Ontario bids farewell to pizza lunch days

Public schools in Ontario that have come to rely on selling fun food on special days to raise money for art supplies, field trips, playground structures or library books are beginning to wonder how they’ll cope without that revenue. They’ll be contending with the new provincial anti-junk-food rules, that are set take effect by September 2011. Ottawa’s Hopewell Avenue Public School, for instance, raises $22,000 a year satisfying the kids’ craving for pizza and subs. Ontario’s new code will mean the healthiest food options must make up 80 per cent of all food and beverages offered at school. That means low in fat, sugar and salt. Pop, candy, chocolate, hot dogs, and doughnuts are banned outright. It’s a continental trend: Mexico recently announced strict new rules on food in schools to combat obesity and a U.S. Senator is pushing a ban on junk food in American schools.

Ottawa Citizen

AP

Reuters