School Fundraisers: Enough food!

jcm

jcm

Cathlete
I know schools need to do it, but so far this year my daughter has had fundraisers for cookie dough, candy bars and now fudge!! We haven't done any because every person I know is trying to watch what they eat. This country has an epidemic of obesity and overweight kids and our kids are supposed to sell cookie dough, chocolate and fudge??? *hand slapping forehead* I don't get it!

Jen
 
ITA! Nobody actually wants this stuff, they always seem to bring it someone's party or something where no one eats it. At least people like and can use something like candles (I'm not a huge fan, but seems like people like them), and with food, even if people want to help out and buy something, like you said most people are watching what they eat for health or weight loss reasons, and they generally just don't want or have a need for a tub of cookie dough or a block of fudge. I have seen pizzas and cheesecakes too!

I really don't get the choice to sell food items.
 
I think selling food items is so traditional (à la Girl Scouts) and perhaps has a bigger profit and/or is easier to deal with than some other products that it's the go-to for fundraising at times.

Though three fund raisers by the same school, and ALL of them food seems a bit much.

Back when Girl Scouts were pretty much the only groups doing this, it wasn't much of a problem, as it was once a year (and we didn't have the obesity rate we do now).

Some groups sell Christmas wreaths (though I guess they are probably called 'holiday wreaths') around this time of year.

Some groups also sell their services for lawn raking or car washing.
 
jcm said:
I know schools need to do it, but so far this year my daughter has had fundraisers for cookie dough, candy bars and now fudge!! We haven't done any because every person I know is trying to watch what they eat. This country has an epidemic of obesity and overweight kids and our kids are supposed to sell cookie dough, chocolate and fudge??? *hand slapping forehead* I don't get it!

Jen
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I couldn't agree more. I hate it. :(
 
My nephew's schools (here in Canada) sell magazine subscriptions as a fundraiser. I like it much better than buying food items.
 
LOL - my daughter's school always sells Frito Lay snacks in the autumn and Easter chocolate in the spring. We don't sell any of it. Ehhh.... I pay school taxes, I don't feel guilty.
 
jcm said:
I know schools need to do it, but so far this year my daughter has had fundraisers for cookie dough, candy bars and now fudge!! We haven't done any because every person I know is trying to watch what they eat. This country has an epidemic of obesity and overweight kids and our kids are supposed to sell cookie dough, chocolate and fudge??? *hand slapping forehead* I don't get it!

Jen
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I totally agree with you. I complain about this ALL the time. I think in general (at least with my kids school) everything revolves around food...and mostly junk food. It drives me crazy!! They always have parties, every function involves food/candy, and the cafeteria sells only junk...I wish they would stop. My kids bring their lunches, and I decided that if I am going to help with a party it will be only providing healthy foods. The childhood obesity edidemic is very very sad, and these sort of things do not help at all!!
 
I personally would be more likely to buy food than other items just because it's more practical (we have plenty of craft items like scarves and mittens already...but we always need to eat!). Still, I get what you mean. Sugar, sugar, sugar. And I hate fundraising. I don't think anyone likes it. My choir has a fundraiser every year and it's always the same thing for weeks: Sell raffle tickets (I have, I think, three people at the very most who would buy raffle tickets from me), try to make something (not easy to do anything other than food when I'm not an arts-and-crafts person) or buy something for the auction, prepare food of some sort, spread flyers, blah blah blah.

Nope. Nobody I know likes it.
 
I just finished my run and trying desperately to think of an alternative! At Christmas it's the junky catalogs w/ trinkets that collect dust, wrapping paper (that's okay) and of course FOOD! My daughter told me during a gym test last week one of her friends could not manage ONE pushup :(
 
My kids are homeschooled and this is one aspect I definitely do not miss dealing with every year. However, my oldest has decided to go next year so we'll be joining the merry-go-round. i'm hoping that there's a minimum of it. One thing the local school here does, that at least is a better option is that they are selling pies right before Thanksgiving and the kids are actually making the pies. My sisters sons' school does the magazine subscription and she usually buys them for family and friends as gifts.
 
jcm said:
My daughter told me during a gym test last week one of her friends could not manage ONE pushup :(
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This phenomenon always used to amuse me when I was taking tae kwon do classes. I was able to do more straight-legged push-ups than most of the other class participants (including teenaged boys and grown men). Every once in awhile, the Master would ask me how many push-ups everyone had to do and I'd say 30. Needless to say, people were not happy with me.
 
It's not usually the same group selling the items - but I just wish they would coordinate more. We just buy what we need for gifts from our kids and don't push them to sell to neighbors and friends, we also have just donated money to some groups to bypass the fundraising all together.

I will say though it's not terrible food-wise for us so far.
- PTA did magazine drive
- Scouts sold holiday greens and popcorn - but you could buy unpopped corn if you wanted which was nice.
- Orchestra sold cheese cake - we bought a few for holiday meals.
- Church does market day but we don't participate
- Band does a bake sale with every concert but also takes straight cash donations.

I have three kids so they all were part of the magazine drive and then each had one other.

Another good program our elementary school did last year was gift cards. You buy at cost and the school gets a % of the sale. They work just like regular gift cards so you can buy them for starbucks, target, the grocery store, etc. worked really well since you would spend money there anyway.
 
