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There is no reader question this week. Helena has a topic she’d like to address.
What’s the etiquette for a bake sale? Is a parent obliged to bring healthy food? And, healthy or not, should it be homemade? I was mulling these questions over with regards to the recent dust-up over a New York City Department of Education policy outlawing homemade goodies at school bake sales except for once a month or weekdays after 6 p.m. The rationale is that muffins and cookies made in people’s kitchens don’t come with a nutritional label or per-serving calorie count, and therefore contribute to childhood obesity. Now, if parents want to raise money, they have to sell fresh fruits and vegetables or packaged foods from a government-approved list that includes reduced-fat Doritos.
For those of us who live in cities where bake sales are still unrestricted, here is some advice I collected.
A bake stand should have options for those on special diets, says Pam Abrams, coauthor of The Only Bake Sale Cookbook You’ll Ever Need. At a minimum, she says, it should include a nut-free option for those with allergies. Ideally, it would include vegan and gluten-free offerings as well.
Otherwise, stick to your favorite brownie or cupcake recipes. Quinoa-date cookies and homemade fruit leather might be healthy, but they are not going to rake in as much cash for new playground equipment. (A really good bake sale can, according to the people I talked to, draw as much as $750.)
Though your cupcakes may be high in refined flour and sugar, they will still send a healthier message than Doritos. Jean Lee, a mother in Manhattan, says that when you sell stuff made in a factory instead of in your own kitchen, “you’re denying the experience of cooking to kids, teaching them that Mommy and Daddy cannot cook.”
But while chocolate chip cookies are OK, don’t make them monster-size. Preparing small servings of whatever you’re selling is a good way to teach kids about portion control. It’s certainly much better than training them to tot up their daily calorie intake. Micaela Preston, a mother of two in Minneapolis and the author of the blog Mindful Momma, says, “I teach [my kids] moderation in general. I would never expect a child or teacher to scour calorie counts.”
Another way to make a bake sale a little healthier without making it downright penitential is to sell savory items as well as sweet. At least then you’re cutting down on sugar. Lee says that at her child’s school, popular offerings have included Chinese dumplings and empanadas.
But all this cooking is labor-intensive. Is it wrong to just pick up some cupcakes from Safeway? Of course not. Parents don’t always have time to make their own baked goods, particularly if they both work. However, note that the profit margin on processed foods is narrower.
If you do end up picking up your lemon squares from Costco, don’t try to pass them off as homemade. I went to a bake sale where a parent had rewrapped each lemon square individually and tied a ribbon ’round it. When I discovered where they came from, I felt cheated.
Around here, the bigger issue is the allergens contained in a baked good are unknown. Without an ingredient list and a controlled enviroment where the baking occurred, it's too chancy for many kids.
@princeofpork: The next time you set up business, please let me know where. I would buy all the racks of ribs you had for $1.00 each!
I once mad a few rack of ribs and tried to sell them for $1 each. No one bought any. Wonder why?
Somewhere along the way we must have lost the concept of parents being responsible for what their children eat. Parents encouraging, moreso showing by doing, that these treats are fine in moderation. Parents getting off their fat behinds and pushing themselves away from the table and actually being role models for healthy eating and exercise.
Unfortunately, obese children very often have...+READ
Somewhere along the way we must have lost the concept of parents being responsible for what their children eat. Parents encouraging, moreso showing by doing, that these treats are fine in moderation. Parents getting off their fat behinds and pushing themselves away from the table and actually being role models for healthy eating and exercise.
Unfortunately, obese children very often have overweight parents. It has to start at home.-COLLAPSE
I'm so relieved to hear the call to savouries (as well). I'm certainly not for outlawing sweets, but I don't eat sugar and it pains me when there are bake sales with nothing I can eat.
Is it bake sale time again already?
I want to make a couple of points: the first is that some of the best bake sale donations we receive come from two career families. It is not as if the Bake Sale springs up out of nowhere on a Tuesday morning and Moms and Dads have to play Read, Set Cook! People who are willing to put an effort into a donation plan ahead. In fact, the store bought donations we...+READ
Is it bake sale time again already?
I want to make a couple of points: the first is that some of the best bake sale donations we receive come from two career families. It is not as if the Bake Sale springs up out of nowhere on a Tuesday morning and Moms and Dads have to play Read, Set Cook! People who are willing to put an effort into a donation plan ahead. In fact, the store bought donations we receive are at least as likely to come from a family with a stay at home parent as not.
I often put together fruit cups for the bake sales and they sell like mad. However it is much more expensive to donate a high quality appealing fruit cup than to make a batch of brownies, so you can't expect everyone to be willing to do it. We also have had great luck with little packs of humus and vegetables. But at the end of the day, children are not getting fat because of bake sales. Adding healthier options and savory options gives you a better mix and helps you raise more money.
