What Samantha learned in school today

[Amber]

Westford's Superintendent Bill Olsen cited the new Massachusetts Regulation regarding Competitive Foods in Schools, which goes into effect Aug 2012, as a primary reason for letter sent home last week to parents regarding celebrations in school.

What the new regulation regulates, after speaking with the 2-person (both employed at Westford Academy) Westford Wellness Committee and the DPH representatives, is the nutritional content of food offered. See specifics here. The other two reasons cited are health conditions and food allergies. Those two are pretty much slam-dunked as follows:

1. Health conditions: Diabetics must regulate their intake no matter what food they are consuming. Sugars and carbohydrates from fruits, dried fruits, popcorn and pretzels are all going to impact a child's blood sugar and will need to be monitored just as a cookie or marshmallow treat would need to be.

2. Food allergies: Parents can find plenty of foods which do not contain allergens and provide them to the students. I'm not certain the administration can cite one adverse event with food which occurred during a classroom celebration.

As for the third, the regulation itself, nowhere does it state that certain foods are banned based on what TYPE of food they are. Rather, foods are out based on relative nutritional content (relative because they only look at fat/sat fat/sodium/carb/sugar and not the ingredients themselves). To make things easier for schools, the John C. Stalker Institute at Framingham State has analyzed and published an "A" list of foods which fall within the nutritional guidelines. I scoured the list and various grocery stores to find an acceptable treat to offer my daughter's 4th grade class.

The treat I came up with, Glenny's Organic Marshmallow Treats, are on the "A" list. They are organic, vegan, whole grain, and contain completely pronounceable ingredients (Organic Whole Grain Brown Rice, Organic Marshmallow Recipe (Organic Brown Rice Syrup, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Guar Gum, Sea Salt), Organic Palm Oil, Vegetable Glycerol, Organic Rice Brown Extract, Organic Vanilla Flavor). They fall within the nutrition guidelines set forth by the state. This is just one example, there are other foods including Enjoy Life brand items which are produced in a facility entirely free of any Top 8 allergens (also banned by Mr. Olsen, not the state of MA).

I brought them into school today, and was shot down by Mr. Umbro because they weren't on the list (pretzels, popcorn, raisins, fruits, vegetables). Sam and I then went to Mr. Olsen, who also (after a lot of political doublespeak) gave a resounding "no" for Sam to pass out these treats today - not because of their nutritional content or whether or not they fall within the state regulation for competitive foods in schools. He said no simply because of what they are.

Let's look at pretzels, deemed acceptable for consumption by the overreaching "Leadership" Team. These highly processed, white flour-based, high carbohydrate, nutritionally void snacks do nothing more to feed your body the vitamins, minerals and nutrients it needs to function well than a cookie or brownie would. In fact, one serving of pretzels has three times the carbohydrates as one organic marshmallow treat. Three times!

Teaching means educating children about nutrition and allowing them opportunities to make healthy choices by offering some sweet treats alongside fruits and veggies. This isn't about teaching or educating students about nutrition. It also isn't about falling in line with state regs. It isn't even about health conditions or food allergy issues. This is simply the Superintendent and the rest of the "Leadership" Team setting a zero-tolerance, zero-thinking, zero-common-sense rule with their big iron fist. They are not TEACHING students anything except they (and by extension, their parents) can't be trusted to make healthy decisions, so the Leadership Team needed to take the decision-making process away from them completely. What a lesson.

So today Sam learned that adults will look her in the face and lie about WHY they are doing something, then when you try to work within the guidelines they cite, they will backtrack and say no anyway. Excellent lesson for a 9-year-old 4th grader to learn right before Christmas.

[Robo]

This is simply the Superintendent and the rest of the "Leadership" Team setting a zero-tolerance, zero-thinking, zero-common-sense rule with their big iron fist. They are not TEACHING students anything except they (and by extension, their parents) can't be trusted to make healthy decisions, so the Leadership Team needed to take the decision-making process away from them completely. What a lesson.

So today Sam learned that adults will look her in the face and lie about WHY they are doing something, then when you try to work within the guidelines they cite, they will backtrack and say no anyway. Excellent lesson for a 9-year-old 4th grader to learn right before Christmas.

Unfortunately you hit the nail on the head. The Westford School Administrators (who are anything but Leaders) are basically a bunch of bully's who want complete control.