School Vent...

[jme829]

Slightly off topic but how's this for crazy.....in our district milk comes with the price of lunch, chocolate or white, your choice. Well, DS12 doesn't like milk so he'll bring water. They sell water at school but you can't substitute it for the milk so if you want it, you have to pay extra. Why???? It's the healthiest choice of all, but if you want it, you have to pay extra for it.

HS Cafeteria worker here again.....the school usually doesn't control what is required for the actual main lunch. The government sets up the components of what is considered a lunch for reimbursement to the school. We get reimbursed on any meal that fit the guidlelines. Here, they must have 2 components to be considered a reimbursable lunch. The main entree, then either a milk, a fruit or a vegetable (minimum..they can choose all and still we get reimbursed, but they have to at least have 2 ) anything else (including an extra entree, water, snacks, etc.) .is NOT remimbursed...it's alacarte and where we make our money which in turn makes our dept basically self supporting (we're not tied to the overall school budget for the most part).

For an fyi if anyone cares..lol....our director is very strict on keeping fat, sugar and calories under control. We do sell some junk, but most everything we offer is controlled in those areas. One issue I had was we were selling gatorade and the kids were drinking it like water...seriously, that is not the purpose of gatorade. they were buying it as a snack drink or to drink with their lunch, in class, etc....this year, we are selling small (10 oz) bottles of it, but our main alacart drink has switched to vitamin 10 water, way less calories and sugar. The kids grumbled at first, but now the buy about as much as the y did the gatorade. So that was an improvement! We also sell water, fuze, all fruit smoothies, tropicanas and envy. NO Sodas!!

 

[daisyduck123]

So for the older posters out there, do you remember getting treats in school? And when did it start???

I went to school about when you did (all thru the 70s) and I don't recall ever having treats either.

Btw, I'm a 1st grade teacher & I LOVE that we have a No-Treat policy for b-days. Years ago, parents could send in b-day treats at my school, and it was SUCH A PAIN! One year, on her son's 6th b-day, a mom sent in a WHOLE PIE & 12 CUPCAKES!! I had 26 students. What the heck was I supposed to do with those?? Even if I wanted to cut & divide it all up, she did not send in anything to cut them with...no plasticware of any kind. I stopped b-day goodies the next day. No more!

 

[MM27]

I went to school about when you did (all thru the 70s) and I don't recall ever having treats either.

Btw, I'm a 1st grade teacher & I LOVE that we have a No-Treat policy for b-days. Years ago, parents could send in b-day treats at my school, and it was SUCH A PAIN! One year, on her son's 6th b-day, a mom sent in a WHOLE PIE & 12 CUPCAKES!! I had 26 students. What the heck was I supposed to do with those?? Even if I wanted to cut & divide it all up, she did not send in anything to cut them with...no plasticware of any kind. I stopped b-day goodies the next day. No more!

I had a parent send in a sheet cake one year. The twin brother in the class next door had one too. Mother actually said we should do the party together. Umm, no I don't think I really need 50 kids and two cakes in one room. The kicker was, she didn't bring plates, forks or even a knife. I asked her how I was going to cut it and she said, "You guys have a knife in the teacher's room I'm sure" I wonder what she would have liked for me to do: leave my class alone while I got the knife or sent a kid down to then walk down the hallway with the knife

I had a parent bring an icecream cake one year, but he actually stayed with me and he did all the cutting. All I had to do was pass them out to the kids.

 

[aprilgail2]

Maybe it's my age, I went thru elementary school in the 60's, and I don't remember anyone ever bringing in treats for birthdays or celebrations except for maybe Christmas. Maybe it's the town I was in or the times, but I never thought it a big deal when the schools started cracking down on treats.
So for the older posters out there, do you remember getting treats in school? And when did it start???

I am 46 and I remember every year my mom would bake cupcakes for my birthday and send them into school when I was in grade school.

 

[Crazy4Disney72]

I'm almost 38 and all through elementary school we had cupcakes for a birthday. I think it's absolutely absurd that school districts are doing away with allowing treats for birthdays. If it was a cupcake every day....that might be one thing, but come one, most elementary schools have 25 kids in the class...some maybe a few more, some less (20 in DD's class). Even if EVERY kid brought something for their birthday, that's still only about 25 days out of the 180 they are in school. In my experience, only about half to maybe 3/4 bring treats in anyway, so in reality it's even less days that there would be a treat. They could even maybe limit it to the small cupcakes instead of the standard size ones, those end up being about the equivalent of 3 bites, but at least it's something a little special for the birthdays.

