I think banning bake sales is absolute silliness! Obesity in youth has nothing to do with the couple times a year school bake sales. If Gov. Patrick wants to help youth be more healthy, then put daily gym classes back on the schedule and serve better tasting and healthier lunches.

Pa-leaze !!! Let's focus on some real world problems, people.

It does seem petty, but anything that can be done to reduce kids' exposure to sweets should be done. We're so used to it that we don't realize there's a veritable flood of images of tempting, unhealthy food passing before our kids' eyes. At their age they're not going to get how damaging excessive sugar and fat are.

It is not the government's job to restrict access to cookies. It's our job to buy the cookies and then limit ourselves to one a day.

I agree w/ Suzy wholeheartedly! Obesity is also caused by all those fatty foods served in school lunches, why not change to healthy menus?

Why do this one piece at a time? Lets just get it over with and ban personal accountability!

Bake sales do not cause obesity. Bake sales have been part of out school and community for along time to help raise needed money. As a parent I set the nutrition standards at home and not the state. The state can give more money to PE classes and sports so the bake sales would not be so needed.

OK, government, I just woke up. Please tell me what I should do and eat all day. You know where to reach me. Thanks. Don't know what we'd do without your guidance and wisdom.

The restriction is only during school hours, not during school functions... You can still have bake sales during games and shows... And who says you can't bake healthier goodies... When the government tells us what we can eat and what we can't eat is when we should get upset...

During school hours does seem to be an odd time for a bake sale, but what I wanted to make as a comment is that recipes supplied with the baked goods would be helpful for people with certain food allergies. I always am tempted by the home made items, but with food allergies, I never buy anything unless I can see what is in it. That would also help people to make healthier choices.

Unbelievable ...everyone complains about schools selling junk food, the state does something about it and this is what happens? No junk food in schools includes not selling junk food for so called good purposes. Junk food is junk food period. Something has to be done to stop the obesity epidemic. Obesity costs us $190 billion in extra medical costs, By 2030 40% of the US population will be obese. Obesity is about to pass smoking as the number one preventable cause of death. Now that's a good idea lets have cigarette sales instead! Seriously why can't we have walk-a-thons, jump rope for a healthy heart, trail runs, car wash, yard clean up to raise money?

Bake sales should now and forever be allowed so schools can raise money. If bake sales are banned, I say RAISE TAXES so schools can make up that money.

The problem isn't bake sales or what's served at schools. it's the fact that kids are so inactive today the only things they move are their thumbs! Parents, stop working all hours of the day, get home to your kids, get off your butts and all of you get out and exercise! Then it won't hurt to have a dish of ice cream after dinner.

And I agree: in addition to organized sports bring PE classes back into all schools. We had it, and the best lunches at Marlboro High were the ones that had the chocolate cake with white frosting for dessert! Everyone was always trying to take two or more. We could eat whatever we wanted when we were kids because we were ACTIVE! Yes, there were some obese kids at school but you know what? So were their parents! It all comes back to the home. It's time to stop letting the government infiltrate our lives, people!

Bill

Ban cake? Where is Patrick and the administration with banning smoking and alcholol drinking. Both cause more deaths and family issues each year than all the cup cakes a school could ever sell. Yes, obesity is an issue, but the government should have the fortitute to have earlier dealt with these more pressing consequences by then making tobocca and alcohol illegall. 5, 6, 7, 6 suspended sentences for DUI before a deadly car accident. Hundreds of new cases of lung cancer each year. Come on Massachustts, get serious! . Of course these two industries have political lobbiest with big money pockets while cup cake selling students and parents do not, so an easy target to fight. Educate do not legislate importance of controlling obesity. Healthier school lunches is a good start. Stop there and leave fund raising cake sales out of the mix. Get real. The country is going downhill fast and we're diverting attention from the real issues of the State. Time for some real people to get involved and tell Beacon Hill, "enough and do the job and focus on what we elected you to do and save the State and banning cake sales was not one of the issues." We are becoming more like Rome before the fall by diverting attention from the impending disasters.

They should not ban them. It is up to parents to monitor what food their children eat.

Several times a year I buy baked goods at a school bake sale during school hours - and none of my children attend that school. I vote there, however, and McCarthy School's PTO is quite clever to set up the bake sale then.

It seems to me it is the principal's job to decide what works best given his or her schools circumstances.

