NO Foods for Schools

       The Children's Success Academy, a charter school charter for children kindergarten through the fifth grade, is unique for its food rules - it bans not only white flour, but refined sugar and anything it defines as processed food. School director and founder, Nanci Aiken, holds a doctorate in cell physiology and once worked as a cancer researcher at the Arizona Cancer Center and Johns Hopkins Medical School, and is an unabashed food cop. The rules seem drastic to many parents sending their children to the school for the first time especially since the school has no cafeteria, all students must bring their own lunch. Parents find it difficult to find the "yes" foods in the grocery store but they see the positive impact it has on their children. The school has an emergency food supply of "yes" foods like peanut butter and honey which are provided through donations and fundraisers. Some dietians would disagree with such extreme meaures fearing that the student will come to a rebelious stage but Aiken does not listen. If all U.S. families followed her school's food rules, Aiken believes, childhood obesity would be a rare problem.
       Childhood obesity has become a rising issue in the United States and schools are partly to blame. Children spend majority of their time in schools being influenced by the school choices and their peers. Although, I do feel that the measures taken in this article are a little extreme, the idea was good. Schools should be more aware of the foods being put into the students mouths regardless of wether it was brought from home or not. The health of the students should be important to the adminstration and faculty. Also, the foods being consumed could have an impact on the work within the classroom. If students consumer healthier foods they may not feel as tired or they may be able to stay focused longer. What we impacts impacts everything around us. Although, I don't think it is resonable to ban most foods from the kids, I do think that schools could make more of an influence on the students. Healthy choices are the right choices!

Resource:
Innes, Stephanie. School's Wicked Witch Sweeps Out the No Foods. Arizone Daily Star.
         http://azstarnet.com/news/local/article_d26e56b7-b1d5-52d8-bdef-9717ce18a61b.html