New York schools' ban on homemade goods at bake sales has parents steamed

Low-fat Doritos and Pop Tarts are in;

goodies baked at home are out.

School officials say they're fighting obesity.

Angry parents say it sends the wrong message about food habits.

This from the Los Angeles Times:

Parents, teachers and children stage

a "bake-in" to protest New York City's

ban on homemade goods in public school bake sales,

in part because they don't list nutritional content.

(Michael Appleton / For The Times / March 18, 2010)

Homemade spinach pies are out; packaged baked potato chips are in. Mom's pumpkin bread is out; Kellogg's Pop-Tarts are in -- but they must be the whole-grain brown-sugar cinnamon variety.

At public school bake sales, Pop-Tarts are among 29 items the Department of Education has deemed nutritionally sound enough to sell in lieu of homemade goods, which have been banned in part because they do not list nutritional content.

Parents say the regulation, issued last month, pushes kids to eat processed food and undercuts parental efforts to teach nutrition at home by outlawing homemade goodies like organic popcorn balls and vegan cookies, which they argue are healthier than anything housed in a vending machine."

What's the message we're sending here? That highly processed foods are healthier than food cooked at home," said Elizabeth Puccini, the mother of two elementary school pupils in Manhattan."You're bound to create a lifetime of bad eating habits with that," said Puccini, who organized a "bake-in" outside City Hall on Thursday to protest the rules.

Even by New York standards, it was an unusual gathering. Scores of parents, teachers and children banged wooden spoons, whisks, sifters and pots and pans while chanting, "Read our lips, no more chips!" and waving signs reading, "Save our bake sales" and "Pure, not processed."Protesters set up two tables laden with goods. One featured banned items: plates of mini- empanadas, vanilla cupcakes with pale pink icing, and pumpkin bread among them. The other showed what is permitted, such as bags of low-fat Doritos, granola bars and packaged cookies.

The Department of Education says the regulations are aimed at combating obesity among the city's more than 1.1 million public school children, about 40% of whom are overweight. By restricting bake sale offerings to goods limited in calories and wrapped in packaging that lists nutritional information, schools will help children reduce their intake of unhealthy snacks, officials say...