Oh and the best money maker for your bake sale? Bottles of ice cold water or cups of sparkling water with fruit slices if you have enough space and helpers to pour it.-COLLAPSE
I'm still mourning the loss of cookie monster on sesame street. I like weewah's response. On election day, the school I go to vote at always has a yummy bake sale and I count on it as I usually skip lunch to vote to beat the (I hope) crowds after work. I always buy treats for myself and to take back to my coworkers. What a bunch of kill joys. I agree with Helena about not buying the goodies for...+READ
I'm still mourning the loss of cookie monster on sesame street. I like weewah's response. On election day, the school I go to vote at always has a yummy bake sale and I count on it as I usually skip lunch to vote to beat the (I hope) crowds after work. I always buy treats for myself and to take back to my coworkers. What a bunch of kill joys. I agree with Helena about not buying the goodies for the sale at the supermarket, but brownie and cupcake mixes are still yummy if made the night before so they are fresh, and can teach kids some cooking skills, like not filling the cupcake pans all the way. My mom always made an Aunt Jemima coffee cake for my school fair, the kind that came with the little aluminum pan and the batter bag to knead the ingredients so there was no bowl to clean. It was always the first thing to sell, but as I got older we had to make two, there was no way I was holding a warm coffee cake on my lap all the way to school unless I'd had some of my own for breakfast. :)-COLLAPSE
What is a bake sale if not people using their kitchen skills to raise money for whatever the cause is?
If the powers that be tried to ban home made food items at one of our local bake sales, there would be a collective roar of laughter as we got out our mixing bowls. I live in middle America and when you bring store-bought to a bake sale it is looked upon as a little lazy and kind of an inferior effort (you don't have a couple of hours to whip something up with your kid?). We consider it...+READ
If the powers that be tried to ban home made food items at one of our local bake sales, there would be a collective roar of laughter as we got out our mixing bowls. I live in middle America and when you bring store-bought to a bake sale it is looked upon as a little lazy and kind of an inferior effort (you don't have a couple of hours to whip something up with your kid?). We consider it challenging and fun to try and top our friends and neighbors, and exchanging recipes is a nice bonus. For some reason we country folk luckily have a dramatically lower percentage of our population suffering from allergies to nuts, gluten, lactose or whatever the intolerance du jour is out there on the coast(s). An occasional bake sale is not going to make kids fat. Sitting on their butts playing video games all afternoon will. Any kid who has a serious allergy should know it, and have an aware teacher, and parent, riding herd on that issue. Also I have never seen a bake sale at school when the parents were not expected to be there as the consumers. For instance: at games, open house, carnival etc. I definitely don't want my kids buying a plate of cupcakes and consuming them at their discretion throughout the school day!
Oh yes... When we're done cleaning up after the big sale, we'd go home and make sure our guns were still where we put them clean & oiled (they haven't voted those away as of yet), shake our heads and wonder about the mentality and lifestyle of people who are so far removed from common sense and natural law that they have to have a legal statute banning a food product at a charity event unless it is turned out by a commercial kitchen and has a label slapped on it. Yuk.
The athletic events sound like a much preferable alternative. We do some of that here too, but for some reason almost exclusively for medical charities. I suppose it is the contrast, as you are symbolicaly doing for those who can't.-COLLAPSE
Why isn't the Tea Party movement protesting that idiotic government-approved list?
I agree with EWS above. Also, when I was feverishly trying to buy store made sheet cake for my son's preschool graduation (I wanted a cake with the class's group photo screen printed on it), a baker at my local Whole Foods told me that no general commercial bakery, including his, can truthfully turn out peanut and tree nut free products. Yet the mother of the student with allergies in my son's...+READ
I agree with EWS above. Also, when I was feverishly trying to buy store made sheet cake for my son's preschool graduation (I wanted a cake with the class's group photo screen printed on it), a baker at my local Whole Foods told me that no general commercial bakery, including his, can truthfully turn out peanut and tree nut free products. Yet the mother of the student with allergies in my son's class told me to get the cake from Target, so I obliged, but I had no faith that it would be safe for her child. I just had to do what she said. Whatever. I tend to agree with the baker from Whole Foods and think that if a person truly has a dangerous allergy, they need to bake at home or patronize a baker that caters to them, if one exists.-COLLAPSE
Oh God, lay off the Poor Children With Food Allergies crap and also the Kitchens That Aren't as Clean as Mine BS.
Some people are Just Too Precious to eat like we commoners do. Listen, if you're so afraid you're going to catch something or collapse in an anaphylactic coma, just donate some money to the cause they're raising funds for.
