Chocolate a sticky issue for schools

An Australian parents’ group has called for a ban on school children selling chocolate for charity.

The group, which backs public schools, says the ban will help fight childhood obesity problems, Essential Kids reported.

New Zealand’s childhood obesity problems are as bad, if not worse. Surveys show one in nine Kiwi kids are obese and another 22 per cent are overweight. Attacks on chocolate fundraising sales in schools have occurred regularly for more than a decade.

New Zealand Nutrition Foundation dietitian Sarah Hanrahan says the concept goes against what the children are taught about healthy food choices and nutrition.

‘‘A number of schools have already banned them because it is an inconsistency with what is taught in the classroom.’’

She says chocolate is fine as a treat food, ’’but it doesn’t fit with teaching them one thing, then sending them out armed with boxes of chocolates because the school needs money.’’

Also, many parents ended up buying the chocolate themselves because they don’t want their kids on the streets selling it.

Banning fundraising with chocolate would only be a small step against obesity, ‘‘but just because it’s a small step it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done,’’ she says.

The Government has maintained a ’’no-nanny state’’ position and avoided making a ruling on the sales, leaving it up to schools to decide. The hands-off policy has mixed reviews. New Zealand Parent Teachers Association president Diane O’Sullivan admits ‘‘they are a very good money spinner’’.

‘‘My personal opinion is a bit different, but ... the feedback from schools is they are trying to move away from sweet things like chocolates.’’ ‘‘ We don’t have the right to tell schools they should or shouldn’t do this, that, or the other thing.’’

In May this year, the Waikato District Health Board attacked schools’ pizza and chocolate sales. Members questioned why schools with healthy eating education programmes continued to sell unhealthy foods like pizza and chocolate to raise funds. Last year Olympic champion Valerie Adams put her weight behind an Ecostore plan to sell soap for fundraising instead of chocolate.

She said the soap alternative let schools raise money without the sugar.