With a new school year comes a new policy that will be enforced starting this year. There will be a school junk food ban that would discontinue the distribution and sale of junk food at school. As of last year, schools already started to change some of the food sold in the cafeteria. Granola bars were sold, fried chips replaced with baked chips, soda machines with fruit juice and other healthy food options were made available. Surveys were also conducted throughout the year to evaluate healthy food choices that the students would most like to see.

There has obviously been a lot of controversy over the past few months as to whether the junk food ban would be successful or not, but finally, we will see the effectiveness of the policy once the schools re-open. In my view, it definitely won’t hurt. Though some argue that the ban will be rendered useless as kids bring junk food from home and some go off campus to eat, none argue that the junk food ban would be harmful to the students. After all, with 1 in 5 students being obese today compared to 1 in 20 in the 1970s, something must clearly be done. However, the food ban might cause a few problems for the school cafeteria and moreover for many of the clubs who bank on fundraisers.

Not only that, many clubs who have in the past depended on candy fundraisers and bake sales for their income have already had to start thinking of new ideas to make money. And it’s not going to be easy for them. Candy sales were definitely one of the most profitable fundraisers around and there aren’t many people that would be willing to pay a dollar for fruit bars and orange juice as opposed to Reese’s or Coke. A seemingly beneficial ban really is painful for these fundraisers.

Nevertheless, the outlook is bright. The alternative menu items which include pasta, and deep pan pizza are not horribly disgusting (though most of us found the option of guava juice a bit strange). I feel most kids will continue buying food from the cafeteria either because the parents are too busy or lazy to make lunch for their children, or the kids are just too lazy to drive themselves to some other restaurant. For more articles on Cupertino and other high schools, visit Zirana