We were a little stunned when we saw an article that was posted on the Drudge Report. The story comes from the Boston Herald and it talks about how state regulations would negatively impact school fundraising efforts .. especially cookie dough fundraisers and bake sales.
The articles starts with:
The Departments of Public Health and Education contend clearing tables of even whole milk and white bread is necessary to combat an obesity epidemic affecting a third of the state’s 1.5 million students. But parents argue crudites won’t cut it when the bills come due on athletic equipment and band trips.
And that’s where the uproar begins. Parents complain that the state is dictating what their kids can eat and they apparently don’t like it one bit. It appears like the people most irritated are those that sell food for fundraisers.
“If you want to make a quick $250, you hold a bake sale,” said Sandy Malec, vice president of the Horace Mann Elementary School PTO in Newtonville.
Maura Dawley of Scituate said the candy bars her 15-year-old son brought to school to help pay for a youth group trip to Guatemala “sold like wildfire.” She worries the ban “would seriously affect the bottom line of the PTOs. “The goal is to raise money,” Dawley said. “You’re going to be able to sell pizza. You’re not going to get that selling apples and bananas. It’s silly.”
Food fundraisers have helped send the renowned Danvers High School Falcon Band to the Rose Bowl Parade in California and the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. Danvers Parents for Music Education sell fudge because “it still works,” said the group’s president, Matthew Desmond. “Even my wife will buy it.”
If you do not want your state or local government dictating what you and your family can eat and in turn determining what products you can and can’t sell to raise a little money you might want to be proactive and start talking to your representatives now. Because if you didn’t think this could happen to you this article might be an eye opener.
In our opinion there is a place and function for government but more and more often policy can get to the point where it appears and feels intrusive and has more far reaching effects that anticipated.
CLICK HERE for details on the top cookie dough fundraisers.
