The School Health Advisory Council, a Wake school system group, aims to ban the sale of sweets in fundraising and athletic concession stands. More than one third of American children and teenagers are overweight or obese. It is understandable that schools want to decrease the prevalence of child obesity. However, taking away sweets in school fundraising does not attack the source of the problem.
The availability of sugary school foods far surpasses those sold during fundraisers and concession stands. Cafeterias serve unhealthy desserts every day to an enormous student population, whereas fundraisers and sporting events are occasional and serve a fraction of the people. It is hypocritical to only target fundraisers selling sugary foods when schools sell an abundance of sweets for less money every day.
If schools lost the ability to sell sweets through fundraising and concession stands, clubs and booster programs would suffer a significant financial blow. Clubs would lose funding for projects, chorus students would have difficulty paying for uniforms and athletic programs would lose equipment funding. Leesville clubs, musical and athletic programs would not be able to continue without the ability to fundraise sweets.
The attack on sugar is as lame an attempt to promote healthy eating as the requirement of buying a piece of fruit or vegetables with the purchase of school lunches. Cafeteria trash cans littered with untouched carrots, peas, apples and fruit juice reflects this waste.
Schools send the message that treats are okay to have at lunch every day, but not during special occasions. Isn’t that the opposite of what nutritionists and health experts suggest?
If the School Health Advisory Council wishes to diminish the trend of obesity through school foods, they should rid of all unhealthy foods available instead of solely focusing on fundraising and concession stand sweets.
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