As our PTA prez and coach of my son's little league team, I say give the kids a break. At our "donuts" and "muffins" events we offered fresh fruit as well for an alternative. After a baseball game, I don't really care that my kid eats a Nutty Bar rather than an orange (middle of a game might be different).

As with most things, it is up to the parents to make the best choices for their children. Schools, baseball teams, PTA's, etc. shouldn't be charged with monitoring a child's nutritional menu. Now, before I get hammered too hard, I do understand that not all parents have the knowledge or desire to provide balanced diets for their kids, so it IS important (from a school lunch perspective) to offer balanced choices, but the primary responsibility still lies in the home.

I guess that I kind of wonder how our district thinks that mozzarella cheese sticks, nacho's (cheese and chips only), big soft pretzel's are a "healthy" main entree?

Lunch sure isn't like when I was in elementary school! That's for sure! We didn't have taco's, chicken quesadilla, buffalo chicken or tamale pie.

What is tamale pie?

I see the real problem with the letter the district sends home requesting healthy snacks. I have a daughter who has a birthday at the beginning of the school year and she takes healthy snacks, off the list, for her birthday, which she thinks isn't very fun. The other daughter has a birthday in February and always wants to take cupcakes cause "everyone else does". Yes, this is true, by half way through the year the secretaries are tired of arguing with parents and let just about anything in. Maybe I should volunteer for "snack patrol"! HA!

Kind of off topic, but my husband and I coach Y baseball for our son's team. I tried the "healthy snack" thing this year and the first night I ended up bringing home most of the snacks. The boys just passed them up. A couple helped themselves, but the rest said "no thanks!"

Our district has a new policy that was adopted since NJ now has a law for schools. they cannot receive any state funding assistance if they do not comply, so it forced all schools to adopt a nutritional policy.

We can no longer have our cupcake sales on the 1/2 days during conferences, but we still have our bagel sale days. When we offered healthy options (at the asking of parents) during our last cupcake sale 2 years ago, we were gladly sold out each day. In addition to the cupcakes, there were carrots, grapes, granola bars, & fruit cups. The policy only applies to what is sold or distributed during the school day. Therefore, any after school activities we sponsor or any evening/Saturday events are free from restrictions. We do try and have some healthy options at all of our events, but we do offer the treats that kids love to have.

As far as fundraisers go, we cannot distribute the goods during the school day in case the kids open them up. However, if its an item that cannot be consumed by the child before getting home, the principal allows us to send it home on the bus. Otherwise, we have a parent pick up day of the fundraising items. We sold candy bars and Boston Coffee Cakes last year.
Parents have to realize that although these items are not considered health foods, it's ok if its consumed in moderation. We've stood on that reasoning for continuing our sale of these products. It usually makes the parents think more about their own parenting skills since the ownness goes back to them in making sure their kids are not pigging out on this stuff!

You can't please all the people all the time. So you do the best you can!

We are defnitely seeing the effect as childhood obesity becomes a national concern. The federal and state (Texas) rules about what can be served on campus during school hours affect all our organizations. No possible way to serve donuts or provide a sweet snack (except on one of the 3 days the school requests as exceptions for holiday parties and celebrations.)

Every district here has a wellness committee comprised of parents, staff, community members that explore issues and recommend policy. One of the issues is restrictions of types of food served on district property ANY time.

I served on that committee this year. The policy we put in to place will effect fundraising, concession stands, bake sales, school dances, after school clubs -you name it. There were those who those thought we should set restrictions on portion size, fat content, sugar, etc. We went with a much more open policy requiring organizations to serve at least one healthy option (when feasible), to consider the inclusion of healthy foods in th planning stage, and to encourage non-food fundraisers.

During our research phase, we did find many districts across the nation are banning school-affiliated organizations from selling candy, cookie dough, etc. I personally think that's overkill. But some ARE doing it.

Here's the thread where I posted the final policy: www.ptotoday.com/boards/showthread.php?t=19312

I agree with volmom--we do put a note on our flier that this is meant to be a treat and that it is NOT a substitute for a healthy breakfast...so many disclaimers...honestly--we do so much nutritionally positive things that doing a treat thing now and again seems reasonable. We do offer treats in our sales events but usually that is only part of a very large offering of purchases so folks have to decide to buy the treats...

Kind of like pancakes with pop though...just for a change...d

We have donuts with dad, as it is only one morning a school year. muffins with mom since it is only once a school year also. We served cookies at our soup supper and the student council still sells candy sticks for fundraisers. We also offer caffine free soda at movie night.

The kids are given choices of fresh vegetables, cooked vegetables, salad and fresh fruit along with milk every breakfast and lunch every day.

I don't see what the issue would be since you wouldn't do it weekly. Your not going to be handing each family a box of donuts and telling them to go to town on them either. At our school each dad and child get one donut each and also get their choice of yoguart and fresh fruit and milk or juice.

Our school district handed out a list of healthy snacks, but alot of parents do not follow it very well for birthday snacks.

There is also a school in our town that does "Pancakes with Pop" instead.