crier
munster high school
vol 49 /issue 2 Sept. 12, 2014 mhscrier.com
8808 Columbia Ave. Munster, IN 46321 Upcoming Saturday
66/43 Sunday
72/48
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Football plays at Andrean tonight at 7 p.m.
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PowderPuff game Monday at 6:30 p.m.
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Spirit Days Monday: Hawaiian Day Tuesday: Twin Day Wednesday: Comic Con Day Thursday: Decades Day Friday: MHS Spirit Day
Students overcome challenges from physical disabilities Page 4
Girls’ Golf prepares to end season with Conference match Page 7
Columbia Avenue construction detours students’ routes Page 2
VS. photo illustration by Alex Baker
HEALTH MATTERS More fruits and vegetables will find their way into schools now that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) placed new restrictions on food that
can be sold during the school day. Baked goods like brownies will no longer stand as the dominate choice in schools anymore umder the new nutrition requirements.
Short on funds
New nutrition standards prevent clubs from selling baked goods, forcing clubs to come up with new ways to fundraise Jordan Szymanski Sports Editor
T
he United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently established a nutrition standard for all schools called “Smart Snacks In
Schools,” effective July 2014. The standards come from the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which caused the USDA to enforce guidelines on what schools sell to their students. Due to these regulations, many of Munster’s clubs can no longer participate in popular fundraisers such as bake sales during lunches. “In the past, many clubs did bake sales throughout the school year,” Mr. Morgan Nolan, assistant principal, said. ”Because of the new food laws, they will no longer be able to do this.” The problem with bake sales comes from the requirement that states any food items sold to students must be “whole grain-rich” products or a fruit, vegetable, dairy product or protein food as the first ingredient. They can also include any food combination with at least one-fourth cup of fruit and/or vegetable or contain 10 percent of the Daily Value of either calcium, potassium, vitamin D, or dietary fiber, according to USDA requirements. Although students selling baked goods at lunch have no responsibility to uphold the standard, the administration affiliates itself with all distribution of food or beverage on campus on any given day.
disabilities work with the athletes, and second, you need to fundraise $1,000.” Piech said. “All the money from the bake sales went to Champions Together.” the new standards. According to the USDA guidelines, each state will “Bake sale was our primary, best fundraiser. Everyhave the flexibility to set a certain number of fundraisone loves sweets, and they give you the best return ers that can sell foods that do not meet standards. for your money.” Mrs. Debbie Straka, DECA advisor “We don’t have plans to sell at lunch since we are said. “Now, we don’t know what we are unsure on the specifics, but once we doing. We are brainstorming.” Eating smart hear more, we may consider it,” Mr. For DECA, one of the reasons the Jordan Mayer, Speech and Debate DiUSDA places new money proved significant because it rector, said. paid for most of their expenses, accord- nutrition standards on
Many clubs are unsure of what direction they are taking to make up for the financial loss imposed by
ing to DECA and Best Buddies president Elena Piech, senior. “We used that money (from bake sales) to pay for things like bus fare and the required blazers we need for Internationals.” Elena said. “I don’t know what we are going to do now. We still have the informal dance, but the bake sales were the biggest money maker.” Donations made to organizations were also funded by the bake sale profits.
snacks in school
Beverages 40 calories per 8 ounces 60 calories per 12 ounces Calorie Limits 200 calories or less 230 miligrams or less
Best Buddies raised a couple hundred dollars for
the organization Champions Together mostly due to bake sales and the club would not have reached it’s goal without bake sales, according to Elena. “In order to become a Champions Together school, first, you had to have the students with and without
Source: USDA
One opportunity the clubs have available to them is the bookstore. Clubs
may rent it out to items from during lunch. Anyone can sell non-food items at any time; food serves as the only limitation, according to Mr. Michael Wells, principal. Many clubs like DECA and Best Buddies plan on using the bookstore, but are waiting to receive the guidlines of selling from administration, according
to Elena. Administration continues to make decisions on food distribution. Once they make the final decisions, they plan to notify the clubs. “We have two days a year to sell food outside of the federal guidelines,” Mr. Nolan said. “Once we pin down how we are going to do that, we will let