. Maybe Arne Duncan doesn't want "PARENTS" involved in Schools...Toxic Bake Sales!

He doesn't want that kind of interaction...might bring to many besides "Corporations" into the system to "shine a Spot Light." Cut the parents out and you infiltrate PTA's with RW'ers for Charter Schools like they are doing here in North Carolina and you have a GREAT COVER for YOUR Policies.

Always Works! That's one thing they learned from the RW...HARD BALL ON SCHOOLS AND PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT (Unless they are TEA BAGGER PARENTS) and kill it off and DECLARE SUCCESS and SHOVE THAT IN GLEN BECK'S EYE! ......Ugh...Oh WAIT...GLEN BECK AND RW ARE FINE WITH DUNCAN's PRIVATIZE the PUBLIC SCHOOLS! So Sorry..."My Bad"...I'll go back to my cave...and not speak up ..any more. I will be silent.

[The Straight Story]

20. US Citizens are the suspects - the govt must control us for our own good, and folks here

well I am amazed at how often I see them in favor of removing the rights of others (usually to save us money from health care costs). Don't like something someone else engages in? Ban it.

Like smoking in bars. Would love to have someone, anyone here or anywhere, tell me who dragged them to a bar that allows smoking and forced them to go in.

No one did, but banning choice (with ONLY one exception, abortion) is good.

Me, I at least stick with my principles (and get called a libertarian because I believe in 'your body, your choice', silly me, I always thought it was a principle we were fighting for and not some slogan for only one issue).

[Imajika]

25. The Federal Government should have nothing...

...whatsoever to do with school Bake Sales. This is a Fox article so I assume it is exaggerating. Had I known the Federal Government managed to poke its nose into bake sales at elementary schools then I would have absolutely opposed Michele Obama's Child Nutrition bill.

Quite frankly, I really don't think the Federal Government should be spending a whole lot of time on "childhood obesity".

Yes, I went along with it because Michele Obama is pushing it, but I am pretty queasy about the whole idea.

Just let local schools and local families worry about that. Somehow I don't think the Federal Government is going to have any positive impact on the weight of school children, nor do I really want it to.

You'd think with 10% unemployment, massive deficits, etc, that the Federal Government would have better things to do with its time. Kids are fat because they sit at home playing video games. There is not a damn thing the Federal Government can do about that, nor is it the Federal Government's place to try.

[woo me with science]

26. Stop. Now slowly....Back away from the bake sales.

Some Democrats really need to rehearse the following in front of a mirror, five times per day:

Just because you consider something a bad idea does not mean that government should BAN it.

Just because you consider something a good idea does not mean government should ENFORCE it.


/

[struggle4progress]

27. Can somebody show me exactly where S.3307 (Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010)

proposes to regulate bake sales?

[StarsInHerHair]

30. it seems like a stupid nit-picking rule, it sucks

nt

[DaveInNJ]

31. So here's a question...

It seems that there are lots and lots of people who need help feeding their kids at lunch - and can't do it because 'healthy' food is too expensive.
Having cold milk and a hot lunch is too much every day. I get that.
So those same people have turned to junk food (because it's cheaper) and as a result this country's kids face an obesity problem.
If these kids are anything like me - a carb filled lunch makes me sleepy by 3:00 and the last thing I'm gonna do when I get home is play outside. Hm.

So, this is the Government spending 4 - 5 billion to control, or guide, people what people feed their kids.
I can see where Republican's get the idea that spending is too high. What the heck ever happened to bringing your own sandwich???
Why can't parents restrict what the kids spend and send them to school with lunch? What ever happened to that???!!