Bye Bye Bake Sales?

Malden public schools have adopted state’s stringent wellness policy, which eliminates some venerable but nutritionally questionable traditions in school life. The new policies took effect on March 14.

The department has sent letters to parents outlining the changes, which include stricter dietary requirements for school lunch, tighter controls over so-called competitive foods, like alternative lunch items and outside food, and an end to bake sales immediately preceding or following the school day. The policy will also ban the practice of using food as a reward.

School Committee member Stephen Winslow hosted a public hearing last week to outline the policy and the rationale behind it. According to Winslow, the policy is part of an effort by public heath officials to combat the nation-wide explosion in obesity rates.

“This is a trend that has been building for the last 30 years or so, and people have been trying to figure out why,” said Winslow. “What a lot of people in the public health field realized is we’ve got to try something different.”

Winslow said the successful,  pro-active anti-smoking policies are the templates being used for nutritional and wellness policies.

Years of asking, pleading and cajoling people to stop smoking had little effect on overall smoking rates. By the 1990’s, health officials changed tactics and began to pass public policies banning smoking in airplanes; restaurants and public buildings have helped to halve the number of smokers in the country, according to Winslow.

“People in the public health field saw that success and realized, ‘We have to get to another level,’” he said.

The new policy was passed by the School Committee last year, and brings the city into alignment with federal and state standards on wellness. It will require a number of changes in how schools, parents and students interact with food, according to Winslow.

“Every school in Massachusetts is having to face this,” said Winslow.

Malden Schools Head Nurse Karen Reynolds said he changes will take time to really take hold, but are worth it.

“It just can’t happen overnight. It’s going to be tough, I understand that,” she said.

Schools Food Service Director Cheryl Maguire said the daily school breakfast and lunch already meets most of the requirements set forth in the policy. Many of the proposed changes will also help schools to control known allergens.

“There’s always still room for improvement,” she said.

The new policy touches on a number of areas, including:

• Competitive foods, broadly defined as foods that are not included in the regular school breakfast and lunch, will be tightly controlled.
• Kids still can bring whatever they want in a lunch from home, including sweets and other foods considered unhealthy. But students may not leave campus for lunch and bring unhealthy food back.
• Schools may no longer use food as a reward for students.
• Fundraisers during school hours may not include food. Under this section of the policy, you could not have a bake sale during school hours, extending a half-hour before and after the school day. In other words, there would have to be at least a 30-minute time gap between the beginning and end of the sale and the school day.
• Bake sales would still be allowed on Election Day because Malden traditionally closes schools on those days.
• Water will be provided for free at all lunches.
• All milk must be low in fat and have limited sugar (flavored milks traditionally have very high sugar levels).
• Food items offered in the school must contain less than 200 calories, with limited fat and sugar, and sodium content, and no trans fatty acids.
• All bread must be whole grain.