Schools now spend all their resources on what kids are posting on facebook, who is "bullying whom", what kids should and should not eat, what kids can and cannot wear, how their school ranks on the MCAS list, and not posting the honor roll list so no one feels "excluded", that they have forgotten their original purpose, EDUCATION! How's a bout we start teaching our kids and preparing them for the real world (in the real world, when you go to work, you're going to pass 23 Dunkin Donuts. You need to learn how to walk by them. Walking by a Bake Sale is a good start).

HollistonGuy, excellent post. And Peg, to your point, today's helicopter parents cause their children's inactivity by scheduling every activity for their kids. Kids don't just play outside anymore. When's the last time you saw a neighborhood pick-up baseball game. Today's kids think all outside activity needs to be scheduled (and done with parents watching or participating.). What are we creating? A generation of kids so reliant on parents that the parents are now negotiating terms of employment for their kids jobs. People need to make mistakes (like eating too much cake and getting a bellyache). That's how people learn - by making mistakes. We can suggest to others what they should do, but we can't make them do it. I'm concerned that today's parents are trying to legislate "right and wrong" behavior (probably because of their own inadequacies). These are the dangerous people - the ones who actually think they can legislate a correct way of living.

OK so we teach them to walk by and pass on buying the baked goods. How does that help raise money? With 30% of kids in Massachusetts being over weight and 20% obese (actually one of the lowest rates in the US) are they going to pass? Judging by the line at the drive through at DD at 8:00am not many people are passing there either.

Why not ban smiling while your at it?

Well if you did a survey with the kids in the schools about the quality of the lunches they are served I'd say it would be very telling. Having labelled my child as a picky eater for years for refusing to eat 'that food'. I felt horrible when I recently ran in to a friend who actually took a job preparing the Westborough lunches and it was described to me as disgusting. So, I think the kids deserve a cake or two once in a while. As far as the child obesity problem in this country goes, our kids also need to learn a how to make healthy choices and a very valuable life lesson 'self control' and when they go out in to the world after high school they will need to be able to cope with all the choices they'll be faced with. So, removing the occasional temptations at a bake sale is not going to benefit the kids. The buck stops with what they are thought at home. As it is there seems to be lot of pressure put on the Schools to pick up the slack for the kids with a lack of parenting in the homes.

I think the entire talk of banning bake sales is pathetic! What, where have all the real parents gone?? If parents can't tell the kids what they can and can't eat, and can't manage a healthy diet for their kids, then what does that say for the future generations???

I think people need to come back to reality, and lay off the PC Fruit Punch!! If there is a bake sale, and your kid is over weight, and you don't care for cake either...then what's the problem? If you want to buy a cake, then buy one, but limit how much of it your kid(s) are alloud to have. If the kid can't have any, then so be it.

Seriously, society needs to get it's head on right again...

If the government is so worried about the obesity issues in this country how about they start with the parties who contribute to it by loading our foods with high fructose corn syrup, grains processed into nothingness, fats that line our arteries like gunk in pipes, artificial flavors, colors, pink slime, meat glue..................I could go on for PAGES. Oh but, no! Of course they won't. Lobbyists and gladhanders have made it such that the PTB would never rock the boat THAT far.....

When I owned my restaurants, I was one of the first people to draw the line on using things like over processed foods, transfats, high fructose corn syrup, high sodium additives and premade ingerdients to save time and money. People LOVED the food and didn't miss the crap. Did it cost me a little more? Sure! Was it worth it? Sure! I knew that the food I was serving was healthy, wholesome and delicious and what I lost in my profit margin I made up for in volume. So I KNOW it can be done. The government has absolutely no excuse for trying to ban something that is less damaging to our collective health than the things they put forward under their own aegis as "food".

If the Govt. ran the show on what they want us to eat we'd be dead already.
Look at the people who die from Alcohol,cigarettes, etc etc....the Govt. gets their blood money.
Jim@ccfiile.com

Brenda I would love to see more restaurants like yours

Michael Ward, do you really believe the government knows better than the people?

We live in MA, one of the states with the most highly educated citizens and we believe that we can train little children to look at the cupcake filled with artificial crap and frosted with artificial color and high fructose corn syrup and the kid will turn the back and refuse to eat it! Wow! Please let me know how can you do this? I am a mother of 2 children and it will be very helpful to me.
School bakes 2xyear, birthday parties 12xyear, holidays 10xyear, grandmother's frosty cakes 20xyear, it is not going to be harmful to our kids health is it?

