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Readers of my blog may remember a few weeks ago when I posted about a local elementary school that offered 6 year olds weekly ice cream sandwich and pizza days.
Duly horrified, I wrote the Director of Education of the Ottawa Catholic School Board about my concerns about both the message being sent to children regarding school approval of junk food and about the contribution of such programs and messages to the problem of childhood obesity. My letter was then forwarded to Ms. Diane Jackson, the Superintendent of the School involved.
She wrote me back and while you can feel free to read her letter in its entirety here are some salient parts.
First paragraph reads,
"It is evident that you are the Medical Director of the Bariatric Medical Institute. Based on the information I read on your website www.bmimedical.ca, my understanding is that your business serves the public, for a fee, in the treatment of obesity and its associated conditions"Now maybe I'm reading into this paragraph but the inclusion of the words, "for a fee" strike me as a tad odd. Is Ms. Jackson suggesting that 6 months of unlimited one-on-one access to dietitians and trainers along with the use of onsite fitness facilities should be offered for free? Does the fact that my single income from OHIP is unable to pay the salaries of my 9 non-physician co-workers and 4,000 square feet of rent somehow discredit me in her eyes? While it would certainly be nice to be able to offer my office's services for free, clearly that's not possible and I certainly would never feel it important to describe her job as, serving the public, for a fee, in her role as school superintendent.
Ok, maybe I'm being sensitive and really how she views me isn't the point. Let's get to the issue at hand,
"Your letter expresses concerns over childhood obesity. Apart from expressing your displeasure with one of our schools, I am not clear as to the purpose of your letter"Now I sure don't recall expressing displeasure at a school but rather at what I felt to be an obscene school program. Regarding my "purpose", I thought it was pretty clear but let me spell it out as bluntly as possible.
Using 6 year olds (or any students for that matter) and their love of ice-cream to raise money for your school is not only nutritionally and medically unsound, I would argue that it's also morally questionable given the global awareness of the risks of our growing epidemic of childhood obesity and consequently I am suggesting it is a practice that should end.But who am I? Maybe I'm simply a for-a-fee, crazy, capitalistic nutritional zealot - right?
Probably not given that every official Canadian Food and Nutrition Policy statement expressly forbids the practice of fundraising with unhealthy food including those of the Provinces of Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Manitoba, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, and New Brunswick, as well as those produced by the Ontario Physical and Health Education Association and the Ontario Society of Nutrition Professionals in Public Health.
As for why I chose to write my original letter...aside from my obvious and well-founded concern that serving ice-cream to children to fundraise for the school is just plain wrong, I think my friend Bill Jeffery from the Centre for Science in the Public Interest sums up what inspired me to write when he proclaimed in his school nutrition paper, School Nutrition Policies Across Canada: Are Schools Making the Grade?,
"All Canadians have a stake in the health of the next generation of children. Let’s keep out the junk food, subsidize healthy food offerings like vegetables and fruits and monitor the schools’ success in doing both. Improving (and enforcing) decent nutrition standards for school foods and better subsidizing nutritious school fare would help children improve their diets and establish healthier dietary practices that persist into adulthood."In that spirit, I'd like to call upon you, my blog readers, to take two minutes of your time to let Diane Jackson know what you think about the practice of a school that fundraises using weekly ice-cream and pizza days to 6 year olds by clicking here to send her an email . Included in your email will be Mr. Jamie McCracken the Director of Education for Ottawa Catholic Schools, Mr. Brian Kelly the Principal of St. Andrew Catholic School and Ms. Joanne MacEwan the Chairperson of the Catholic School Parents Association (CSPA).
To avoid confusion, please don't forget to very clearly explain to Diane the purpose of expressing to her your concerns.
Advocate!
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I would think that anyone reading your letter would realize that if you were really so concerned about your fees that you would do your best to help everyone eat as much ice cream and pizza as they can.
ReplyDeleteSchool seem to be completely devoid of nutritional common sense. My 7 year old's class has a monthly quota of reading they have to do(100 minutes minimum). The reward for achieving this??
ReplyDeleteDOUGHNUTS. Every month! and for something that every school kid should be doing anyway. Besides 100 minutes a month of reading is little more than 3 min per day and why they need rewards for that is beyond me!!
I thought her letter was offensively written. I don't think you're being over sensitive about the "for a fee" statement at all.
