A Chocolate Chip Off the Old Block
For modern-day Princes and Princesses of Pastry, they note with a smiling sigh that life in the sweet lane is not over. Happily, they have been informed that “some” chocolate chip cookies and “some” popsicles fall inside the new nutritional guidelines. For boosters and other parents involved with bake sale-style fundraising, the good news is that the narrowing of guidelines and the stepped-up enforcement of rules ends a half-hour after the close of the school day. This will allow a window for fundraising that evidently can continue as it previously was conducted. However, Ron Hacker, the young, enthusiastic first-year Food Services Director for the School District, warned — or pledged — that he is massively reshaping the agendas of foods that will be available during school days as of September.
Parent Group Studies Guidelines
A far-flung and somewhat dense program called the Wellness Policy — embracing a blend of government-mandated rules and a few designed by the School District — was placed under a microscope on Tuesday afternoon for the benefit of a group of parents and school officials. Meeting in the faculty dining area on the Culver City High School campus, Mr. Hacker led the peppery, well-informed crowd on a tour of the guidelines that were laid out in Tuesday’s edition of thefrontpageonline.com. Some parents were concerned that the guidelines may have primarily targeted the well-publicized community of obese students while sideswiping the needs of the vast numbers of other students. But Mr. Hacker assured them this was not the case. Two parents remarked, as a badge of pride, that their children were below rather than above an ideal weight. Mr. Hacker reminded the crowd this was not a radical campaign to kill off foods with fat in them, either. “Sixty percent of your energy comes from burning off fat,” he said. Later, the crowd voted on several proposed policies that have become contentious matters during recent months of discussion. Here are two provisions that were approved and will be presented to the School Board in the following form:
Celebrations: Schools should limit celebrations that involve food during the school day to no more than one party per class per month. Food and beverages for celebrations that occur before the end of the last lunch period must be provided by the Food Services Dept., as a reimbursable meal. For celebrations that occur after the last lunch period, each party should include no more than one food or beverage that does not meet federal and state nutrition standards.
Fundraising Activities: The School District shall encourage all school-based organizations to use non-food items for fundraising. For food-related fundraising activities, in which the items are distributed earlier than a half-hour after the end of the school day, the organizations will sell only foods or beverages that meet or exceed state and federal nutrition standards. For other food-related fundraising activities, the organizations shall be encouraged to sell only items that meet these standards.
During this extended policy study period, at least one other proposition has divided parents. Some teachers have talked about whether it would be appropriate to withhold recess from students who have fallen behind in their work.
Honing in on Goals
“What we want to teach children,” Mr. Hacker told his Tuesday audience, “is not to buy food as if they were at McDonald’s but as if they were ordering for a (rounded) meal.”
The Food Services Director explained that in meeting with various sets of community stakeholders concerned about child nutrition, numerous policies have been created. Mr. Hacker, previously employed by LAUSD and the Pasadena School District, estimated that 50 percent of the body of policies is government-mandated, and the balance has emanated from the School District.
