NASBE Executive Director Kristen Amundson quoted on new developments around Smart Snacks state exemptions in the Associated Press.
From Mary Clare Jalonick’s story:
When it comes to school fundraisers, bake sale tables loaded with sugary goodies are out. Fun runs, auctions and sales of healthier treats are in.
Government rules requiring schools to hold more nutritious fundraisers, along with a trend toward healthier eating in schools, could mean trouble for the long-beloved bake sale. In response, schools are selling everything from fruit to kid-friendly shoe laces.
Many schools say they have been successful in ditching the unhealthier models.
In Dallas, physical education teacher Sharon Foster says her school, James Bowie Elementary, stopped selling chocolate bars and started selling Y-Ties — elastic shoe laces that don’t have to be tied. Parent Susan Fox Pinkowitz said she helped her children’s elementary school, University Park Elementary in Denver, move from a candy-filled annual carnival to a fun run and carnival that offers apples and protein nut bars. She said the new fundraiser brings in as much as $12,000 annually, three or four times the amount raised by the old event.
Not everyone is on board. Missy Latham, a parent in Greenville, South Carolina, says bake sales are a profitable part of the “spirit week” celebrations in her district. “It’s kind of absurd that one week a year you couldn’t sell something like that without the government mandating that it’s OK,” Latham said.
The Agriculture Department rules, which kicked in last summer, require all foods sold in schools during the day, including at fundraisers, to meet certain nutrition standards. That means limits on brownies, pizza and doughnuts being sold to pay for school activities. The federal rules allow states to seek exemptions for an “infrequent” number of fundraisers, but fewer than half have asked for them, according to the National Association of State Boards of Education. USDA left it up to states to define “infrequent.”
Kristen Amundson, the association’s director, says the group has been asking state boards to give careful thought to whether they need to seek exemptions. “Do you really want a bake sale every day, 180 days a year?” Amundson said. “Maybe, but probably not.” …