Despite obesity concerns, candy makes back-to-school shopping lists
By J.M. HIRSCH AP Food Writer
(AP) - Reading, writing, arithmetic - and Jolly Ranchers?
Candy is competing with notebooks and No. 2 pencils on a surprising number of back-to-school shopping lists this summer as teachers around the country tell parents to stock up on sugary treats to be used as classroom rewards, a practice discouraged by health experts.
At Lafayette Elementary School in Oxford, Miss., parents were told to outfit first-graders with candy, cookies and Kool-Aid. At Robertsville Middle School in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the school’s Web site includes Dum Dum Pops on teachers’ wish list of supplies “often used to enhance your child’s learning environment.”
With nearly a fifth of the nation’s children overweight, such lists can seem like products of another era. And though some parents and teachers question the potential harm of an occasional treat, the practice contrasts sharply with the fat-fighting “wellness policies” Congress ordered public schools to adopt by this year.
“Maybe it was fine 50 years ago to give kids junk food as a treat, but today with all the junk food kids are exposed to, it’s no longer an acceptable way to influence kids’ behavior,” says Margo Wootan, nutrition director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
There are no statistics on how pervasive candy in the classroom is - an Internet search revealed dozens of schools requesting it on back-to-school supply lists this year - but pressure on schools to prioritize healthy eating means it’s a practice already going the way of corporeal punishment.
Some states prohibit the use of food as a classroom reward. And a School Nutrition Association survey of the wellness policies of the nation’s 100 largest school districts - which account for nearly a quarter of the country’s children - found that two-thirds address concerns about such rewards.
Yet the practice lingers.
Supply lists posted on school Web sites mostly requested bags of children’s favorite candy to be doled out by teachers. Some, including Tennessee’s Robertsville Middle School, suggested specific candies. In this case, Hershey’s Kisses, Jolly Ranchers and the Dum Dum Pops.
Which doesn’t mean they’re necessarily intended for consumption, says Larrissa Henderson, that district’s director of pupil services. She says it’s possible the candy is intended for math or science projects. But she also acknowledged some candy is used as rewards and that the practice is likely to be addressed as the district’s new wellness policy is rolled out.
In Mississippi, Lafayette Superintendent William Foster doesn’t worry about classroom candy, though his state repeatedly ranks as the nation’s most obese.
Though his district’s wellness policy doesn’t address rewards, it does encourage teachers to favor healthier snacks. He says sweets are given in moderation, though he acknowledges teachers have not been told how much is too much. He doesn’t believe anyone goes to excess.
Trouble is, any amount may be too much. Critics say the practice must be viewed in a larger context, which includes children’s increasingly sedentary lifestyles, diets already saturated with empty calories and a scarcity of basic nutrition knowledge.
“It’s like many of these practices that contribute to obesity. Each one on its own seems like not that big a deal, but they all add up to the problem we’re facing now with childhood obesity,” says Wootan, whose group last year launched a campaign to end the use of food as a classroom reward.
More troubling is the message it sends, says Sharon Huang, a spokeswoman for Parents Action for Children, a nonprofit working to improve nutrition in the schools. Teaching children to eat for success, not nourishment, can foster unhealthy eating habits that last a lifetime.
There also is potential for conflict between teachers and parents. “What do you say when your child comes home and says, ‘They gave me a Snickers bar in social studies, why won’t you?’” says Huang, whose group discourages the use of any food - healthy or not - as a reward.
Huang’s campaign has strong allies. Though there are no federal regulations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with numerous state agencies urge teachers not to reward children with food. Even the government’s model wellness policy suggests a ban.
Officials at Cedar Grove Elementary in Williamston, S.C., still are crafting their policy. In the meantime, school supply lists call for two large bags of candy for fourth-graders and candy bars for fifth-graders. Superintendent Wayne Fowler expects that will change.
“If our state didn’t have an obesity problem, it might not be as big an issue,” he says. “It is something we definitely need to take a look at.”
Fowler’s district already has made many improvements to its nutrition standards, and he says it would be inconsistent to clean up cafeteria food but ignore what goes on in the classroom. But it is a matter of making changes slowly to ensure everyone supports them.
And opposition can be strong. Joanne Ikeda, a nutrition scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, who has studied and written about the issue, says she has heard from some teachers who told her they would have to quit if they couldn’t use candy.
Some parents approve of the practice, too. In recent years at Orchard Elementary in North Salt Lake, Utah, the parents of fifth-graders were asked to donate specific candies, including Air Heads and Jolly Ranchers. This year, the district’s wellness policy forbids that.
But Casey Allen, a mother of four and former member of the Orchard PTA, doesn’t mind the use of sweets so long as stickers, ribbons or other nonfood rewards also are offered. She’s also a former teacher who handed out candy in her own classroom.
“I didn’t use it all the time. But I’ll tell you, for some kids, it really motivated them,” she says. “One little piece of candy a day, I can’t see how that’s going to be harmful for them. And if it’s motivating them to turn in a day’s worth of work for one little piece of candy, I say go for it.”
While that might work, Ikeda says it isn’t necessary. Teachers have plenty of equally appealing options - from fancy pencils and erasers to stickers and special privileges - that are more consistent with what children are taught about nutrition. Candy just sends the wrong message.
“You are saying to the child, ‘You did a good job so I’m going to reward you with something that rots your teeth and has no nutritional value’,” says Ikeda. “What?”
Obesity Concerns in Children