IOWA CITY, Iowa – Iowa City school administrators just banned all homemade classroom treats.

The Iowa City Community School District sent parents its new “District Snack/Celebration Policy” this week that prohibits all homemade food from being shared at school, and instead prescribes very specific prepacked “healthy snacks” parents may send in, KCRG reports.

The “Foods for Classroom Snacks & Celebrations” – published on the district’s website in six different languages including Arabic and Swahili – states the changes were implemented “due to the increase in food allergies and concerns with childhood obesity.” School health and student services director Susie Poulton also told KCRG the decision was made in part to ensure “fairness.”

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“Not everyone can afford or have the resources to bring decorated, beautiful cake or cupcakes and things like that,” she said, “so this sort of makes the playing field more equal.”

According to the new rules:

When food is served to students in the classroom as a snack, birthday treat, or during a classroom celebration, the following rules apply (ICCJSD Wellness Policy 507.9):

Allow only fresh fruits/vegetables or purchased foods with the ingredients listed (no homemade foods).

Allow only foods that meet the Healthy Food Guidelines/ Smart Snacks. (the only exception to this would be food-tasting related to district-approved curriculum lessons)

Not allow foods with peanuts or peanut butter, or foods that were made in a factory where cross-contamination may occur.

Food that does not meet the guidelines will be sent home.

A list of acceptable foods (Healthy Food Guidelines/ Smart Snacks) will be made available to parents and teachers at the beginning of the school year.

Selected elementary schools are piloting the celebration of birthdays without food. Please check with your child’s school to see if they are doing this pilot.

The “healthy” school food regulations cited in the policy were implemented in 2012 as part of the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act championed by first lady Michelle Obama as a means of fighting childhood obesity through government bureaucracy.

Well over a million students have dropped out of the National School Lunch Program since then because the strict restrictions produced unappetizing meals that left them famished. Hundreds of entire schools have also dropped out, foregoing significant federal subsidies, to rid themselves of the overly burdensome, expensive, and wasteful regulations and serve students nutritious food they’ll actually eat.

Many schools, however, have taken the government’s “healthy” food edicts and expanded on them to include foods like classroom snacks that aren’t covered under Michelle Obama’s rules.

And in Iowa City, school officials are prescribing suitable foods, down to brand names and store specific shopping lists, to herd parents toward foods the government deems acceptable.

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For instance, according to the “List of Examples of Acceptable Foods” for Paul’s Discount, snack choices include tortilla chips, four types of specific brand name pretzels, or two specific brands of popcorn.

Congress is expected to reconsider the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act when it returns from recess, and while the nation’s food service directors are lobbying to loosen the regulations, first lady Michelle Obama has vowed to “fight to the bitter end” to save her pet project.