Schools advised to toss candy out of class

Homemade treats would also be out, but some parents are already balking

RALEIGH -- It's a tradition: parents plying their kids' classrooms with pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, cupcakes and candy in anticipation of Thanksgiving.

For some parents, festive, home-baked goodies are part of the fun of being a school kid.

"They're in elementary school," said Rose Hollinshead, who has a child at Davis Drive Elementary School in Cary. "They need to have fun. Part of that fun is to have a treat now and then."

For those alarmed about rising childhood obesity, however, a holiday treat from home is an occasion for dietary sin.

An advisory committee of school and community members is urging the Wake County school system to stop allowing unhealthy foods at classroom celebrations and to not allow homemade foods to be served to students. They say as many as half of Wake's schools allow unhealthy food to be served.

"This policy doesn't mean they can't have good food," said Kathy Olevsky, a member of the Wake School Health Advisory Council. "They can have pizzas and hamburgers. There are a lot of things that would make good choices."

Childhood obesity has become a major issue in North Carolina and nationally. North Carolina has the fifth-highest obesity rate of any state among 10- to 17-year-olds, according to "F as in Fat," a 2008 report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. More than 19 percent of North Carolina students in that age range are obese, a condition that can eventually lead to chronic health problems such as heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

So some parents are torn between the desire to protect their children's health and the wish to let them occasionally loosen up and have some sugary fun -- especially at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"It's a special occasion," Tammie Poole said as she watched her 6-year-old daughter, Anya, eat a slice of yellow cake on Tuesday at Bugg Elementary School in Raleigh. "They can have it every now and then."

Area school districts do have policies on classroom celebrations.

Durham schools are supposed to check with child nutrition specialists before holding classroom parties.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools are limited to one monthly classroom celebration in which sweets can be served to students.

The Wake School Health Advisory Council says classroom celebrations are covered by a district policy which says schools won't use food or beverages of "minimal nutritional value" as rewards for academic performance or good behavior.

Teachers say they're trying

Items labeled as having minimal nutritional value by the federal government include soda, jelly beans, candy corn, Skittles and Cracker Jacks. Cupcakes, which are frequently served at birthday parties, are not on that forbidden food list.

But according to the Wake School Health Advisory Council, half of the schools in the state's largest district admitted they allow items of "minimal nutritional value" to be served in classroom celebrations.

The group also says that 15 percent of schools admit allowing homemade goodies to be served to students despite a school district prohibition. Wake's ban, which doesn't apply to food that parents make for their own children, was put in place in 2002 after 34 Robeson County students were infected with the E. coli bacteria after tasting homemade butter at school.

Teachers say they are trying to keep things healthy.

For instance, first-graders at Tuesday's Thanksgiving celebration at Bugg Elementary didn't have candy to go along with their turkey and pie. Soda was available, but it was given only to adults.

Bugg, like other Wake schools, has also largely stopped giving out candy as rewards.

Stacey Hill, a first-grade teacher at Bugg, said there are a few times when her students will have candy. She pointed to how students adorned a sugar cookie with Skittles and Twizzlers for a fall festival.

For math exercises, Hill said she may allow students to use Skittles to help count. She'll then let them eat the few pieces used in the exercise.

"My principal recognizes that kids need to be kids," Hill said.