By New York Times
Published: March 17, 2010
In New York City public schools, the bake sale is at the heart of a fight between parents and school officials. On one hand, parents argue that bake sales, which occur weekly in some schools, provide much-needed funding for field trips. On the other hand, school officials say bake sales are part of the reason childhood obesity is an epidemic.
As a result, city officials have limited bake sales to once a month or after 6 p.m. on weekdays. Otherwise only fresh fruits and vegetables and packaged items (including reduced-fat Cool Ranch Doritos) that meet the city's nutritional guidelines can be sold at schools.
With the ban on bake sales, some have accused school officials of promoting processed junk food. "We're supposed to believe that a packaged chocolate-chip cookie is preferable to a homemade one, not on the basis of taste, texture or the quality of the ingredients, but because it came from a factory and has a nutrition label," Laura Shapiro, a food historian and author, told the
New York Times.
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