ReplyDeleteI also think that her statement, "I am not clear as to the purpose of your letter. However, I will attempt to respond to those statements," implies that she's just humoring you rather than taking your concerns to heart. She's just leaving it up to the school and parents to make the right decision, which will probably be to continue their fundraising despite the health risks it might bring to children.
Since you're a medical professional who specializes in obesity (for a fee!) it stands to reason that you'd encourage regular distribution of ice cream and pizza to the youngest members of our population. After all, you're just in it to make money, right? ;)
ReplyDeleteThe school board would never allow a Peanut Day, because of the health
ReplyDeleterisk to a small minority of children, and yet it supports Pizza and Ice
Cream Days which have long-term consequences and health risks to the
majority of our school aged children, who are facing membership in the
childhood obesity epidemic.
I'm sure I'm not the only person appalled at the shameless hypocrisy of the School Superintendent defending "raising money" for the schools by exploiting kids' love of pizza and ice cream, with a thinly veiled ploy to make parents' life easier once a week by freeing them of lunch-making duties, and her insulting tactic of attacking you and the BMI program over the "fees". I'm sure she is well compensated for her role (whatever it happens to be, funded by taxpayers' dollars), and wouldn't dream of doing it for free.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could send her a thank you card for her round-about way of helping to create potential clients for you, instead of focusing on the health risks associated with childhood obesity, that are facilitated by pizza day programs and ice cream day programs.
Have you thought of calling Max Keeping? A widespread parental boycott of pizza days/ice cream days/hotdog days is exactly the right cure for this ailment. The only way the practice will stop is when it is no longer generating sufficient fundraising to justify its existence.
Wow. When I was younger and in the newspaper biz, I would publish letters like the one you received back with some "Mystery Science 2000"-like comments. It was such fun entertainment! Clearly, that woman has no idea why you took the time to write and gives your intelligence no credit. I'd be rather more than a little insulted!
ReplyDeleteMy kids have pizza day at school..it is a much appreciated day for the kids and for the parents who make the lunches as well as a positive fund-raiser for the school....My kids are not overweight nor are there very many kids if any who are overweight at our school..hard to believe but true.
ReplyDeleteThe causes of obesity are complex and multi-factorial involving emotions, physiology, and psychology and not just an overconsumption of calories.
The reality is that one slice of pizza a week is not going to cause harm to a person who is active and eating reasonably.
My kids have learned self-discipline regarding unhealthy foods by making choices....not by having everything harmful removed from their environment.
Pizza is not harmful...overconsumption and inactivity are and this requires learned self-discipline not external regulations that keep people from using their brains and independent decision making skills.
Merrilee,
ReplyDeleteI imagine that you might agree that your resources in teaching your children about nutrition being a family physician yourself might not be reflective of the norm.
That said, there is of course no harm in occasional slices of pizza or in ice-cream sandwiches however there is clearly no place for those in elementary schools - something the Champlain Local Health Integration Network agrees with.
Furthermore to foist these on 6 year olds who clearly are not at an age where they're capable of the insight required to truly make healthy dietary choices (yes, my daughter too will tell me certain foods aren't healthy but that's just her parroting me), the argument that including weekly ice-cream sandwich days for 6 years olds somehow helps to develop their independent decision making skills is frankly ludicrous and exactly the cop-out that schools will want parents to make so as not to have to come up with creative fundraising and give up on such an incredible cash cow.
What this school is doing plain and simple is advocating for and encouraging unhealthy eating in the name of fundraising.
Sorry, I'm not on board with that and frankly I'm shocked that you are.
Yoni,
ReplyDeleteNo need to be shocked.
I teach my children self-discipline that is required to exist in an ever changing world that has many temptations and opportunities to engage in unhealthy behavior.
By creating an environment of moderation, I teach my children that it is possible to have pizza once a week or twice a week. Unlike addictions to cigarettes or alcohol or drugs, food is something that must be consumed on a regular basis.It must be self-regulated.
I think that teaching kids the self-discipline to manage their food intake in moderation is an important link to managing many temptations in life that could be problematic.
Simply removing pizza from schools or labelling a food as "bad" is not the solution. There is no "bad" food...almost any food consumed excessively will pose some kind of health problem.
We even eat donuts occasionally at our house (!!!) and our pantry contains high caloric cookies and junk food. Do my kids eat much of it? No, because it is not a forbidden fruit and it is not treated as something they shouldn't have.
Let us teach our children moderation, self-regulation and self-discipline instead of thinking that we can remove everything in their lives that might be bad for them if overconsumed...including pizza.
