To: Conejo Valley USD Superintendent & School Board

No junk food sold on CVUSD school campuses!

We the undersigned want the Conejo Valley USD health and wellness policy to state that highly processed snack food/junk food/competitive foods/candy, such as Doritos, Cheetos, Pop-Tarts, Snickers bars, etc., that contain high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, artificial flavors, trans fat (trans fatty acid), and more than 4 grams of added sugar per serving should not be sold on school campuses (cafeterias, vending machines, student stores, etc.).

Why is this important?

As concerned parents of the Conejo Valley Unified School District, we are writing to enlist your support in cultivating a healthier environment for our children. One in four children in the US is obese, and two of every three adults in the US are obese. Obesity is the leading cause of death in America after smoking. Unless measures are taken to reduce obesity, the youth of today may live shorter lives than their parents.
The Centers for Disease Control have stated: "Schools may have an ethical obligation to act in response to the precipitous increase in the incidence of obesity among children. Because children are required to spend half their waking hours in school and because they consume a substantial portion of their daily food there, school is a logical focus for efforts to encourage healthy dietary behaviors to prevent obesity and its consequent individual and collective costs...Opponents of school food regulation argue that people have the right to choose the foods they eat. However, we structure and regulate many student activities in the school setting and do not consider doing so an abridgment of children’s rights....For example, parents would rarely serve candy alongside vegetables on the dinner table and expect their children to choose the vegetables instead of the candy. Similarly, school authorities are responsible for offering foods from which the child can select but limiting choices to those that provide nutritional benefit rather than harm."

For these reasons as parents we feel that highly processed snack food/junk food/competitive foods/candy such as Doritos, Cheetos, Pop-Tarts, etc. should not be sold on school campuses (cafeterias, vending machines, student stores, etc). More freshly cut fruits and vegetables, and less processed snacks that do not contain high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, artificial flavors, trans fat (trans fatty acid) and preferably contain less than 4 grams of added sugar per serving should be offered instead.

Please see the other petitions involving healthy changes for CVUSD: http://www.parentsforhealthyschoollunch.com/sign_the_petitions_.html