Health & Fitness
Keep 'Dough' from Pizza with the Home and School Association
New policy by school food vendor may take cash from HSA fundraisers — learn what parents can do to make sure money goes to HSA instead.
Pizza.
I love it, you love it, and your kids probably love it, too.
But for lunch every single day?
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I don’t think so.
Pizza is ok once in a while, but according to LiveStrong, pizza may not be the best choice when it comes to selecting something on a daily basis.
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That’s precisely why the four elementary school Home and School Associations — Byrd, Central, Coleman and Hamilton — host pizza day twice a month. It’s as a “special treat” for lunch and one of the HSA’s biggest fundraisers.
Pizza sales work extremely well.
So well, in fact, that the school’s new food vendor, Pomptonian, has decided to offer pizza to the children every school day this coming year. The reason? They’re incentivized to maximize food sales to our children.
According to their contract with the Glen Rock Board of Education, Pomptonian can apply a fee of 7 cents per meal equivalent to compensate them for the administrative and management costs. (Page 8, section B3)
Why are leaders allowing a “vendor” to siphon money from the Home and School Associations for the company’s personal profit? And, how is the vendor achieving the appropriate nutritional standards by providing pizza for lunch every day?
The Central School HSA raised $5,000 through pizza day last year. Central and the other schools use this revenue to pay for things like the 5th grade pool party and other graduation activities. Pomptonian offering pizza every day will dilute the impact of the pizza day fundraiser, resulting in less HSA revenue and perhaps fewer special activities for the children.
It’s also interesting that the vendor is contracting a pizza joint in Dumont to provide the pizza when there are a bevy of pizza places in the surrounding area. How hot will that slice be after a 30-45 minute ride from Dumont?
Finally, who’s going to distribute the pizza once it arrives? On HSA pizza day, parents volunteer to hand deliver pizza to the classrooms (it’s part of the added touch provided by each of the HSAs.)
I can’t imagine ANY parents volunteering to be a Pomptonian employee for the day.
Before purchasing pizza for your K-5 student this coming year, look at the fine print and make sure it’s an HSA sponsored slice. The HSAs provide order forms on their websites which can be found by following the attached links: Byrd, Central, Coleman and Hamilton.
