Food Fight In Massachusetts Schools

by Steve Eastman, Faith Issues

What happens when nanny state nutrition officials trample onto traditional fundraising turf?  The biggest food fight in Massachusetts history.

State Senator Susan Fargo is chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Public Health.  She claims, “If we didn’t have so many kids that were obese, we could have let things go.”  Starting August 1st, bake sales are banned from public schools in the Commonwealth.

At the very least, the ban would also include vending machines, food served at holiday parties and, get ready for this, delicious incentives for academic achievement.  Perhaps this is not the intention, but it surely looks like war is being declared to protect the cafeteria’s monopoly.  Not only that, the next phase of the plan, still to be approved, would make the ban active 24/7 and affect banquets, candy sales and football games.

So what kind of community efforts would be put on a diet, if fundraisers fail to come up with profitable alternatives to comfort food?  Things like athletic equipment that help kids burn off the calories, not to mention trips like when Danvers High School Marching Band made it to the Rose Bowl.

We’re not saying we like to see kids pack on the pounds.  But Massachusetts officials, by their all or nothing approach, are cheating students out of discovering the value of moderation.  The hard-nosed approach pushes them the other way when they get home.

Now consider this.  If state officials want to ban food, how about that genetically modified kind that is finding its way into school cafeterias and nearly everywhere else? We’re only beginning to learn the effects of combining plant, animal and insect DNA together, but you can bet it’s not a health choice.

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