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SCOTIA & GLENVILLE
District putting kibosh on the cupcake
New food rules ban some treats
BY MARK ROBARGE Gazette Reporter

   The days of a mother baking cupcakes to send to school to celebrate her child’s birthday are over in the Scotia-Glenville Central School District.
   The district has enacted a new wellness policy that officials hope will promote a healthier lifestyle among students. Among the new rules adopted by the district’s Board of Education:
   Classroom celebrations involving food will be limited to two per month, and only commercial goods that have ingredient labels will be allowed.
   Vending machines will offer only fruit or vegetable juice, water or unsweetened tea as drinks, and candy is probibited.
   School-sponsored groups are prohibited from selling candy, cookie dough, soda, fruit drinks or home-baked goods in fundraising activities.
   Whole milk will be eliminated from the school lunch program, with only juice, lowfat and skim milk, unsweetened tea and water offered.
   “When we considered that it was about the health and safety of our kids, we thought that these were reasonable positions to take,” said Joseph Kavanaugh, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction, who sat on the committee that developed the policy.
   That committee included about 15 members, he said, including students, parents, faculty and administrators, and met for about six months, including review of other district policies. “We saw that some were a little more general and vague,” he said, “and ultimately, I think our group felt that if we were going to do this work, we wanted to have something that had some substance to it in the end.”
   Sandy Sheady, a nutrition program representative for the state Child Nutrition Program Administration, said the policy reflects the National School Lunch Program.
   “You’ll see a lot of what you’re seeing at Scotia-Glenville throughout the state,” she said. “There’s a lot of what you’re seeing there: the classroom parties, the vending machines, a la carte offerings and school store offerings. Everybody is attacking food first.”
   The state Legislature is considering the Healthy Schools Act, a proposal by Gov. Eliot Spitzer that would set statewide standards for food served in schools and mandate the annual development of local wellness policies. The bill is currently awaiting action by rules committees in both the Assembly and Senate.
   “Every time we checked on that, we saw an implementation date of September 2008, and we wanted to do our part to begin to change the culture in our district,” Kavanaugh said. “I think we did good work on it, and it undoubtedly is going to change the culture in our district a little bit.”
   The new wellness policies have not met with universal acceptance across the state. Sheady said bans on homemade food in classrooms have met with some opposition in downstate school districts, a dispute she said has been dubbed the “cupcake wars.” But by mandating that foods have ingredient labels, schools are not only promoting healthier eating but also protecting students who have food allergies.
   “Saying that you can only send in something prepackaged, it’s so they can make evaluations about the ingredients that they’re serving to children,” Sheady said.
   Scotia-Glenville’s new policy was publicized earlier this summer in the district’s newsletter, and Kavanaugh said Superintendent Susan Swartz will send a letter out to parents before the new school year begins to further ensure they are aware of the changes.
   “We certainly want to leave a line of communication open with the community if they have any concerns,” Kavanaugh said. “But we have our reason for wanting to [enact the new policy], and it involves the health and safety of our kids.”  

  
  
  

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Classroom celebrations involving food will be limited to two per month, and only commercial goods that have ingredient labels will be allowed.

So, Mom, don't make the nice cheap cupcakes, even if they might have healthier ingredients (or even able to have a bit of the sugar cut out), go to the store and buy box upon box of Freihofer's cupcakes instead and send them in with your child.  We'll just love to work off of THAT sugar high, instead.

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Whole milk will be eliminated from the school lunch program, with only juice, lowfat and skim milk, unsweetened tea and water offered.

Now, I'm not a doctor (or a nurse), but at the age of some of the children in elementary school, AREN'T THE ONLY SUPPOSED TO BE DRINKING WHOLE MILK TO STRENGTHEN THEIR BONES???

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  That committee included about 15 members, he said, including students, parents, faculty and administrators, and met for about six months,

Good thing they rushed to get this out, huh?  Imagine all the kids affected over the end of the school year!

This just comes down to the school district, (AKA The State, AKA Big Brother) telling you what it's ok to feed your kids or not.  

Did you know that if you bake something yourself, you can actually cut out a good portion of the sugar without affecting the taste of the food??  Guess they didn't check into that and into making a suggestion to parents for that.  If I was a parent over there, maybe I would send in my kids with the richest fudge brownies that Freihofers sells, as well as sending in some Jolt Cola or Mountain Dew.  They can't complain about that, it's pre-packaged and has the ingredients written right on it, and hey, Mountain Dew can be considered healthy for you.  
First 3 ingredients on any can...
1.  Carbonated Water.  
2.  High Fructose Corn Syrup.  
3.  Concentrated Orange Juice.

Beat that, Scotia.  Going to stop me from sending in Orange Juice to the school?  I think not!  

I can't believe that they're going to eliminate whole milk from the kids menu. You can also use products like splenda to eliminate sugar in homemade desserts and still be healthy for kids. This is just another case of a well meaning group shoving their ideas down our throats without thinking it thru.