I realize that obesity is on the rise in this country....I myself am officially considered obese. My kids are not, not even close, but that's because I control what they eat on a regular basis. It's the kids that eat a mostly processed food/fast food/ junk food diet on a regular basis that are going to end up with a weight problem, not the kid who basically eats a well-balanced diet but has the occasional treat on a special occasion. I also find it hilarious that some of these same districts that ban special treats are also cutting down on recess and phys. ed. classes.....lack of physical activity also plays a huge role in weight gain.

 

[pooh4evr]

Our school has gotten strict too- nothing cold, has to be eaten with a spoon and healthy- no fruit snacks, snack cakes, yogurts, even whole fruits are out because they make the kids hands sticky!- So thee girls usually take a granola bar (except for the one with the peanut allergy in the room) dried fruits crisp things or 100 calorie packs. Usually at the parties they have vegatable, and fruit trays, crackers, and 1 sweet - woo hoo what a party!

 

[ZPT1022]

I don't mind the treats for birthdays or even when they have a little party on the day before vacation- let's face it, the kids are already mentally on vacation anyhow! Honestly, I'd much rather the kids have a small cupcake at school than a recent trend I've noticed- giving crappy little goody bags to the kids to take home. I vastly prefer a small treat to more junk coming into my house.


I definitely find the irony in the schools to be something else- my kids school sent home this letter last week about healthy initiatives but the food they serve is mostly crap!


I can't believe that people would send in something and not send all the necessary stuff to go with it. I sent cupcakes to all three kids classrooms for their Halloween parties and also sent napkins, cups and 2 gallons of apple juice to each classroom. How do you not think of these things?

 

[ahhappy]

My kids' elementary school started encouraging healthy treats- so far no ban. I'm sure its coming... However, they don't have a problem selling my kid a Twix bar from the school store (read- fundraiser for the PTA)at 9:00 in the morning. Do you really think my kid isn't going to eat it between the store and his classroom. He's in first grade. He rarely has any money and he knows now this is a no-no. But the temptation is there every day.

I suspect part of the problem is that class sizes are bigger and thus more treats per year in the room. And treats are also bigger these days. I'm 39 and remember bringing treats to school but it was a bag of fun size candy bars or suckers. Not cupcakes every other week.

 

[texaslover]

Elementary teacher here. I'm in my early 40's and we never brought treats to school for our birthdays. I can't imagine my mom making treats for the classroom and treats for my home party or the teachers putting up with 20+ kids per year having a party in the classroom.

My school does allow treats but they have to be storebought (so we can read the labels and help kids with allergies avoid reactions) and we ask that they be mess free. Well, we can enforce the first for safety reasons but parents totally disregard the second and teachers are berated if we don't just give in and serve the item. So, just this year I've had: 1) a cupcake cake (the ones with cupcakes all iced together to make a shape) with no napkins, forks, plates, or knives. The child had to pull the cupcakes apart with his hands bc I wasn't about to do it with that BLUE icing. It was a horrible mess and half the kids icing fell off with the pulling and they were upset. We also had to put them on tissues bc I was out of paper towels. 2) Individual pudding cups that literally took me 10 minutes to open all the lids. Also no silverware so I had to have another teacher watch my class while I went and begged the cafe for spoons. 3) Two separate cakes that were different flavors with no knife. I had to cut them with a plastic knife and the kids all got upset when we ran out of the chocolate one. 4) Cookies tray that had 6 choc chip, 6 white choc, 6 oatmeal raisin, and 6 peanut butter. It was a nightmare trying to get all the kids ones they could eat that didn't effect their allergies or make them barf . Obviously they all wanted choc chip and the oatmeal raisin kids cried.

I really think that a birthday song, little gift from teacher, special treatment like being assigned helper for the day or VIP, etc. should be enough. It's not the schools job to host a full party, that is the parent's responsibility and should be done outside the school day.

 

[portocall]

At my children's school, treats are still allowed, however unhealthy snacks on a regular basis are not. I have one summer birthday son who doesn't celebrate at school and another in the school year and I bake cupcakes for him yearly. I work at the school and trust me, not every child brings cupcakes on their birthday. So far this year, only 3 of the 12 birthday kids brought cupcakes and it is not a big hassle to have them pass them out and sing happy birthday. What I do like is the party food is usually pretty controlled by the teachers. They decide what kind of party they are having and you can select what you are bringing from the options. For Christmas, one son had a breakfast party and brought yogurt cups for the class, but the other options was milk, orange juice, fruit, frozen sausage biscuits, microwave ready bacon, and hard boiled eggs. My son loved that. The other one had an afternoon party with chicken nuggets, veggie trays, chips and salsa, cheese and crackers, fruit, and finger sandwiches. Of course, we are allowed to cook at home and bring which does make that kind of thing much easier.

