Food Fair Canceled Due to Wellness Policy

ASTRID TOVAR
Staff Writer

At the end of each quarter, the student body comes together in a montage of hungry customers and the student-run vendors who feed them for a day. However, Food Fair is now coming to an end.
The Alhambra Unified School District (AUSD) has recently canceled AHS’ Food Fair; ASB was notified of the decision two weeks ago.
“The district has a policy that requires our school to meet certain health guidelines,” Assistant Principal Jeremy Infranca said.
Other schools in the district, including Mark Keppel and San Gabriel, have all had Food Fair pulled from their schedules for the same reasons.
“When we’re serving 2,000 calorie chicken base in a school day, we’re breaking the law,” Infranca said.
AUSD’s School Nutrition Services website notes that “students and families in the [district] are facing increasing health risks that can affect their wellness and ultimately affect their quality of life.”
AUSD’s policies focus on keeping students fit by keeping school’s menu healthy and promoting physical activity.
Just as the school is only allowed to serve low-fat or fat-free milks, the policy also outlines that meals cannot exceed 30% calories from fat and 10% calories from saturated fat when averaged over one week.
In the past, Food Fair served items such as burgers, churros, burritos, soda and Flaming Hot Cheetos with nacho cheese. These kind of foods are high in fat content and caloric intake and consuming too many of them in one day is against the district’s wellness policies.
These policies are meant to help encourage healthy eating habits and prevent students from developing bad ones.
However, service clubs receive a majority of their revenue from selling food at the Food Fair and not having that funding optional could be detrimental to them.
“It’s really bad for the clubs who make their money by selling stuff at Food Fair,” senior Rachel Munoz said.
While there could be other options for Food Fair later on, it is not likely to be seen in the near future.
“As of right now, Food Fair is canceled,” Director of Campus Environment Michelle Ma said.