Months after it barred schools from holding most food fundraisers, the city says bake sales can go on—as long as no homemade treats with undisclosed calorie counts grace the fold-out tables. The new regulation, designed to combat ever-increasing childhood obesity, limits bake sales to "fresh fruits and vegetables, or one of 27 specific packaged items" that include low-fat Doritos, Nutri-Grain Cereal Bars (blackberry only) and Linden’s Cookies (butter crunch, chocolate chip or fudge chip cookies in two cookie packs) among other things. The city has also recently slapped health regulations on school vending machines and is considering a "Meatless Monday" school lunch program.
The problem with baked goods made from scratch is that there's just no telling how many calories and fat grams are contained within (as opposed to processed foods where fat, preservatives and artificial coloring are clearly listed). “It’s impossible to know what the content is, or what the portion size is,” said Kathleen Grimm, who oversees the regulation. But students protested, and not only because the rule means losing a part of their livelihoods: “It’s unrealistic to say a young adult can’t make a decision about whether they can eat something,” David Greenblatt, a senior, told City Room. “Soon I’ll be in college, and I won’t have Mommy or Daddy or Chancellor Klein sitting right next to me saying, ‘Hey David, don’t eat that, its too high in calories.’”