Dont forget that all those "healthy" unsweetened things have----'other chemicals' to make them sweet...deemed 'safe' by the FDA.....let's see the #'s in 20 or so years......

Here's an idea... make only the school food program responsible for their ingredients and nutrionality....no artificial stuff either.....teach the kids--eat it or be hungry.....yes, this is America but, we dont have to be 'rich fools'.......and rich we are......this isn't the Sudan or Darfur

I pay the taxes,,,,if I want to send in cupcakes, teach your kid to say no to sweets,I wont be offended.....it is their body and mind...teach them the 'self defense' they will need in the world......teach them to THINK AND REASON....

God, I ate all that stuff and more...how did all of the past generations ever survive???? They try to scare the b-Jesus outta ya with this food stuff. How did humans continue to exist?

So now we spend taxpayers money to teach 'humans' how and what to eat and  how to have sex! I thought these things were inherit??????

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Nutritious school lunch comes at price
Area districts offering healthful food selections
BY KATHY PARKER Gazette Reporter

   State mandates aimed at increasing the nutrition level in school food are also increasing the cost of the breakfast and lunch programs, according to local school officials.
   Greater Johnstown School District Food Service Director Linda Ellis said her department feeds about 2,000 children a day.
   “We are serving a lot more salads and fresh fruits and that is more costly,” Ellis said.
   She said lunch prices were raised slightly at the end of last year and are set for the current school year at $1.75 for junior and senior high school students and $1.50 for elementary grade youngsters.
   “We’ve just received word that the price of milk is going up but we’ve already set the price for the year at 35 cents an 8-ounce carton,” she said. Last year it was 25 cents. The district receives 55 cases of milk each day. That’s 2,750 singleserve cartons.
   Ellis said her expenditures for food and beverages change from week to week and she cannot count on income covering the costs.
   “The last year we operated the department in the black was 1998. After that health insurance costs started rising and now it’s the cost of food that’s hurting the budget,” she said.
   The Albany City School District food service program is still operating without funding from the general school budget, according to the district Web site.
   Terry Nord, health services coordinator for the district, said this is the second year the school has had a strict healthful food policy.
   “We serve yogurt and milk snacks and use whole grain pizza crusts and low-fat cheese,” she said. “The snacks today are baked, not fried, and smaller portions are served.”
   Parents were informed this fall that efforts to improve the nutritional value in meals will include use of whole grain breads, turkeybased cold cuts and 100 percent beef hot dogs.
   On Wednesday, the Galway Central School District became the latest district to enact a wellness policy that strives to offer more healthful foods and increase students’ activity.
   Superintendent of School Clifford Moses said the state mandate charges schools with increasing physical activity for students and decreasing fats and sugar in the school day diet.
   “The biggest cost for the school districts is the food service,” Moses said. “We receive food from the federal government and it’s free, but it’s not the highest quality.”
   He said the free food includes cheese and hot dogs at a time when the school is being ordered to provide more fresh vegetables and other low-fat, low-sugar, low-sodium offerings in the cafeteria.
   Moses said keeping junk food out of the classrooms is another goal of the program.
   “We’re not eliminating cupcakes from the classrooms, but we are asking parents to think about healthy alternatives when they send treats in for a child’s birthday,” he said.
   Like many other schools districts in the region, Galway has instituted a policy that classroom birthday celebrations and other parties will be limited to two per month.
   Christy Multer, spokeswoman for the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School District, said the Board of Education there has been working with teachers and staff for more than three years to increase the nutritional value of foods in the schools.
   In 2004, the first set of policies was enacted in Burnt Hills, which removed all candy and commercially produced cakes and cookies from vending machines.
   Multer said groups planning to raise funds are prohibited from selling candy and other junk foods.
   “We have also sent a letter to parents strongly urging them not to send sodas or other carbonated drinks to school in bagged lunches,” she said. “Cafeteria personnel said they saw parents complied with the request almost immediately.”
   Last month, the Scotia-Glenville school board adopted a new wellness policy that also limited birthday celebrations to two designated days a month.
   Among other rules enacted is that whole milk will be eliminated from the school lunch program, with only juice, lowfat and skim milk, unsweetened tea and water offered.
   Linda Ellis at the Johnstown School District said skim, 1 percent white and 1 percent chocolate milk are offered in the six school buildings she stocks.
   Ballston Spa Central School District spokesman Stuart Williams said his school board adopted the wellness policy last year and has been monitoring it.
   “We’ve transitioned the changes in over the past year and this fall sent a letter to parents that included suggestions for alternatives for birthday parties and telling them of changes that will be found in our concession stands,” Williams said.
   The letter suggested angel food or applesauce cakes and the giving of non-edible items like pencils or stickers as a celebration of special events.