A pound of protest, a cup of civics, and pinch of common sense
An angry crowd of parents, kids, and elected officials gathered outside City Hall yesterday to protest Chancellor’s Regulation A-812, which bars the sale of home-baked goods at school fundraisers, while sanctioning the sale of foods such as Baked Doritos.
The protest drew more than 100 parents and kids. Some decried the hypocrisy of banning the tradition of selling home-baked goods — all in the name of wellness — while approving the sale of processed foods.
“There are so many things they can do before they get into the bake sales, which has been the parents’ territory for generations, ” said Brooklyn New School parent Larissa Phillips who came to the protest with her daughter. “When they sell Snapple to make money it’s OK , but when we try to sell some baked goods, it’s unhealthy and not OK — that’s a double standard.”
Others who joined the protest, like Public Advocate Bill De Blasio, bristled at the lack of common sense shown in the matter. He echoed the frustration expressed by many protesters in the crowd. “You can’t make a school better without involving parents to the fullest, and right now, this decision, like so many others, was made with only the most superficial effort to engage parents. ”
The Bake-In drew a lot of news coverage. Gothamschools features commentary from Bake-In organizers Elizabeth Puccini and Anisa Romero, and NY-1 was there too.
Since this was a parent-led event, we’ll let a mom have the last word. Check out what the co-president of the NEST+M PTA, Susan Townes-West had to say:
UPDATE: Department of Education spokeswoman, Margie Feinberg contacted Insideschools to clarify that Chancellor’s Regulation A-812 allows parent organizations to hold one bake sale per month at any time during the school day during which they can sell home-baked goods.
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I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the Dept of Ed never fails to find the right way to alienate the parents it claims to be wooing, and to step on them as they try to support their kids’ schools. On the other hand, bake sales are essentially a mechanism for kids to sell sweets to each other, and the money is mostly coming from their parents. Isn’t it a little hypocritical for the parents to say that they won’t be able to support activities if they can’t have bake sales? Maybe this is an oversimplication, but the parents can just donate money instead. The bake sales are not really drawing in money from a population outside the school.
I guess it makes for good theater but I feel like this is at best a distraction, if not an outright trivialization of the problems we are facing in NYC. Parents of public school students should be very worried about impending budget cuts and how they will be felt in the classroom. I would rather spend my time protesting about how the Dept of Ed wastes millions each year overheating the schools, or the layers of evaluations that the schools are subject to, or the fact that money disappeared from my school’s budget in September through what everyone in Dept of Ed acknowledged was an error, but they refused to restore the money. Etc.
Comment by bkparent — March 20, 2010 @ 9:13 am
I have to agree with bkparent. It’s not a hill I will die on. I get it. I think the Poptarts and Doritos are ridiculous alternatives. I think at this point DOE is just saving face by not re-allowing the old-fashioned bake sale. I do admit, however, I am not a parent who made healthy, organic snacks. It’s also unfortunate that organic and healthy products are so expensive. I was a Duncan Hines cupcake baker, I admit. Though I do serve my kids healthy food and take them to the park, etc. Just don’t have the baker gene.
Comment by ld — March 20, 2010 @ 7:34 pm
I have found myself wondering if the DOE is using this issue as a smokescreen, knowing it will outrage parents and suck up media attention, to draw attention away from the school closing issue, from the sellout of public schools to charter operators, from falling test scores, from budget cuts and rising class sizes and elimination of arts programs and any sort of education that is not related to the state ELA and math tests. In other words, everything we really care about.
Comment by district 13 parent — March 22, 2010 @ 1:05 pm
Before I read into it I thought this was a liability issue which would also be ludicrous. But a health issue? It’s purely hypocritical for the city to baked goods while approving of dorritos — both are equally unhealthy.
Comment by mab — March 24, 2010 @ 4:12 pm