TX schools fined for selling junk food as fundraiser

HOUSTON (KPRC/CNN) - Fried chicken may sound like a tasty snack, but it landed a high school coach in hot water when he tried to sell it on campus to raise funds for his team.

Westbury and Bellaire high schools were among eight HISD schools slapped with fines totaling $73,000 for violating Texas Department of Agriculture regulations. The nutrition rules were meant to combat childhood obesity.

"Those guidelines include the nutrition content of the things that are sold outside the school cafeteria," said Brian Giles, senior administrator of food services for HISD. "They include the time and the place those things are sold. They also require the nutrition information is provided for those items."

He said in the past, fines have been relatively minor, but an audit in December found violations for what's called "competitive foods," which are brought in from the outside for things like bake sales.

Food and drinks of "minimal nutritional value" aren't allowed during school hours.

"I think bake sales are just to raise the money. A couple of snacks aren't going to hurt anybody," student Ebony Murphy said.

Giles said the fines send a message that curbing obesity is a matter of public health.

We are living in interesting times.

This is totally ridiulous! One of these days, the check-out registers will scan your weight and deny certain purchases in you cart.
We are slowly being brought under complete control of the government.

Wow, what is this world coming to? I'm protesting, those are tax dollars that pay for those fines and then the fines go to a place that is run by tax dollars. It's tax dollar redistribution.

This is in Texas too. Think about that a minute.

Quote: FiscallyCon wrote in post #2

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We are living in interesting times.

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The simple solution is to simply make the little porkers take PE every year.