For give me if this appears twice. I had to correct an error.

Do schools still have homemade bake sales anymore? When I was in grade school
a bake sale meant that each student brought in something homemade to sell. The
subject came up in a conversation recently and today it seems a lot of schools
only allow store bought products at bake sales. What's up with that? Are
people getting so paranoid that they're afraid someone is going to bring in
tainted Rice Krispie squares?

I think it is more of a fear of e-coli. Plus not all parents have the time
and/or the resources to whip out gourmet baked goods at a moments notice. Much
easier to hand each kid a catalog to give to their parents, to pass around at
the jobs forcing their coworkers to pay outragious amounts of money for crap
they really don't want-all in the name of the greater good.

Sandra

> Much
>easier to hand each kid a catalog to give to their parents, to pass around at
>the jobs forcing their coworkers to pay outragious amounts of money for crap
>they really don't want-all...

Do what I do and tell them you never carry any money with you at work. For me
that's true. Where I work if a co-worker is selling something from a catalog
they usually just leave the catalog on a desk and let everyone decide for
themselves if they want to purchase anything. If a co-worker actually tries to
get me to buy something I tell them that since I don't bring in things to sell
at work I expect others to extend the same courtesy to me. You just have to
learn to say no.

As a teacher for many years, I learned one important truth early on: Never
eat anything that was cooked, baked, assembled, or even spent time in an
elementary classroom. After I learned that lesson, the hard way, I stopped
vomiting.


"Sandy n ne" > wrote in message
...
> I think it is more of a fear of e-coli. Plus not all parents have the time
> and/or the resources to whip out gourmet baked goods at a moments notice.
Much
> easier to hand each kid a catalog to give to their parents, to pass around
at
> the jobs forcing their coworkers to pay outragious amounts of money for
crap
> they really don't want-all in the name of the greater good.
>
> Sandra

On 03 Nov 2003 04:58:02 GMT, (Sandy n ne) wrote:

>I think it is more of a fear of e-coli. Plus not all parents have the time

Also, store bought baked goods have ingredients lists on them. So people
with allergies have a better chance of avoiding something that'll cause a
reaction.

--
Siobhan Perricone
"Who would have thought that a bad Austrian artist who's obsessed with the human physical ideal could assemble such a rabid political following?"
- www.theonion.com

In article >,
ospam (DJS0302) wrote:

> For give me if this appears twice. I had to correct an error.
>
> Do schools still have homemade bake sales anymore? When I was in
> grade school a bake sale meant that each student brought in something
> homemade to sell. The subject came up in a conversation recently and
> today it seems a lot of schools only allow store bought products at
> bake sales. What's up with that?

Fear of food poisoning and contamination.

>Are people getting so paranoid that they're afraid someone is going to
>bring in tainted Rice Krispie squares?

Yes. My youngest hasn't been in elementary school for nearly 20 years
and homemade treats were banned even then. Our school didn't do bake
sales, though; just birthday treats.
--
-Barb (www.jamlady.eboard.com updated 10-16-03; check the PickleHats tab, too.)

"DJS0302" > wrote in message
...
> For give me if this appears twice. I had to correct an error.
>
> Do schools still have homemade bake sales anymore? When I was in grade
school
> a bake sale meant that each student brought in something homemade to sell.
The
> subject came up in a conversation recently and today it seems a lot of
schools
> only allow store bought products at bake sales. What's up with that? Are
> people getting so paranoid that they're afraid someone is going to bring
in
> tainted Rice Krispie squares?

Regulations in individual states and jurisdictions will vary however the
thought process goes something like this:

1. Only products made in a certified kitchen and stored at proper
temperatures can be SOLD.
2. Usually no home kitchens are certified.
3. In the event that someone becomes ill for whatever reason if the
product is sold - the organization COULD - have a liability claim.

Blame the Legal system and the Insurance companies. (After all a bad
cupcake should be worth a few hundred thousand dollars, right?)


Dimitri

>Also, store bought baked goods have ingredients lists on them. So people
>with allergies have a better chance of avoiding something that'll cause a
>reaction.

So what's to stop someone from using a used container from a store to transport
something homemade? I could easily buy a package of cookies from the bakery
department at Kroger, save the container, and use the leftover container to
hold cookies I've made. If they're worried about listing ingredients on
everything then what about church picnics? We always have a cake wheel at our
church picnic and the overwhelming majority of the items consist of homemade
goods.

On Mon, 03 Nov 2003 15:57:16 GMT, "Dimitri" >
wrote:
>
>"DJS0302" > wrote

>> Do schools still have homemade bake sales anymore?
>
>Regulations in individual states and jurisdictions will vary however the
>thought process goes something like this:
>
>1. Only products made in a certified kitchen and stored at proper
>temperatures can be SOLD.
>2. Usually no home kitchens are certified.
>3. In the event that someone becomes ill for whatever reason if the
>product is sold - the organization COULD - have a liability claim.
>
>Blame the Legal system and the Insurance companies. (After all a bad
>cupcake should be worth a few hundred thousand dollars, right?)

