I was sitting on my couch with a friend last week when I first heard that the New York City Department of Education (DOE) has effectively banned bake sales. We both looked at each other after skimming the post on Epicurious.com we were reading, utterly bewildered, and proceeded to have two very different visceral reactions to the story.
Side note: Another piece of news that has me all verklempt this week is that Condé Nast is closing Gourmet magazine. First, there goes my dream job of replacing Barry Estabrook as editor of Politics of the Plate, a blog that explores issues in food politics. Second (and obviously more important to people other than myself), why on earth would Condé Nast keep Bon Appetit open and close Gourmet, which has been printing since 1940 and has a steadily increasing circulation? But back to the brownie brouhaha.
My friend immediately broke into song, screaming "Bye Bye Birdie" at the top of her lungs, replacing "Birdie" with "brownies." While my immediate response was not so theatrical, the first thing that popped into my head was, "What kind of brownies were the Education Department eating when they passed this policy?" Then I went on a 30-minute tirade about the need for school lunch reform in America, with my friend interjecting a few lines of "Bye Bye Brownies" every so often to lighten the mood.
Alice Waters-esque rants aside, this new policy seems more like a political scheme than an effort to actually curb childhood obesity, which is at an astounding rate of 40 percent in the NYC Public Schools, according to the DOE. The ban is part of a series of Wellness Policies enacted by the DOE over the summer that try to cut the amount of sugar and fat consumed by children in the public-school system. The Wellness Policies limit foods sold in vending machines and reduce the amount of trans-fat in school lunches. School lunches have been a hot topic in NYC for years; isn't it just a wonderful coincidence that these issues are finally being addressed during an election season, and that NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who just so happens to be up for re-election, has put his stamp of approval on the Wellness Policies?
The new ruling states, "Fundraising sales involving non-approved food items and/or non-approved beverages are prohibited between the time school begins and 6:00 PM." Non-approved food items include everything from cupcakes to zucchini bread. My question is: Why the time limitations? By 6 p.m., there are probably no kids left in school; it seems like the DOE's attitude is that they don't care what kids eat when they aren't on DOE time. If they really want to combat obesity, why not ban bake sales all together? And does this mean that groups can sell approved foods? If an organization wanted to sell crudités to the kids, is that acceptable?
Things get even more interesting in the next paragraph of the ruling: "PA/PTA fundraising sales involving non-approved items are limited to once per month and only after the last lunch period." This seems to have the same apathetic tone: If the kids eat something after we've already fed them, it's not our problem.
I remember going to bake sales during recess with my friends and feeling pretty good about giving someone my dollar for their cause. Of course, we always tried to pick the biggest brownies, but still. The DOE's actions might come from a good place, but ultimately, they seem misdirected. I think my friend expressed it best when she belted "Bye bye brownies/ I'm gonna miss you so/ Bye bye brownies/ Why'd you have to go?"
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Caryn Horowitz is a senior majoring in history. She can be reached at Caryn.Horowitz@tufts.edu.
