Here’s the latest on our Birthday Treat Policy in our school district: The Admin Council has rejected an outright ban of food from birthday celebrations but they do believe a Resource Guide filled with sample letters and treat alternatives would be helpful for teachers to use at their discretion. They are concerned that without full staff buy in the implementation of a non food birthday treat policy would receive considerable backlash. I am simply not satisified with this lukewarm response, because I know so many parents (even those with non food allergic children) would welcome a Non Food policy as a healthy, and equally as rewarding alternative. We’ll keep on it folks…
Below is my response to our school superintendent:
Thank you for the follow up. I am disappointed the Ad Council wouldn’t take the initiative and just eliminate food from birthday celebrations. Clearly we aren’t banning the celebration of “birthdays” from the classroom environment, we are simply eliminating food. Given the alarming rate of childhood obesity and substantial rise in food allergies among school aged children, I am shocked the Wellness Council and Ad Council would advocate otherwise. The backlash(if any) is most likely limited to a handful of teachers and parents, and the majority of parents I have spoken to would welcome this change wholeheartedly. We all agree that the food itself shouldn’t be the center of the celebration, but rather the celebration itself.
I agree with the fact that staff buy in is critical in any successful implementation, but I would imagine the majority of teachers would love to eliminate the mess and hassle of food anyway. Also, it is often forgotten that children with food allergies are often excluded from these activities or singled out by having their parents make special accommodations (for the record, sometimes me or other parents I know haven’t been given sufficient time or warning from the teacher with regard to bringing in a special treat for their child. Again, an unnecessary hassle).
I appreciate the recommendation of a Treat Resource Guide for teachers. However, after the resource guide is issued to staff, how will you measure teacher feedback and implementation? Do you have a process in place that will determine how many teachers adopt a non food birthday policy? When will you collect this data and how will we (parents) learn of its findings? When will the Ad Council meet again to discuss this issue, and how do they plan to use the data to determine when and if a change will be made? In my opinion it seems like this approach is a lot more work and unnecessary time will be spent discussing the value of food and how it relates to the educational impact of a child’s day.
My husband and I are very appreciative of your support and willingness to speak on our behalf. However, we are frustrated that this issue is really an issue at all. More and more school districts already have a Non Food Birthday Policy in their schools. It is a provision with many positives and few negatives, yet we can’t implement it. I truly hope that we can come up with a solution that benefits everyone.
It is unfortunate that it seem like it is going to take a severe reaction on their school property (which could be deadly) to get them to take this issue seriously. The law is on the parents of food allergic children’s side. Hopefully both sides can continue to work together to come up with a more safe, effective solution.
Keep us posted. I haven’t tackled this one in our district. I will say that it’s a non-issue after elementary school. That said, I see no need for birthday food treats to be brought into our classrooms. It’s not necessary.
That’s really too bad. Our district nurse is actually challenging me on the feasibility of making dd’s classroom itself food free for next year even though her teacher this year somehow managed quite successfully (without me even asking!). Just ridiculous.
I’ve been interested to see what your district would do, as I was hoping I could present their “no food” celebrations as a precedent.
Just today my daughter’s Pre-K class had cupcakes for a classmate’s birthday. Her teachers, who have been so wonderful this year about her dairy allergy, informed the mom there was a child with a food allergy and asked if she would bring an alternative treat for my daughter. She brought her an orange. An orange!! Her teachers were appalled and scrounged up a popsicle for her. It’s bad enough that we have to deal with the physical threat of her allergy…having to deal with being excluded from birthday treats, etc just makes it worse. So her teachers and I agreed that I’ll throw some frozen Divvies cookies in the class freezer for such “emergencies”. Sorry to vent, but bless their hearts, parents of non-allergy kids don’t understand…and I know you do.
Love your blog…can’t wait for the book!
Oh Rebecca I couldn’t help laugh when you said the other parent brought an orange! Oh my gosh a very similar thing happened to me when my son was in preschool. What are they thinking??? I am still very much moving forward with this issue, and I can assure you I will keep plugging away. I remain positive that we will still have a favorable outcome with all this. Thanks so much for your comments!!