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Ontario pulls junk food


Marlene

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no more junk

healthy schools for all

Today the Minister for Education in Ontario issued a directive for all elementary schools to eliminate junk food from their vending machines.

As of yet, there is no mention of high school cafeterias which are by far the worst offenders for junk food.

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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that's encouraging, Marlene. thanks for bringing this topic up.

the two universities i went to had catering contracts with Marriott, so everything was Tim Horton's and Pizza Hut.

not that there's anything wrong with Tim Horton's... :smile:

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the ocean."

--Isak Dinesen

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Great news. Not sure how much this would help in the high schools though. It's very common/easy for older students to go out for lunch and some probably never enter the cafeteria.

Truthfully, when I was in high school we went out at least twice a week for fries, burgers, Jamaican patties etc.

Barbara Laidlaw aka "Jake"

Good friends help you move, real friends help you move bodies.

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Great news. Not sure how much this would help in the high schools though. It's very common/easy for older students to go out for lunch and some probably never enter the cafeteria.

Not that I want to rain on any parades here ... BC is looking at doing the same thing ... but since when is it the school's job to determine what my kids eat?

The point about high school students Jake made is a good one. I couldn't buy pop at school, but I was at the local Wendy's at least 2-3 times a week.

Good for the school's for doing what's right. My fear is that some parents will figure there kids are safe because of any new legislation, and slack off on the job of parenting.

A.

Edited by Daddy-A (log)
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Great news. Not sure how much this would help in the high schools though. It's very common/easy for older students to go out for lunch and some probably never enter the cafeteria.

Not that I want to rain on any parades here ... BC is looking at doing the same thing ... but since when is it the school's job to determine what my kids eat?

The point about high school students Jake made is a good one. I couldn't buy pop at school, but I was at the local Wendy's at least 2-3 times a week.

Good for the school's for doing what's right. My fear is that some parents will figure there kids are safe because of any new legislation, and slack off on the job of parenting.

A.

And I have to agree with you, Daddy-A. Kids can access the junk if they want to, it is the parents responsibility to see that most of what their kids are eating is healthy. Just as it's not the schools responsibility to discipline their children for them! Oops, way off topic there, just a pet peeve. :raz:

Barbara Laidlaw aka "Jake"

Good friends help you move, real friends help you move bodies.

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This one is a no brainer. Elementry and high schools should not sell soft drinks chips and chocolate bars. The cafeteria meals should be balanced and the vast majority items sold should be healthy. If a kid is bringing in his own junk, or is going out for something not sold in the cafeteria, who cares and is none of my business.

Although Canada seems to be deep in the throughs of the doghnut culture does not mean that a kid has to be sold doughnuts at school every day.

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It would seem to me that the decision of whether to have junk food available or not...in this particular case....in the schools, IS something that the parents had a hand in at some point.

Changes such as this, even though small, do not happen easily nor quickly in a bureaucratic system such as a school.

It was not the faceless 'government' that suddenly decided to do this...I am assuming...but rather, it was the parents and the school board (again, I must assume you have those things in Canada, as we do here) that initiated the change and followed it through to this small finality.

One person, making a motion at a school board meeting. That, is where it started. One parent.

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It would seem to me that the decision of whether to have junk food available or not...in this particular case....in the schools, IS something that the parents had a hand in at some point.

Changes such as this, even though small, do not happen easily nor quickly in a bureaucratic system such as a school.

It was not the faceless 'government' that suddenly decided to do this...I am assuming...but rather, it was the parents and the school board (again, I must assume you have those things in Canada, as we do here) that initiated the change and followed it through to this small finality.

One person, making a motion at a school board meeting. That, is where it started. One parent.

Yes and no. The schools (and the school boards) get a cut from every vending machine in the schools. When the machines are filled with junk, they tend to make a lot more money.

Interestingly enough though, when I was running for Trustee last year, I was in a lot of different elementary schools. Only one of the 65 elementary schools I visited had a pop machine and none of them had a junk food vending machine.

On the other hand, all 10 high schools I saw had both pop and junk vending machines. The Ontario government is correct in saying that most elementary schools are already voluntarily complying with this new "directive" . And it is quite true that Parent Councils have played a large part in that initiative. For example, the school my son goes to has a juice machine and a milk machine. Both were installed at the request of the Parent Council, recognizing the school's need for the additional cash, while not wanting to have junk in the school.

This is an easy one for the government. It isn't going to cost them anything, and it makes them look good.

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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Yes, I can see that. But the door has officially been opened a crack...on these things for those that care and those that would like to see a change.

A door with a small crack, no matter how small...is always easier to push open than one that is firmly closed and locked... :wink:

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