Letter to the Editor

[velvetpage]

Re: Ministry of Education’s School Nutrition Policy

Trust the Government of Ontario to take an essentially sound idea and mess up the implementation until it’s barely recognizable.

Teachers aren’t allowed to give candy as prizes anymore. I can get behind that. But we’re also not allowed to serve freezies after the annual Terry Fox Run or Play Day next June, unless of course they’re 100% juice. This strikes me first as far too restrictive, and second as wrong-headed; as any nutritionist will tell you, juice has too much sugar and too little fibre to be good for you anyway. Similarly, diet sodas are no improvement over regular because the sweetener is one not recognized by the body; they’re at least as bad for you as regular Coke, but the diet caffeine-free ones are permissible.

Pizza places have to comply with the regulations to sell pizza at elementary schools. That means whole wheat crusts, low-fat cheese, and most importantly, full-disclosure ingredient labels. That last effectively puts all small businesses out of the running for the school market, because they can’t afford to put their ingredient list on every box. Way to support local business!

Many teachers have arrived at their first in-service of the school year to discover that the regulations designed for children are also applied to situations where no children are present. I’m rather surprised that a crowd of angry, under-caffeinated teachers didn’t show up at Queen’s Park when they realized that the Board of Education was no longer allowed to serve coffee and tea with caffeine in them at events designed for groups of teachers. How exactly does serving coffee at an in-service with no children at it set a bad example for children?

Could we go back to teaching our children about a reasonable balance between healthy and non-healthy foods? This policy is so restrictive it’s punitive, and that in the long run will do more harm than good.

Comments

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Excellent letter, Velvet.

I was thinking about the pizza box issue, though -- were I the proprietor of a small pizza place, I wouldn't vet the expense of custom-printed delivery boxen. I'd find a way to print out a proper ingredient list and affix it to my Generic White Boxes with The Stereotyped Italian Guy On The Lid. Paper and tape should work, but if the Gummint is really a stickler, there are plenty of adhesive labels out there and available.

That way, I could print SPECIFIC ingredient/nutrition lists for ANY PARTICULAR pizza.

Shoot, I could kill two or three birds with one stone and print the delivery address on them, as well.

Of course, telling YOU about this idea isn't particularly useful, but I suppose you're in a better position to contact Hamilton-area vendors than I am.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

For some reason, whatever the regulations are, this isn't a possibility. I thought of it too, but there's some reason why it doesn't meet the criteria.

See Icon

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Soooooo, baked goods from a store bakery that uses sticker labels aren't acceptable?

Let's run this through the General Semantic Processor, to see what message is REALLY getting through to the kids:

"Only factory-processed pre-packaged food is nutritious and healthy."

Yeah. I can see why you're upset.

(Note that my doctor's Simple Advice for Eating Healthy was simply, "avoid factory-processed pre-packed food. If it's in a box, it's probably bad for you.")

Re: See Icon

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

That's pretty close, actually. There was some debate over whether a supermarket fruit tray would be okay - the fruit would pass muster but the dip might not have enough information! we came to the conclusion that a serving of vanilla yogurt would do the job of a fruit dip AND pass muster because it would come with a factory label.

For the record, if it's from a produce section and isn't a nut, we can serve it without too much fanfare. We had some debate about the kindergarten teacher making her herbed potatoes with the kids, though - the olive oil she uses is shipped from a family farm in Greece and didn't meet regulation. *headdesk*

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

Contact you local small business organization, explain the problem to them. Why should you do all the work lobbying.

[amyura.livejournal.com]

Wow. Great letter, awful regulations.

[kisekileia.livejournal.com]

I have a lot of sympathy with the requirement for a full ingredients list (in fact, I think having one available should be a legal requirement for all restaurant food--you would be AMAZED at how many restaurants cannot tell you what is in their food), but there's no reason it needs to be on every box rather than just easily available.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I also think there's a point where the school should not be fully responsible for policing students' allergies. At some point, a student with a life-threatening allergy must be able to say, "I can't tell what's in that so I can't eat it." We can be (and are) trained to react if they make a mistake - but the first line of defense is the students' own ability to advocate for themselves.

[grrl-next-door.livejournal.com]

I hate this policy, and also think it's stupid they've extended it so they can only serve us "healthy" things are PD events. So stupid!

I also understand the candy thing, but do you know how hard it is for supply teachers to control intermediate kids otherwise? lol. A couple candies has never hurt anyone.