Junk it! Bill would ban fatty, sugary snacks in Mass. schools

Boston Herald ^ | May 30 2007 | Jessica Fargen

[bigdcaldavis]

Junk food will head to the junk heap in Bay State schools if a bill to be pushed by top health experts on Beacon Hill today succeeds in banning fatty and sugary foods from school vending machines, bake sales and fund-raisers.

Backers of the junk food bill say it sets statewide standards, forces students to eat better and cuts down on ads kids see each day.

“These are habits that last a lifetime,” said Eric Weltman, spokesman for the Massachusetts Public Health Association, one of the backers of the bill, which would also ban corporate food and soda marketing inside school walls.

[bigdcaldavis]

If the state wants to ban schools from selling junk food, then I have no problem with that.....as long as students are not punished IN ANY WAY for bringing or having junk food on school property. The moment the schools go the zero-tolerance route is the moment they step WAY over the line.

[Jeff Chandler]

banning fatty and sugary foods from ... bake sales and fund-raisers.

Well, there go bake sales and fund-raisers.

[AU72]

This is 40 years too late to have saved me from mystery meat and french fries cooked in aged lard.

[Tax-chick]

I agree, bigd. They don’t need vending machines in schools, and they don’t need to be selling junk food in the cafeteria. If kids want to bring it from home, that should be their business.

And they shouldn’t need bake sales or fundraisers; the taxpayers are spending a fortune on the schools already.

[WV Mountain Mama]

Oh yeah, it’s the snacks kids get in schools that make them fat. At least kids have to walk to class to get some exercise during the day. It has nothing to do with what parents feed them at home or kids sitting on their collective arses from 3 in the afternoon until bed time talking on cell phones, chatting on myspace or playing video games every night... Let’s not address that problem. It’s the schools...wait, government indoctrination centers fault.

[Red Badger]

How about a nice big slice of TOFU withs some carrot juice to wash it down with!.........Yeah, the band Nerds are really gonna have a hard time raising money now!......

[Jeff Chandler]

And they shouldn’t need bake sales or fundraisers;

I agree that the schools themselves should not be holding bake sales or fundraisers, but by the high school level the various clubs like to raise money, and I don't see anything wrong with them selling chocolate chip cookies.

[Red Badger]

At least kids have to walk to class to get some exercise during the day.

I have seen proposals to let the kids stay in one room and just have teachers come and go........for security, of course........

[Jeff Chandler]

LOL! I had always been told how wonderful carrot juice tastes until a couple months ago when my daughter offered me some of hers. No surprise at all: it tastes like ground up carrots. No thank you.

[dfwgator]

A little too late for this Mass resident.

[brownsfan]

“The moment the schools go the zero-tolerance route is the moment they step WAY over the line.”

That line is being actively erased as we type.
Socialized heathcare will change everything, and give the government the tool to control every aspect of your life.
No smoking - govt. mandate from the heathcare czar.
No junk food - govt. mandate from the heathcare czar.
Required excersize session 3 times a week - govt. mandate from the heathcare czar.
Ban on alcohol - govt. mandate from the heathcare czar.
Overweight people fined - govt. mandate from the heathcare czar.
Required sessions with therapist for “mental health”, (reeducation) - govt. mandate from the heathcare czar.

etc.

[popdonnelly]

That belly wasn’t caused by fatty, sugary snacks.

[dfwgator]

True, but I’m sure he’s never missed a meal in his life.

[Gabz]

OUCH.............you know you’re going to get beat up on that one, don’t you?

But you’re 100% correct.

When my daughter and her friend got here after school yesterday (friend’s dad picks them up) they met me out in the field and started picking peas and then helped me put in more corn. Then I took them to get soda and ice cream.

They won’t come here today, Girl Scouts this eveing and the other mom is troop leader, tomorrow and Thursday they have little league practice. Friday night they get to just play because Sat morning they are leaving at 6am for a trip to D.C. for another GS function.

[Madame Dufarge]

In 1985, Eric entered the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he majored in Creative Writing. His first two years at school he lived in East Quad, the “place to meet interesting people,” i.e., the dorm for radicals, weirdos, punks, artists, and queers. Eric easily fit into several of those categories. Already irreverent and absurd, with the help of his college friends, Eric became even more so – and also began wearing lots of purple

Oh, and he became a vegetarian at 11.

[Gabz]

Oh Good Lord..........

On that note, I think I’ll go eatmore fried chicken.

[LibLieSlayer]

Let’s just ban Massachusetts! Conservatives can kick out all the lefties and call it whatever they desire to!

LLS

[pb+j]

um yeah, seeing as how 4 generations of kids overloaded on cupcakes ‘n sodas etc in school, is there something dangerous about the new sugar today? jeez, just exercise at recess you young lazybutts!!

[WV Mountain Mama]

I figured if I needed a sarcasm tag, the reader would be pretty dumb anyway. :)

Too many kids are just inactive with parents buying them too much junk at home (or fast food). It is a very rare night that our family is home, in the house just sitting around. Tonight I am making salmon with roasted corn relish for a healthy dinner.

I had to use the gov’t indoctrination centers name for all the parents (like you and I who like our schools) as a joke.

[discostu]

In TUSD the food in the vending machines was infinitely more palatable than the food in the cafeteria. The cafeteria specialized in hamburgers with dry meat and moist buns. The kids are going to eat what they want to eat, the only question is whose going to get money out of it: the schools or the convenience stores near the schools. If I had property that was open to the public near a school and they passed this law I’d call the vending machine company and host the machines on my property, might as well make some money on silly do nothing laws.