Monday, March 8, 2010

Bloomberg: Pop tarts good, cupcakes bad

From the Times Ledger:

It has come to this: Pop-Tarts and Doritos have trumped homemade brownies as acceptable foods allowed to be sold at bake sales inside the city’s public schools.

The 13-member city Panel for Education Policy unanimously agreed on the amended bake sale policy just before midnight Feb. 24 that lists 27 specific packaged items that may be sold in bakes sales, including the Whole Grain Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tart and Cool Ranch or Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos.

The regulation states that only marked, single-serving packages with a maximum calorie count of 200 may be sold in most school bake sales. Students may also sell fresh fruit and vegetables, but brownies, zucchini bread and other homemade goodies lost out.

“I’m sorry, I’d rather have my child eat a home-baked cupcake than a piece of garbage Kellogg’s Pop-Tart,” said Rob Caloras, president of Community Education Council 26, which is based in Bayside.

City Department of Education officials said the regulation was meant to address PTA members’ concerns that they were unable to raise needed money with bake sales.

“This regulation has been updated to provide additional flexibility for fund-raising while conforming to the Department of Education’s Wellness Policy and initiatives to improve the quality and nutritional value of foods and beverages that are available for children,” the DOE said in a statement.

DOE spokeswoman Marge Feinberg stressed that PTAs will still be allowed to sell homemade goods at their monthly bake sales, which Caloras said still will not allow the groups to make enough money.


So prepackaged junk with misleading labels and false calorie counts is ok, but stuff baked at home is bad. Okay.

Someone please stop the insanity!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bloomberg is such an ass.

Anonymous said...

There's so much wrong on so many levels in this city and all he "cares" about is the stuff we eat!

Anonymous said...

I like bloomberg, but this seems boneheaded. First, you can legislate good behavior. We have been taxig cigarettes and alcohol, and we still have as much problems as we always did. Which brings me to my second point. This is just a tax on the middle class disguised as some sort of social agenda. Does anyone think for a moment that the money collected will actually go to heathcare? I'd have a lot more respect if they called it what it was. a money grab wrapped in the blanket of social responsibbility.

Anonymous said...

Bloomberg for terminal cancer patient 2010!!!

Anonymous said...

Bloomberg is running out of things to tax. Next will be the dump tax. Everytime you take a dump you will pay additional sewer taxes. He'll make sure the city installs scales in the water meters so you can pay by weight. What a useless turd he is.

Anonymous said...

Bloomberg is running out of things to tax. Next will be the dump tax.

No shit!