No shame here.
Merrilee,
ReplyDeleteFirst thanks for the thoughtful discourse.
Second, I'm not shocked that you're teaching moderation and that you believe, as I do, that there are no "bad" foods but rather that we have to determine (for ourselves) how much of the less nutritious stuff we need in our lives to be happy. We too have chips, chocolate, cookies and ice-cream in our home.
What I'm shocked about is that you don't see the difference between what you chose to teach and do in your home versus what's foisted on 6 year olds in school.
Again I'll point out that every single policy paper ever put out in Canada (and likely globally) on school food policy states explicitly that fundraising with junk food is not an acceptable behaviour for a school. My understading is that our LHN is penning a similar statement into their pending school food policy paper.
Why does every single school food policy paper come down hard on fundraising with junk food?
Because fundraising with junk food does none of the things you note to be important. It does not teach moderation, it does not teach nutrition, it does not teach self-regulation or self-discipline. It teaches that Tuesdays are ice-cream sandwich days, Wednesdays are pizza days and junk food is a reward.
My daughter's school has pizza day once a month. I'm not a fan but certainly once a month isn't once a week and there are no ice-cream sandwich days. I contacted the school and they agree to order "healthier" pizza (thin crust, half the cheese) and dilute the juice. We teach my daughter moderation and that there are sometimes foods. For us anyhow, weekly ice-cream sandwiches likely wouldn't be the frequency we would want to introduce to her and frankly it should be our decisions as parents to make. And here, please don't tell me parents have choice - all of her friends having ice-cream sandwiches weekly it'd be cruel and for a 6 year old inexplicable to exclude her. As well, consequent to the school offering these options weekly it would actually usurp our teaching as schools too serve children as points of reference.
It's an abominable policy and frankly as far as I'm concerned, indefensible.
Yoni,
ReplyDeleteThere are many things that need changing in our education system. Most important is the quality of the education. Way down my list is "pizza day ethics".
Worrying about my kids eating pizza once a week as a fundraiser just doesn't rank up there as a big issue. I certainly think that a line should be drawn on having "donut days" and "ice cream sandwich days".
But fact is schools are struggling to make ends meet as more and more money gets pumped into other areas including health care. (this isn't much different from having a Tim Horton's in a hospital and I am not against this option as long as low caloric and low sodium and low fat options are available to purchse)
I don't think an "alfalfa sprouts day" is really going to spark much interest. Kids look forward to their pizza and I look forward to not making lunch for one day a week.
Looking at the big picture for health in schools perhaps we should be putting more effort into tolerance, acceptance, physical activity, emotional support including proper teaching and implementation of anti-bullying programs not to mention high quality teaching.
Kids eating pizza once a week is the least of my worries about the education system. In fact, I look forward to pizza days just like I do eating out at a restaurant or eating a piece of birthday cake.
Life is meant to be enjoyed in moderation--school is no exception.
and I should add that there seems to be all kinds of resources for funding studies on junk food in schools but limited resources for actual funding of education.
ReplyDeleteStrange isn't it how common sense and moderation are gone from the equation. Too bad because we are going to raise a generation of kids who know no limits except those imposed upon them by well-meaning people who think they know what is right for everyone else. How sad.
What's truly sad Merrilee is that educated, intelligent people like yourself draw from their own personal experiences to justify their arguments.
ReplyDeleteIn your first comment to this blog your argument was that your children were not overweight or obese and their school has a pizza day. Then ignoring the fact that this has no bearing on the argument for or against the notion of pizza day in school (and ignoring the fact that the post had to do with ice cream sandwich day at school) continued to state that therefore since your children managed to learn moderation, it is unreasonable to suggest that pizza days and ice cream sandwich days at schools be curtailed. It's a nonsensical argument akin to that of those who oppose flu shots on the basis that they've never gotten the flu before despite their lack of vaccination.
You then went on to point out that since there are myriad causes of obesity, we can't point our fingers at things like a school's tacit endorsement and provision of junk food and do something about it. It's true that no single raindrop thinks it's responsible for the flood, but that's hardly an argument against trying to stop that drop. It is also of course an argument that ignores the bigger picture of schools being places where children learn. In this case where 6 year olds learn that pizza and ice cream are rewards they get for Tuesdays and Wednesdays and that ordering in is an acceptable and commonplace behaviour.
