A bit of background....
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been involved in school lunch/nutrition issues for decades. The USDA Child Nutrition Program oversees this particular issue.
In Texas the Child Nutrition Program was a department with the Texas Education Agency (TEA), but in the recent set of government re-organizations, it was moved under the Texas Department of Agriculture - effective July 2003 - to better align with the Federal structure.
There has long been a policy regarding "Food of Minimal Nutritional Value" (FMNV). The epidemic increase in childhood obesity and related Type II diabetes has raised concerns nationwide.
For 2003-2004, the FMNV policy became even stricter in Texas
www.agr.state.tx.us/foodnutrition/policy/ntn_fmnv_policy.htm)
School districts must implement that policy. It covers 4 areas: soda water, water ices, chewing gum and certain candies.
Basically, Elementary schools cannot serve/allow to be provided any FMNV products, anywhere on campus, anytime during the school day. Middle Schools are regulated mostly at meal times. Penalties for non-compliance could include loss of the school's meal allowance for the day and the school having to reimburse food costs.
Here's a good overview of what's allowed/prohibited
www.tcta.org/legal/laws/fmnvguide.htm
Definitely the policy is restrictive, but depending on how the school district implements it there are some exceptions. So, for example candy-coated popcorn might be prohibited, but not regular popcorn. Candy with nuts may be acceptable (because nuts have nutritional value). Note that the school could choose a more restrictive policy like outlawing ALL candy. Here's one example of a school that's already published its new policy:
www.cfisd.net/dept2/food/html/fmnv.html
One last note: in Texas we are now in the last week of our state's fiscal year. This is a very crazy time as everyone closes out their books, staff take vacation about to be lost, not to mention agencies preparing for the additional reorganizations and laws that take affect Sept. 1st. If you need more information at the State level, this week and next may not be the best time to ask.
4/16/04 updated some out-of-date links
[ 04-16-2004, 09:54 PM: Message edited by: JHB ]