I’ve worked these bakes sales and 90% of the baked goods sent in by parents are horrible store bought cookies and just CRAP from Costco. The parents of our kids don’t have time to bake cookies from scratch on a weeknight?! They all work and if there is any cooking to be done it’s to put a hot meal on the table and any free time is spent helping kids with homework and getting them to bed on time for a 7:45AM start time.

I welcome the burden being lifted from parents and bake sales taking the bullet from the ban on the SALE of sugary, processed foods in public schools. Here in SF this is a good thing. Who wants a bunch of kids running around school not learning jacked up on a 20,000 calorie chocolate chip cookie?

It’s a matter of practicality for the schools. They need to set rules, not individually approve food to sell from the moms who bake well. Since that’s logistically impossible for the school, and since selectively enforcing a rule like that would go over horribly with parents, the most practical solution is not to have bake sales.

“Just get rid of the cookies! But fruit juice full of high fructose corn syrup? That’s okay.”

Did you read the article? Fake fruit juice is NOT allowed in this particular example, only pure stuff. If you actually read what they are doing, it does seem to follow common sense – it really looks like some people here are assuming the worst instead of judging the situation based on the facts.

Furthermore, I appreciate the attention you’re bringing to the seafood situation. It’s truly unfortunate and consumers tend to know nothing about it. Sadly, it’s not surprising. After I’d discovered there are vegetarians who don’t even know about sustainable farming practices, or about companies that raise and slaughter livestock humanely and ethically, I find nothing shocking when it comes to the average consumer.

Americans, we have such an unhealthy relationship with food.

I said that, Milo. It’s the second sentence in my post. I agree with you about the ban. My comment about moderation was aimed at the food police who freak out over every single thing we put in our mouths.

And baby, we’d be salted….

All they are banning, is selling treats on campus that fit that description.

NOWHERE does it say you can’t bring your own from home. Either home made, or store bought. Just that the school can’t profit from selling garbage.

Really failing to see the problem here.

Shees.

I read it. I don’t see a problem with a ban on selling unhealthy food at the schools, although I’d like to know what they’re serving kids at lunch. Is it made on site by real, live actual people who know how to cook, or is it pre-packaged garbage that just needs to be microwaved?

What bothers me is a growing panic over anything that’s even remotely bad for you. The food police (and by “food police”, I mean people who are in a constant state of panic about every morsel of food we put in our mouths, not people who realize the importance of eating healthy food) don’t understand the joy of eating something that tastes fabulous. I wonder if they enjoy the food they do eat.

The schools have a responsibility to see that kids have a decent lunch, and proper eating habits are learned at home. Moderation should always be the goal (states the Queen of the Obvious). Life without cookies, brownies, cakes and pies is not worth living.

I’m with Jeff. You’ll get my cookie away from me when I’m dead.

You seem to forget that the cookie ban is for KIDS. And yeah, kids are young and probably not in a position to always make responsible choices. Sure, banning food for adults would be the government thinking for us, but doing it in SCHOOLS is something else entirely.

“We are living in depraved, degenerate times, when a kid can’t have a cookie.”

Did you even read the articles? Nobody is saying kids can’t have cookies, the point is that schools aren’t SELLING cookies. Seems perfectly reasonable to me, especially since kids can eat all they want at home.

Really, is it such a horrible thing if a kid has to go six hours without being able to buy a cookie?

“The irony is that a new study claim more people die from California’s pulluted air than from car accidents.

So of course the answer is to ban cupcakes!”

It’s not an either/or situation, your comment is like saying since their are murders on the loose, the cops are wasting time if they pull someone over for speeding.

People die from pollution.
People die from car accidents.
People die from obesity.

And all three should be addressed.

“Moderation should always be the goal.”

Of course. But I’m not sure how a school would sell cookies and similar things and get kids to only buy them in moderation. It’s way easier to say that moderation is “eat your cookies at home”. Seems like a perfectly valid solution and if a kid pigs out on cookies and gets fat, it’s with cookies from home and not cookies the school sold to them.

Sure, the schools should ALSO have healthy alternatives (carrots and apples, not snackwells or other “diet” junk food) and healthy food in the cafeteria. But not selling unhealthy things like cookies is better than nothing.

Why don’t they pay more attention to the sodium high, carb high, processed food they serve in the lunch program? That stuff is served EVERY DAY for breakfast AND lunch at all of the public and some of the private schools. Why don’t they put kitchens back and hire staffs that can cook, rather than truck in all the pre-made meals and have it served by people who simply take put it all on display, but haven’t ever picked up a spatula or chopped a string bean? When I was a kid, the school had a full kitchen. There were two cooks and a lady who organized the service. We volunteered in the kitchen to get out of class and also to get a free lunch, an hour a day for a week at a time.

But all that’s been gutted. Including a lot of home-ec classes. We really could use those today to teach middle school and high school students HOW TO COOK since a lot of the parents do “ding ding” and Squawkbox food, and use as a badge of honor, “I’m too busy to cook.”

It doesn’t make sense to ban bake sales.

So of course the answer is to ban cupcakes!

You have gotta love California. If the nation were a pantry and tipped on it’s side, all the nuts would roll into California.

FYI – A link to the smog story…
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081113/D94E0KJG0.html

On a mothering board I’m on there’s been a trend for schools to ban homemade birthday treats not for health reasons, well sort of for health reasons. I thought mothers would be up in arms but mothers who have kids who have allergies were relieved and mother who were teachers who have seen some frightening kitchens of their students were also relieved.

I actually wish they’d make it more the practice that my daughter’s school does where no treat is bought but the child gives a book to the school library.

And frankly there’s nothing in the bad to stop you from sending your child to school with a homemade packed lunch that contains cookies.