Opinion Forum

Feds Target School Bake Sales

December 9th, 2010

Keeping our schools safe from empty calories and delicious treats.

On December 3, the lame-duck House passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, previously approved by the Senate. President Obama, doubtless preoccupied with such trivia as taxes, unemployment, Korea, and China, has yet to sign it into law. A mere two hundred and twenty pages long, it has lots of provisions for allocation of funds, demonstration projects, and the like. Many may be worthwhile.

However, included in the legislation is a provision authorizing the secretary of Agriculture to regulate school fundraising bake sales to ensure that they are infrequent and that the goodies sold are nutritionally acceptable. Far from innocuous, that is yet another distasteful and unnecessary intrusion of the federal government into our daily lives.

Under Section 208 of the Act, the secretary of Agriculture is to

establish science-based nutrition standards for foods sold in schools other than foods provided under this Act and the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.)

With the two noted exceptions, the standards are to pertain to all foods sold on school campuses at any time during the school day. The standards are to be:

consistent with the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans published under section 301 of the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 5341), including the food groups to encourage and nutrients of concern identified in the Dietary Guidelines.

In establishing the standards,

the Secretary is to consider authoritative scientific recommendations for nutrition standards; existing school nutrition standards, including voluntary standards for beverages and snack foods and State and local standards; the practical application of the nutrition standards.

He can but need not grant:

special exemptions for school-sponsored fundraisers (other than fundraising through vending machines, school stores, snack bars, a la carte sales, and any other exclusions determined by the Secretary), if the fundraisers are approved by the school and are infrequent within the school.

In fewer words, the secretary is required to regulate school bake sales unless he chooses to grant special exemptions. The steps a school district would need to take to secure a special exemption will likely be sufficiently onerous that very few will be sought. At least some schools sponsor bake sales because they need the money; the costs of securing special exemptions could easily outweigh any funds raised.

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Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: bake sales, Department of Agriculture, federal, nutrition, regulation, schools
Categories: Law, News, Politics | Comments (8) | Home

8 Responses to “Feds Target School Bake Sales”

Tom Carter | December 10th, 2010 at 4:31 am

I suppose everyone has good intentions, but this just seems to be a step way too far. A lot of what government is doing these days amounts to trying to do the job parents should be doing. Local control of schools and competent parenting are what’s needed — but maybe all that’s beyond our grasp anymore.

Brian | December 10th, 2010 at 5:26 am

Piffle. The constitution is antiquated. Our masters know what is best for us and our children. We should just trust them more.

Lisa | December 10th, 2010 at 6:51 am

Tom, I agree. Another case of the government attempting to move us away from personal responsibility and towards a loss of freedom. Parents should be instilling personal responsibility.

The first family’s “do as I say, not as I do” approach is also getting very old and the media is having a bit of fun with it. Just this week Michelle Obama was seen dining out a with a piece of chocolate cake at her table.

After each media story covering her healthy nutrition initiative, she is seen taking her kids out for ice cream or Barack is out with his secret service detail eating hamburgers and french fries at Rays Hamburgers in Arlington, VA.

David Dorley | December 10th, 2010 at 7:42 am

I think parents are the one’s responsibie for teaching there childern the correct diet to have . Also the country of the free , is trying to control the right’s of the people on nutrition and more.

Dan Miller | December 10th, 2010 at 9:13 am

There has not yet been any serious attempt to ban the highly dangerous chemical dihydrogen monoxide from school lunches; for the sake of the children this must be done immediately.

Shamefully, dihydrogen monoxide

is used in the manufacture of all kinds of nasty things, from styrofoam to nuclear power. . . . [I]t is [also] in fact a major component of acid rain. All true. People are dying

Not only is it a “major” component of acid rain, it greatly exceeds in volume all others.

Tom Carter | December 10th, 2010 at 12:52 pm

Dan, I couldn’t agree more. Dihydrogen monoxide is one of the most deadly substances on the planet. In fact, thousands of people die in it every year, and it harbors all manner of life forms that are harmful. It also contributes to the rising of the oceans, which The One promised to stop, and it’s responsible for destroying land and habitations all over the globe. The Green movement should pay more attention to this obvious hazard. Beyond that, it would provide another rationale for transfers of untold amounts of money from modern Western societies to the kleptocrats who run the primitive societies of the Third World. This one’s a winner all the way around!

Dan Miller | December 10th, 2010 at 6:22 pm

W. C. Fields was among the first to call our attention to the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide and we should feel a great debt of gratitude.

I cringe to think what might become of our innocent children were they to continue to be exposed to this vile ~~Pelosi~~ witches’ brew.

Tom Carter | December 10th, 2010 at 7:45 pm

Dan, since you got me thinking about DHMO, I’ve come across some pretty scary research:

Is it true that using DHMO improves athletic performance?

Absolutely! With the numerous allegations of amateur and professional athletes using anabolic steroids and/or blood doping to enhance performance, virtually no attention has been paid to the performance enhancing properties of Dihydrogen Monoxide. It is perhaps the sporting world’s dirtiest of dirty little secrets that athletes regularly ingest large quantities of DHMO in an effort to gain a competitive edge over an opponent.

One technique commonly used by endurance athletes in sports such as distance running and cycling is to take a large amount of DHMO immediately prior to a race. This is known within racing circles to dramatically improve performance.

Sports-medicine physicians warn that ingesting too much Dihydrogen Monoxide can lead to complications and unwanted side-effects, but do acknowledge the link to improved performance. DHMO is not currently considered a banned substance, so post-race urine tests do not detect elevated or abnormal levels of DHMO.

And even more worrisome, this:

What is the link between Dihydrogen Monoxide and school violence?

A recent stunning revelation is that in every single instance of violence in our country’s schools, including infamous shootings in high schools in Denver and Arkansas, Dihydrogen Monoxide was involved. In fact, DHMO is often very available to students of all ages within the assumed safe confines of school buildings. None of the school administrators with which we spoke could say for certain how much of the substance is in use within their very hallways.

Yikes!