You then use the argument that moderated provision of pizza is not harmful. That one slice a week's not a big deal so why care and here ignore the fact that parents are not truly being given the ability to choose and that children are incapable of making an informed decision. One cigarette a week wouldn't be harmful either. Nor would one hour of videogames. Nor would one ice cream sandwich - yet of course you apparently "draw the line" at ice cream sandwiches. Of course there's no rhyme or reason to your line drawing. Nutritionally one might make the argument that the ice-cream sandwich is a lesser evil. But for you apparently it's not about nutrition.
Lastly you make the argument that since there are worse things going on in schools we shouldn't be trifled with the issue of nutrition. This of course despite the fact current estimates condemn 1 in 3 children born this past decade to the development of type 2 diabetes and life expectancies 19 years less than their parents'. This also despite the fact that simply because there are other problems you personally find to be more important does not mean that everything else's concerns therefore fall by the wayside.
What's truly sad Merrilee is that you're an apologist for a program that counter-balances all of those things you personally are proud to be good at - teaching your children about nutrition and moderation. Unfortunately many parents are either not educated enough, persistent enough or concerned enough to do the same for their children. It is precisely for the children of those parents that every school food policy ever made in Canada condemns schools using junk food for fundraising as it is those children who perhaps would have truly benefited from schools that taught them those things their parents did not.
In terms of days and years gone by - certainly when you were in school the common sense was that schools provide healthy meals to children, not ice cream sandwiches and pizza. Common sense would say that the decision of if and when to provide your children with junk food be left to the parents' discretion and not the schools'.
You talk of the loss of common sense. I agree. There is a loss of common sense here - I think it's yours. It's yours in making arguments based on your own personal experiences and with a lack of logical flow where you yourself have become the "well meaning person who thinks they know what's right for everyone else".
It is very sad indeed.
This isn't about me Yoni or any quest to turn the country into my vision. It is about understanding that not everything perceived to be "bad" by some people is actually evil at all.
ReplyDeleteFood is an individual issue. People must learn to make decisions for themselves and to eat in moderation which means making decisions at an early age with some assistance.
Pizza day fundraising is still OK in my books and moderating one's intake and selection begins at a young age. Pizza day is an excellent way for kids to learn that one piece (maximum two) will do.
Excellent education.
As an aside: The first thing I've learned about having a reasoned discussion is not to get personal. Happy holidays.
I agree Merrilee, which is why I tend to let others get personal first.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed fairly clear to me that your comment,
"Strange isn't it how common sense and moderation are gone from the equation. Too bad because we are going to raise a generation of kids who know no limits except those imposed upon them by well-meaning people who think they know what is right for everyone else. How sad."
was directed at me and hence my gloves came off.
I'm guessing at this point there's not much left for us to debate.
Clearly we'll have to agree to disagree.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Yoni
Yoni your point about the difference between what a parent chooses to teach their child at home versus what goes on in school is well taken and completely the point I tried to make with the parent teacher council and principal at my daughter's school regarding Mcdonald`s day. yes you read that right. They have 2-3 days a year where they send information home with the kids encouraging parents to take their kids to mcondalds that night as the school gets a portion of all proceeds from purchases that night. When i raised that this is contrary to the healthy schools policies at the provincial level and contrary to fundraising policy of the ottawa school board, i was told that the food police would not be showing up at our school anytime soon and i could simply choose to not go to Mcdonalds. the school principal was even curiously silent on the discussion. No one seems to understand how this is wrong. Other things like giving out koolaid jammers for hydration to students after participating in jump rope for heart. it`s just, so crazy. I wish something could be done to advocate for change. As a parent i am STRONGLY opposed to any junk food or sugary drinks being promoted on school grounds or to raise money for schools. It`s wrong. Point finale.
ReplyDeleteI would love to know more about these McDonald's days!
ReplyDeleteWere you to get one of those handouts, please feel free to scan it in and send it my way. My email address is yonifreedhoff and I use gmail.
Yoni
Yoni - I will get this information for you on Mcdonald's days - I was put down in my initial email requesting the policy rationale for this fundraiser as being against community spirit (!!!???) for questioning it. I would love some ideas or assistance in advocating for change with my daughter's school. It is in Stittsville by the way. I even used the same argument with them, providing statistics on childhood obesity rates in Canada and explaining the link to chronic disease, cancer, diabetes, etc., but it was like i was speaking alien. People take it very personally and cannot seem to separate what happens at school from their own personal choices.
ReplyDelete