Wow that's alot of sugar! One of our organizations sells fruit and meat along with the cookie dough a fudge. Acutally, it's always refered to as fruit sales, the other things have been added over the years. So this year I ordered oranges, turkey breast and caved and got caramel popcorn too!
 
cindi1 said:
Another good program our elementary school did last year was gift cards. You buy at cost and the school gets a % of the sale. They work just like regular gift cards so you can buy them for starbucks, target, the grocery store, etc. worked really well since you would spend money there anyway.
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This type of thing is on-going with my sister's kids. Not sure which school level it's at b/c she has 6 kids with about 11 years between the oldest and the youngest but she has been selling gift cards for the school for quite some time now. My mom always buys the cards for the foodstore she shops at. She has to go food shopping anyway and in turn helps out the grandkids' school. :)
 
The gift cards are a good idea. I figure they do the food because of the high return. My parents never had me participate in fundraisers - they just donated money directly. And truthfully I'd rather donate than buy garbage calories. Say, for example, the candy bars were $2 and each student received $1 of the purchase I'd just donate the $1 directly.

FYI- the reason my daughter has had so many is a class trip to Macinac Island in the spring. That accounts for the candy bars and fudge! My dad just had her over for a day to help w/ some house projects and gave her $10 towards her trip.
 
I am a teacher and live in a high poverty area in MI. We have been discouraged from doing any fundraisers at all. We don't do any that I can think of. How can you ask so many people living in poverty to do that? The products sold are the last thing on my mind. Our social worker today just gave me a bottle of shampoo and conditioner to give to one of my kids since she is filthy every day and has been displaced from her home and they have nothing.

We take a trip every year to Mackinac Island. It usually costs $30 per child. We can normally find the money to pay for it for the less than 5 that can't pay. You would never leave anyone behind because they can't afford it. This year it will be more since we have to pay for the bus to get us there. Last year the money was there for the bus, so the principal paid for it. This year it is not, so we don't know how much it will cost. We just know it will be a lot more.

Our team decided that in January we will solidify what the price will be and give the parents a survey to find out if it is something they can do.

It will be a bummer if we don't go since most of our kids have not seen our amazing Great Lakes and the Mackinac Bridge.

We are just not willing to put parents through more of an economic hardship.
 
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fitg said:
I am a teacher and live in a high poverty area in MI. We have been discouraged from doing any fundraisers at all. We don't do any that I can think of. How can you ask so many people living in poverty to do that? The products sold are the last thing on my mind. Our social worker today just gave me a bottle of shampoo and conditioner to give to one of my kids since she is filthy every day and has been displaced from her home and they have nothing.

We take a trip every year to Mackinac Island. It usually costs $30 per child. We can normally find the money to pay for it for the less than 5 that can't pay. You would never leave anyone behind because they can't afford it. This year it will be more since we have to pay for the bus to get us there. Last year the money was there for the bus, so the principal payed for it. This year it is not, so we don't know how much it will cost. We just know it will be a lot more.

Our team decided that in January we will solidify what the price will be and give the parents a survey to find out if it is something they can do.

It will be a bummer if we don't go since most of our kids have not seen our amazing Great Lakes and the Mackinac Bridge.

We are just not willing to put parents through more of an economic hardship.
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I hear you. We are in SW MI. It's a charter school but much is low income. We went to a strict dress code, practically uniform this year, and I know it's been hard for many. I've been donating what my kids outgrow to school. This trip is $150 (overnight - 6 hr. drive). My dad has actually contacted the school to contribute to a scholarship fund for kids struggling to go. I had planned on "sponsoring" a child until I saw the cost. For the 2 of us it's $300 so that kind of does it. Right now, especially in MI w/ our unemployment rate, it's so hard for many. That adds to the burden of fund raising. We're not "rolling in it" (old house, two cars with 100K+ and 200K+ plus miles and one income) but given what I see I'm so blessed I give whenever possible. Uggggh, dirty kids. My mom grew up in extreme poverty in Montana and, not to be mean, dirty is often parental neglect than money. So sad. I'm putting my kids to bed, reading to them, and lifting up a prayer of gratitude for what I have.
 
Thankfully our school sells discount cards to various local restaurants, shops, etc..

It does seem like the fundraiser requests are endless!

Pam
 
We are so lucky ... our PTO has ONE fundraiser, in September - so we get it over with. They go out and get corporate & parent sponsorships, then the kids raise pledge money for the event. On event day, they rotate between 7 fitness stations, promoting good health and fitness (!). For the weeks prior, the p.e. teacher works on particular exercises with them. There is a martial arts station (with a local karate teacher), a yoga station, a wall sit station, and my personal favorite, a bicep/tricep station using water-filled 2 liter bottles.

In addition, there is a family dinner and a huge silent auction. We cleared over $20,000 this year! Our school is in a pretty affluent area, but we are ranked 175 out of 180 in the state for state funding. A lot of parents work hard to make this come together, and we've been able to buy lots of technology for our 50+ year old school.
 
One more thing.......

If you do not approve of the fundraiser, go to your superintendent and the school board. You can't expect a change if nobody says anything about it.
 
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