Also if you're on a special diet and can"t eat what...+READ
Oh God, lay off the Poor Children With Food Allergies crap and also the Kitchens That Aren't as Clean as Mine BS.
Some people are Just Too Precious to eat like we commoners do. Listen, if you're so afraid you're going to catch something or collapse in an anaphylactic coma, just donate some money to the cause they're raising funds for.
Also if you're on a special diet and can"t eat what they're offering. Nobody wants to poison or gross you out with their food, they're just trying to raise some money, so put up or stop whining.-COLLAPSE
I'm wondering if there is a liability issue here as well. My kid's school prohibits homemade goodies for birthday parties and says they have to be prepared at a "commercial facility" due to the possibility of children with food allergies.
Are there any bake sales anymore? It seems like just wrapping paper and crippity crap from catalogs lately.
C'mon Helena! We count on you to light our fires. This is the most boring topic ever.
Unless schools are hosting bake sales every day, it's probably not the fundraising goodies making kids fat. It's the crap they eat every day, coupled with a sedentary lifestyle.
i can think of all sorts of reasons why we shouldn't allow homemade goodies at school bake sales. at the same time, i've always associated them with precisely that -- homemade goodies. i wouldn't get all moralistic about it -- it is after all just a bake sale -- but blaming bake sales for childhood obesity seems to be missing the point. the point is to sell some very enticing snacks (namely,...+READ
i can think of all sorts of reasons why we shouldn't allow homemade goodies at school bake sales. at the same time, i've always associated them with precisely that -- homemade goodies. i wouldn't get all moralistic about it -- it is after all just a bake sale -- but blaming bake sales for childhood obesity seems to be missing the point. the point is to sell some very enticing snacks (namely, homemade baked confectioners) in order to raise money for this or that cause.
at the same time, i realize that kids buying stuff on their own no longer has the thrill or novelty it used to. at any given school, you can easily buy chips and soda from the vending machine. so maybe my argument here is obsolete.
in any case, if we're trying to merge both the aims of fund-raising AND health-promotion, i think we should just be more honest and just start selling healthier foods instead of demanding that parents only bring in store-made crap.
on another note, it disturbs me that we assume that the only way to tell if something is healthy or not is from a label. i'm not against the label -- they're useful when i eat store-made crap. but maybe education needs to include some more emphasis on just some sensibility when it comes to food choices and portion size.-COLLAPSE
I think people today are going a bit overboard with their obessions on dieting and obesity. Sure Obesity in children is a big problem but its not from the occasional chocolate chip cookie they buy at a bake sale. Its more like the soda, and candy available year round from the vending machine.
I do agree that there should be some items available during a bake sale for folks with food allergies,...+READ
I think people today are going a bit overboard with their obessions on dieting and obesity. Sure Obesity in children is a big problem but its not from the occasional chocolate chip cookie they buy at a bake sale. Its more like the soda, and candy available year round from the vending machine.
I do agree that there should be some items available during a bake sale for folks with food allergies, but selling carrots and apples during a bake sale is ridiculous.
I say, "Let them eat cake!"-COLLAPSE
We had walk-a-thon type fundraisers when I was a growing up in the Southeast, so definitely not a California only thing. One of the things that seems to be lost in the NYC bake sale fiasco is that homemade items are cheaper and have a higher profit margin. It's understood that parents are donating the snacks, and the school/PTA keeps all of the money, but parents can donate more servings/dollar...+READ
We had walk-a-thon type fundraisers when I was a growing up in the Southeast, so definitely not a California only thing. One of the things that seems to be lost in the NYC bake sale fiasco is that homemade items are cheaper and have a higher profit margin. It's understood that parents are donating the snacks, and the school/PTA keeps all of the money, but parents can donate more servings/dollar spent with homemade treats than with packaged stuff.-COLLAPSE
The NYT article references a "running laps sale," and seems to think it unheard of. We did the "jog-a-thon" every year I was in elementary school out in California as a fund raiser, and it was always a big hit. Kids either got pledges for money per lap (like a quarter or 50 cents a lap) or a flat amount. Some kids had to run, others got to walk, but everybody was out there participating. I had no...+READ
The NYT article references a "running laps sale," and seems to think it unheard of. We did the "jog-a-thon" every year I was in elementary school out in California as a fund raiser, and it was always a big hit. Kids either got pledges for money per lap (like a quarter or 50 cents a lap) or a flat amount. Some kids had to run, others got to walk, but everybody was out there participating. I had no idea it was such an unusual thing.
As far as the bake sale goes, I'm not a big fan of buying the items from a store and simply passing them along, but then again, I'm not a parent trying to raise money so I can't really say anything bad about those who resort to this. In the name of fund-raising, as long as the money is raised for the kids in a transparent manner, I can't find a real problem.-COLLAPSE