Although obesity is an issue in America, the all or nothing kind of policies are failing our children and helping no one. What we need to teach our kids is how to make the healthy choices most of the time and splurge on occasion. Not allowing them to splurge as children isn't going to stop them once they discover all the junk as adults.

 

[It's A Happy Day]

I remember some kids bringing in cupcakes or other birthday goodies in elementary school but definitely not every kid...I'm 37

It does seem that a good 90% of the kids in my kids classes do the cupcake thing here. I will say that the teachers my children have had in the past several years have all sent home a note requesting that whatever it is be something that is already divided up in EQUAL portions like cupcakes vs. a cake and that they all be the same ~ no blue icing on some with green icing on others. I don't know if all parents comply but usually I hear about the "special" treats and they've all pretty much been cupcakes. We still have several parties a year too ~ Halloween, around winter break for the holidays (can't call it Christmas ), Valentines Day, and I think there is 1 more. For those parties they try to limit the party goodies to 1 sweet (sugar treat like cupcakes/cookies) and then 2 non sweet treats like popcorn, pretzels, fruit.

We don't have a no sweet policy yet but they are trying to work in a less sweet stance throughout the schools. The schools need to realize that the 0 tolerance to sweets is not realistic and is actually teaching the kids bad eating habits. It's okay to have "bad" foods once in awhile and there is no need to hide them or forbid them and its all of our jobs as teachers, parents, adults to teach them how to eat them in moderation. Let the kids be kids again for petes sake Sp what does it say when the school says your parents can't bring in ________ but we can sell it to you?

 

[FireDancer]

I'm 32 and for birthdays kids usually brought in trick-or-treat style candy for their birthdays. The only time I remember anything more elaborate was when this one particular kid's birthday rolled around. His mom was blind so for about the first 4 years every year on his birthday she would bring in pizza along with her seeing eye dog and cane. We would have a break and all get some pop and pizza while she talked to us about being blind. Stuff like how the dogs are trained, how she uses cane, how she relies on her other senses. It was something I remember always looking forward to because I was kind of a nerd who loved to learn that kind of stuff.

I applaud the schools for trying to bring awareness to healthy eating but I find their choices a bit strange. I also suspect it is lip service, why else would they turn around and allow slushy machines? Slushies are basically flavored sugar. Our high school stopped allowing students to use salt in the name of health but they had pop machines, served processed foods, and the vending machine had nothing but candy and chips in it. They didn't have water period, unless you got it out a fountain. We never had fresh raw vegetables or even vegetables that weren't cooked in butter. There was no fresh fruit, or food made from scratch as opposed to pre-packaged and reheated choices in the cafeteria line. There is also room in a healthy diet for the occasional cake or cupcake and I don't know how large these classes are but once you eliminate the kids that have birthdays over break or won't bring in much it can't be that bad. Those that had to offer a healthy alternative seem to make the most sense. Sure, take the cupcake, but why not an apple too.

Luckily for us out school was the one with the culinary vocational kids so we could just go to their lunch area and get more real food.

 

[kawing123]

It is a fact, most of the food offered at school cafe's is processes. On mashed potato day does anyone really believe that someone in the kitchen is peeling fresh potatoes? It would be far more healthy for schools to offer low fat lunch meat sandwiches both hot and cold similiar to Subway and fresh fruit and salads. Frozen, boxed, and canned foods make up a large majoriy of the menus. Years ago before hot lunch was offered kids ate sandwiches. Are obesity is on the rise and this lunch could be a contributing factor. Sandwiches, subs, wraps, fresh fruit, and salads should be the main choices and maybe once a week pizza, nuggets or other could be offered. Baked potatoes with lowfat healthy topping would be another great choice.

 

[MM27]

I really think that a birthday song, little gift from teacher, special treatment like being assigned helper for the day or VIP, etc. should be enough. It's not the schools job to host a full party, that is the parent's responsibility and should be done outside the school day.

I think a lot of parents overdo the class party because, face it, then they don't have to deal with 20+ kids and cleanup at their home.

It's funny that you mentioned the cupcake cake. I've seen them before on Cake Wrecks, where they are mocked , but I've never seen one up close and personal. I passed out the cupcakes, 1/2 chocolate and 1/2 yellow but some kids got really mad because the cake had about 8 huge icing roses on it. Of course I gave one to the birthday girl but then I was just pulling the cupcakes off and if they got a rose they got a rose.

We also had juice and goody bags filled with candy and those %*@! blower things.