Excellent points. I can see it now. They'll ban bake sales. There will be a public outcry and then they'll be nice and allow us cake sales with their contracted supplier!!!! If these guys have so much time on their hands to come up with such an 'important' issue. I say maybe it's time for some staff reduction on the Health board. They ought to be more worried about the schools that hand out condoms to 12 year olds or maybe offering fresh produce like salad bars, fresh sandwiches and fresh fruit for our kids to eat at lunch instead of disgusting frozen, reheats.

Bake sales at schools mean that someone has to purchase the baked goods. When I went to school the bake sales were available at functions where parents were present, such as back to school night, election day, PTA functions, etc. Do they now have bake sales where they sell goodies to children who fund it with their own money? Are there bake sales without parental supervision run by obesity advocates who prey on children by force feeding them cookies? Hello, the parents and school personnel should be in charge, folks! When I went to school, if I tried to take two pieces of cake in line in the cafeteria, I was simply told no seconds on dessert. How has the simple become so complicated? It's about setting limits, not about re-arranging the world to prevent temptation. Andreaa

They tried this one before. I believe it was called Prohibition. If we remove it, then people will forget it exists. Probably not. The goal has to be to teach kids how to maintain a healthy balance between what they eat and what they do. In other words, let's stop cutting Physical Education out of the curriculum. There's also that other concept called "parenting." Believe it or not, schools shouldn't be the only ones responsible for this. Let's start working together so we can maintain and improve on the physical education programs our schools offer so we can stop resorting to foolish bans like this one. Where will it stop? I heard some school actually assess the calorie count of the lunches kids bring to school and then follow-up with parents if it doesn't meet the requirements. Do we really want to continue down this road? I have an idea...let's look at it from the other end and require kids to burn 1000 calories a day at school. That'd be pretty cool...

I beg to differ it is quite foolish to have bake sales in the school when there are a thousand healthier alternatives to raise money. In fact if people were good at policing it themselves (making good choices) they wouldn't have to baned it, they just wouldn't exist. Dan kids will be bootlegin' banana bread and running a bownie speakeasy in a school near you soon.

Charles kids don't have to buy school lunch, can't we teach our children to bring a healthy lunch to school from home?

just say NO BAN!!! and make them hear it !

No, they shouldn't be banned. Let kids be kids and have junk once in awhile. I agree with Paula though that maybe the ingredients should be listed especially for anyone that has an allergy to peanuts.

They are banning cake sales because YOU, of the "WE THE PEOPLE", in the Governments opinion, can't or don't have the will power to decide personally for yourselves what is healthy of not. It's not saying much about how Government looks at YOU. I go to the movies and see lots of crap foods. That doesn't mean I am forced to eat that food. The PARENTS should get together and discuss among themselves what they want at these "bake" sales. YOU decide what is healthy for you kids. Allowing the Government to decide all these silly things you should be deciding yourselves keeps the Government totally in control of your life.

Nothing says you can't bring platters of carrots and cheese and apples, celery, nuts and things like that. Fruit salads. It's up to YOU to make a healthy "bake sale"
The Government has no business in this.

Joe Rizoli

What will the govermment ban next? Will it stop movie theaters from selling oversized popcorn, sodas, and candy? Will the Girl Scouts be prohibited from their cookie sales?

What it should do is create safe streets for our kids to play on once again. Kids should be able to run, ride bikes, and rollerskate safely around their neighborhoods. Get the kids to run around outside, and away from the TV, video games, and other stationary inactivities.

Resume gym classes at least twice weekly for all school children. Realign school districts, so kids can WALK to neighborhood schools. Walking will burn lots of calories. Cities & towns might save bussing expenses.

Banning bake sales is not the answer, just be selective about your purchases.

An occasional bake sale is not making children obese. It's every day junk food with chemicals and preservatives that are harmful. It's vending machines with chips and candy and sodas that are most harmful.

The State needs to stay out of it and leave the judgement call to parents and if parents aren't smart enough to figure out what's good for their kids, offer them the opportunity for some sort of workshop in regards to nutrition. It all begins at home.

Again I continue my rant GOVERNMENT stay out of our lives!

Wake up people, they ban bake sales then the kids can't sell pot brownies openly during lunch.

Ironically the most popular "Bake Sales" in Milford are the ones the political candidates have to raise money for their campaigns.