School Nutrition Legislation Effecting Fundraisers?
Congress is busy at work trying to regulate the nutritional content of school lunch programs. This is part of their effort to combat childhood obesity and poor general health in our country’s youth. While we applaud them for their efforts, they are walking a fine line. Swept up in the broad legislation are school fundraisers. What started out as a school lunch bill, it has now spread to cover all foods offered in schools; bake sales, school event catering and most importantly, school fundraisers.
Fox News has been covering this story closely. Here’s a brief excerpt:
Chocolate bars for the basketball team. Caramel popcorn for the chess club. Candy for the marching band. All these goodies could soon be subject to new nutritional guidelines under a bill passed last week in Congress, which seeks to make school lunches healthier but also allows the federal government to regulate what can be sold at fundraisers and bake sales. Though healthy-eating advocates are hailing the landmark school nutrition legislation as a breakthrough in combating obesity and hunger, some lawmakers and groups warn that the government is in danger of taking a bite out of school budgets in the process. Fundraising for school-related activities is a multimillion dollar enterprise — and the food sold through these programs isn’t exactly arugula and low-fat yogurt.
The complete story can be found here.
We are always concerned legislation that would affect school budgets. Many school programs rely on fundraisers to supplement (or sometimes completely fund) their budgets. So while the intent of this legislation means well, the end result may hurt schools in the long run. We are all in favor of having our kids eat healthier, but we need to do this in a way that doesn’t interfere with school’s ability to raise money.
This legislation does not cover any fundraisers sold off school grounds, which is a good thing. Most fundraising programs are run outside of school grounds and through the PTA or PTO. It’s still in it’s early stages, but this bill needs to be watched closely by the educational and fundraising community.
