Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Still Want Bake Sales

By Amy E. Feldman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - As Marie Antoinette could tell you, it is dangerous to withhold the cake. And like her, the federal government is beginning to get pushback from the masses as well.

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, passed in 2010, required the USDA to set standards for all food and drinks sold during the school day to meet fat, salt, and caloric requirements. Which is why, starting at the beginning of this school year when the provisions took effect, most schools have had to ban bake sales which have always been a mainstay of fundraising efforts. And also delicious.

States have the right to pass legislation that would establish a limited number of days per year that unregulated bake sales could take place, but by the time the regulations went into effect, 32 states had yet to do so. Now the demand for cake has been heard, at least in Virginia and Michigan whose legislatures are right now in the process of exempting bake sales.

If you aren't in a state that's already allowing bake sales, you may make your voice heard because state legislators are aware that it's off with their heads - or at least their seats - if they don't listen.