Nutrition policies could curb classroom parties, bake sales

Sugary cupcakes, cookies, and muffins will be forbidden in Haverhill's schools from now on. Beverly is banning all home-baked goods from school fund-raisers. And in Revere, officials are proposing food-free classroom parties and celebrations.

When students across the region head back to school this week and next, they will encounter new rules aimed at promoting healthier nutrition and more exercise. The change is prompted by a federal mandate that requires every school district that receives funding for lunch programs -- and the vast majority do -- to have a wellness policy in place by the first day of school or risk losing federal school lunch funding.

``When our parents hear about this, we are going to have an outcry," said Raleigh Buchanan, superintendent of Haverhill's public schools. The district is still finalizing sections of its wellness policy dealing with bake sales and classroom parties.

``In the history of schools in America, bake sales have been the staple of raising money," Buchanan said. ``And now bake sales have to have sugar-free cookies and muffins because of sugar content."

The federal rule governing the changes, formally known as the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, requires that school policies include nutrition guidelines for all food available at school, including vending machines and bake sales, and directs school officials to develop plans for evaluating implementation of the policies. It also mandates that a cross-section of each community -- including parents, students, the school board, and the public -- craft the policies.

But the mandate gives schools wide latitude in filling in details, allowing each community to determine everything from portion size to calorie and fat content. The result is a dizzying array of wellness policies, with some districts drafting rules that go on for 35 pages, such as the policy in Revere, while others are more succinct, such as the two-page policy in the Triton Regional School District.

Revere's policy, for example, requires that all snacks contain no more than 200 calories per package, and no more than 35 percent of those calories can be from fat.

Danvers' policy states that beverages be made of at least 50 percent fruit juice and that fruit- or vegetable-based drinks may have no natural or artificial sweeteners and may not be served in more than 12-ounce containers.

Haverhill's policy stipulates that students receive adequate time to eat meals and recommends at least 10 minutes for breakfast and 20 minutes for lunch, measured from the time the student is seated.

Exercise polices tend to be more vague, but many mandate that physical education not be withheld as a form of discipline.

``This is working well in a lot of places, but not everywhere," said James Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on child nutrition programs. The federal mandate ``is forcing a public debate, and that will create good policies."

But the process is also creating some emotional heartburn.

In Beverly, there has been some panic among parents who fear the ban on home-baked goods will severely hamper their ability to raise money for cash-strapped school clubs and athletic programs, said Marie Galinski, Beverly assistant superintendent.

``We can't have foods prepared at home, because we don't know what that process is like," Galinski said. ``That will be a challenge in getting people to understand that. Once we get over that, it's fine. It's just a different way of doing business."

Gloucester's administrators are still working on a wellness policy, but it will probably allow parents to provide home-baked goods, said Richard Kelleher, Gloucester's food service director. Homemade cupcakes, Kelleher said, are not necessarily deleterious to promoting good nutrition, and they certainly can raise healthy amounts of cash.

``We have an ROTC program that goes to national meets," he said. ``We have cheerleading programs and football programs that traditionally travel. They raise their money a quarter at a time. You can sell candles and pencils. Well, that requires up-front money. It's not like throwing together cupcakes the night before."

But if Gloucester allows home-baked goods, the still-unanswered question will be who monitors whether those cupcakes meet the district's new nutrition guidelines.

``I am one director running eight schools for 3,700 kids," Kelleher said. ``How do you ensure cupcakes are no more than 30 percent fat? There is no way I can. The toughest part of that is policing it."

Precisely how many schools have complied with the requirement is not clear. The state Department of Education, the agency that oversees the school lunch program in Massachusetts, has not yet tabulated that information, said Katie Millett, the department's administrator for nutrition, health, and safety. Each district's wellness policy will be required to be filed with its annual application for the school lunch program, then each policy will be reviewed once every five years, when state evaluators conduct in-depth assessments, Millett said.

Still to be determined is how the state will decide whether a district's wellness policy is up to snuff. Losing school lunch funding would be costly for some districts. In Saugus, for example, nearly 20 percent of the district's total revenue last year came from school lunch reimbursements, said Superintendent Keith Manville.

But establishing a policy, educators say, is just the first step. The next challenge is implementing it. And for some districts, that will mean explaining the new rules in dozens of different languages and cultures.

``We have 39 languages, and in more than a third of our families, English is not their primary language spoken at home, so some of our issues we are talking about are really complex," said Ruth Davis, Revere's director of comprehensive health and guidance.

While most of the anxiety in districts has stemmed from new food guidelines, Davis said that meeting new goals for increased physical activity will also be a huge challenge. Many districts have whittled down exercise time in recent years to create more classroom time in hope of boosting achievement test scores. In contrast, Revere's new policy states that ``recess time will not be canceled for instructional make-up time."

Amidst the uncertainty, some school districts that have tried new approaches are reporting encouraging results. Last fall, Saugus opened a new snack room in one of its elementary schools that only offered healthy choices.

``Because that was new and did not replace anything, that's become very popular, and it's a pretty good money-maker for us," said Manville, the superintendent. ``It's not like nothing ever works."

Beverly's assistant superintendent has high hopes.

``I think this ultimately is a good thing," Galinski said of the nutrition mandate .

``Obviously, we are improving the health and nutrition for kids, and sometimes as adults we have to change what we do," she said. ``That's harder for us than the kids. Kids adjust."

Should schools be required to review the nutritional value of bake sale items as part of a federal effort to improve nutrition, or is that going too far? What other steps can schools take to make sure kids are eating healthy?

Tell us at www.boston.com/northtalk. Or write us at globenorth@globe.com or Globe North, 1 Corporate Place, 55 Ferncroft Road, Danvers, MA 01923.