The Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics is disappointed in the state Board of Education’s approval of 30 food-related fundraiser exemptions from a federal requirement that prohibits the sale of unhealthy food at fundraisers during school hours.
Despite the efforts of our organization, school nutrition directors, child health advocates and other allied organizations, the board chose to disregard the “Smart Snack” standard of the federal Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act of 2010. These regulations required new standards on the types of foods that can be sold at school fundraisers during the school day starting this summer. The state board’s action will also allow, on a case-by-case basis, school districts to obtain a temporary exemption for additional fundraisers beyond the limit of 30.
While most schools in the nation are moving toward healthier options, the board’s vote will lead to providing more unhealthy foods to our children. According to the Pew Charitable Trust’s recent Kids Safe and Healthful Foods Projects survey, 32 states have decided to allow only healthy foods fundraisers during the school day. Non-food and healthier-food fundraisers that meet the Smart Snack regulation have proven successful in many areas including Hall County, where the schools have implemented fun runs to bring in added revenue.
Turning back the clock a bit, in 2005, the Georgia Department of Education made districts aware that the 2004 Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill required all local boards to adopt a wellness policy. Consequently, in Georgia, each district would have a local wellness policy in place by the school term starting in 2007.
I sat on my local district’s policy committee and saw the effort our school nutritionist put into not only providing tasty, nutritious meals for our children, but leading a group of coaches, administrators and parents who accepted the challenge to draft a policy that prohibited non-nutritive foods during school hours. This committee adopted a policy that provided healthy food options so that “No Child Left Behind” meant not just academically, but also with healthy nutrition options.
Moving forward, in 2009, our state Legislature passed the SHAPE bill, which blossomed into the Georgia SHAPE program, an initiative to combat childhood obesity. The data this positive initiative has revealed are dismaying: Only half our students are within a healthy weight range, and only half can complete a standardized fitness test. We are all aware of the direct correlation between childhood overweight and obesity and the development of adult chronic illnesses of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, so this is something that should be taken very seriously.
The overwhelming majority of parents want their children to have access to healthier food in school. Allowing unhealthy foods fundraisers at school during the school day — in 2014, while we’re in the midst of a childhood obesity epidemic with its devastating consequences — sends entirely the wrong message.
We hope the board will reconsider its action to lower the “Smart Snacks” standard, and take further steps to ensure schools provide and reinforce health nutrition standards for our children. Our children are our future.
