Schools

Crackdown on Homemade Treats Considered by D65

The school district may require that food parents bring in for classes be commercially prepared — including birthday cupcakes or cut-up fruit.

There may soon be a ban on dad’s homemade cupcakes or mom’s cut-up melon in District 65 schools.

The district is drafting a policy on food safety that would require all foods that parents bring in be commercially prepared, meaning they would either need to be purchased pre-made or, in the case of fruit and veggies, brought into the school cafeteria ahead of time to be cut up there, according to an article in the Evanston Review.

Parents at a meeting last week expressed concerns about both the cost and health implications of the new law, the article states. Parents may be left having to bring in pre-prepared and less healthy foods — Doritos instead of orange slices? — and lose the pride and reduced expense of bringing in something homemade instead of store-bought.

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“My kids are not going to die of salmonella,” parent Molly Martin, a pediatrician, told officials, according to the Evanston Review. “They’re going to die of cardiovascular disease brought forth by diabetes and obesity.”

Bringing fruit in ahead of time, or paying a small yearly fee for catered snacks, is likely prohibitive for parents who don’t have the time or money, parents argued, according to an article in the Daily Northwestern.

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The policy is being drafted after officials looked at existing Illinois Department of Public Health regulations and decided a more strict policy needed to be implemented at the schools, the Daily Northwestern article says. Though some in the audience doubted that this was the correct interpretation of the regulations.

You can read the full Evanston Review article here.


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