In our school any food that needs to be prepared has to be done at our kitchen through the district. If we want to bring cupcakes or cookies they have to be store bought. Nothing homemade.
I am not looking forward to the day when those policies come to WA. I like having a choice.

Shawn, our teachers can even have soda on thier desk for own consumption at our school! kids cant wear flip flops but teachers wear them all the time, same with revealing clothing, and on an on and on. its do as i say and not as i do.

no wonder kids see these inconsistencies and start breaking these, and other, rules.

back to food theme,about foods parents bring, cant bring, yes we have mutiny among the parents. how to bring about smooth change is to have a replacement plan like some of you do, after all, its for the good of the kids, the new rules, no one balks at no smoking on school grounds, and no guns, why should sodas and junk food be any different. they kill too, just takes longer and is less obvious.

Hi! I am in TN, too. Our principal called me today to let me know of some ideas that our school is planning to do to keep parents from getting upset about not being able to bring "fun foods" for birthdays and other holiday parties. We are going to have "goody bags" with pencils, stickers, and hopefully coupons for free meals at local restaurants (that offer healthy kids meals) to give to the kids on their birthday. This is going to be such a big change for us...our parents go all out for parties! Maybe they can put some of that "cupcake money" towards a computer for the class! Hmmm...

Good luck! If we come up with other ideas on preparing our parents for this, I will post them!

In California the food police only cover school hours 8am- 2:20pm, there are a few exceptions, no candy or soda machine anywhere on campus (exception Teacher's Lounge)

Hi,

Our school is implementing the same procedures so instead of providing lots of snacks as rewards for our programs, we are trying to cut down on the snacks and replace them with "a kickball game for the class that wins our fundraiser" or some sort of sports activity. It would still be rewarding to the students to enjoy some time for the game and encourage them to participate. We also thought of having a volunteer run fitness activity every week so that we could encourage healthy eating and fitness. We would also continue our walk-a-thon fundraiser. We are mandated to reduce the unhealthy snack content by 20% this year so that's not as bad as what I'm reading from the other schools.

I hope this helps. -D

As incoming VP of my school's PTO I know we will have to deal with food issues this year. We don't - as PTO - have to worry about lunches since the bd. of ed. gets the joy of that one. We do sponsor events that include food, and our bake sales already got the ax.

My question for all of you is this: when an event is held in the school, but not during school hours, and not sponsored by the school per se, will these food restrictions still prevail? To PTOCES, your events aren't held during the school day from the sound of it, so this angle might be your way out. I certainly hope so.

It would not surprise any of you to know that during the last week of school this spring I needed to put something in the freezer in the teacher's lounge. When I walked in the room (not big, trust me) I was hit by the aroma of baked goods! There had been bagels, muffins, or something equally carbo-licious brought in for the staff that day. I have no idea if it was from a parent, leftovers from a staff member's farewell breakfast, who knows. All I know is if the rules they want to enforce on our kids were imposed on staff you KNOW things would be different!

And that's MY 2¢ on the subject. ;-b