As the school year begins, students may have noticed a lack of sweet treats during Patriot Period. This isn’t a mistake or some unfortunate twist of fate; rather, it is a deliberate measure put in place to protect the health of students.
The policy, described in PIP 10.30, was put in place by Arlington Public Schools and covers topics ranging from school meal regulations to Physical Education guidelines. The relevant section of this document is the Food and Nutrition section.
It dictates that, “any food or beverages offered at Arlington Public Schools-sponsored fundraisers will meet the USDA Smart Snacks nutrition standards.”
“The finance department’s interpretation of the current existing policies is that bake sales must comply with healthy school food standards, as presented by the US Department of Agriculture,” Director of Student Activities Michael Krulfeld said.
These standards include specific calorie, sodium, total fat, saturated fat and total sugar maximums. These regulations severely limit the goods that can be sold.
“I don’t know how viable bake sales are going to be in the future given that it would pretty much have to be packaged goods that we can see the nutrition information of,” Krulfeld said.
If the baked goods were made at home, they would have to have all of the ingredients and the concentration of those ingredients clearly labeled, which is not realistic.
Because of these strict regulations, clubs will now have to get creative when raising money in the future.
“We’re really trying to work our way through this and maybe change the traditional method of thinking of raising funds away from bake sales into other types of activities like a 50/50 raffle at a sporting event,” Krulfeld said.
This policy may seem like a shock to some. However, it’s actually not new.
“This has come [from] some financial audits at the school system level that have identified areas where schools have not been in compliance with current existing policies,” Krulfeld said.
PIP 10.30 was adopted in July 2017, and the enforcement of the guidelines surrounding club fundraisers began this school year.
Even though, for the foreseeable future, bake sales will be a thing of the past, club fundraisers don’t have to be. In fact, maybe this policy will prove to be a push for more creative fundraising.