This is, indeed, a tricky area. I see bake sales for libraries,
churches, and other groups advertised from time to time, as well as
pot-luck dinners/picnics and fish frys. The regs on food-for-sale are
Byzantine. Ex: for a farmers' mkt in Virginia, you *can* sell baked
goods if you have a certificate (simply applied for -- no kitchen
inspection) from the health dept., but nothing with dairy or egg
*fillings* (not ingredients). You can also sell jam, but not canned
veg, with a simple $1 permit. You can sell properly refrigerated or
iced fish, but only ungutted -- if the fish experiences the "touch of
a knife," that operation must be done in a certified facility. My
neighborhood association is now purchasing liability insurance to
cover activities like an Easter egg hunt in a public park (no real
eggs involved) and picnics with commercail food items supplied. One
*hopes* that someone suing over a school bake-sale cookie would be
laughed out of court, but it's not impossible.

"DJS0302" > wrote in message
...
> >Also, store bought baked goods have ingredients lists on them. So people
> >with allergies have a better chance of avoiding something that'll cause a
> >reaction.
>
We always have a cake wheel at our
> church picnic and the overwhelming majority of the items consist of
homemade
> goods.

What's a cake wheel?

In article >,
ospam (DJS0302) wrote:

> >Also, store bought baked goods have ingredients lists on them. So
> >people with allergies have a better chance of avoiding something
> >that'll cause a reaction.
>
> So what's to stop someone from using a used container from a store to
> transport something homemade? I could easily buy a package of
> cookies from the bakery department at Kroger, save the container, and
> use the leftover container to hold cookies I've made. If they're
> worried about listing ingredients on everything then what about
> church picnics? We always have a cake wheel at our church picnic and
> the overwhelming majority of the items consist of homemade goods.

Hey, no one said it makes perfect sense. I'm guessing that schools hope
and expect folks to honor the rules. Not saying they do, mind, but
that's the fond hope. Wish I could remember what the impetus was lo
those many years ago that caused the change in our district re homemade
class treats.
--
-Barb (www.jamlady.eboard.com updated 10-16-03; check the PickleHats tab, too.)

On 03 Nov 2003 18:20:06 GMT, ospam (DJS0302) wrote:

>>Also, store bought baked goods have ingredients lists on them. So people
>>with allergies have a better chance of avoiding something that'll cause a
>>reaction.
>
>So what's to stop someone from using a used container from a store to transport
>something homemade? I could easily buy a package of cookies from the bakery
>department at Kroger, save the container, and use the leftover container to
>hold cookies I've made. If they're worried about listing ingredients on
>everything then what about church picnics? We always have a cake wheel at our
>church picnic and the overwhelming majority of the items consist of homemade
>goods.

*shrug* If this were the sort of thing that worried me, I just wouldn't buy
anything that wasn't clearly "factory sealed".

--
Siobhan Perricone
"Who would have thought that a bad Austrian artist who's obsessed with the human physical ideal could assemble such a rabid political following?"
- www.theonion.com

"Frogleg" > wrote in message
...

<BIG SNIP>

One *hopes* that someone suing over a school bake-sale cookie would be
> laughed out of court, but it's not impossible.

Right, like the woman who spilled her own drive through McDonalds coffee.

Dimitri

<< Much easier to hand each kid a catalog to give to their parents, to pass
around at the jobs forcing their coworkers to pay outragious amounts of money
for crap they really don't want-all in the name of the greater good >>
____Reply Separator_____
And this practice ain't gonna fly in our school district. When I purchased my
home, my monthly mortgage payment was $139. This included principle,
interest,county, municipal, and school district taxes. 33 years later my home
has been paid off for a while. Yet I still pay $217 a month for school taxes.
There's no way in hell they should have to sale wrapping paper to fund
something!!!!

TOM KAN PA wrote:

> And this practice ain't gonna fly in our school district. When I purchased my
> home, my monthly mortgage payment was $139. This included principle,
> interest,county, municipal, and school district taxes. 33 years later my home
> has been paid off for a while. Yet I still pay $217 a month for school taxes.

You're getting off easy compared to around here. Over $5G a year
here, and I don't live in some mansion. It's a big issue, when
people retire, they have to move. I wish they would do something
about it already.

nancy

In article >,
c (TOM KAN PA) wrote:


> And this practice ain't gonna fly in our school district. When I purchased my
> home, my monthly mortgage payment was $139. This included principle,
> interest,county, municipal, and school district taxes. 33 years later my home
> has been paid off for a while. Yet I still pay $217 a month for school taxes.
> There's no way in hell they should have to sale wrapping paper to fund
> something!!!!

Is that really school taxes or just your total property tax bill? Where
do you live?

--
Dan Abel
Sonoma State University
AIS