After months of preparation, the Business Principles classes opened their bakeries Dec. 11-12 during lunch. The event served as one of five throughout the year in which students sold food for clubs or classes during the school day that did not comply with the Smart Snacks nutrition regulations, a federal law that went into effect in 2014.
Under the law, all products sold to students must meet certain nutrition standards, such as sugar making up less than 35 percent of the products total weight, not just bake sales that serve as fundraisers. The Food and Nutrition Service, an agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, explained in 2019 “The Smart Snacks in School regulation applies to foods sold a la carte, in the school store, vending machines and any other venues where food is sold to students.”
If a non-food item or a food item that meets the nutrition standards is offered, it can be sold at any time as long as the administration approves, with students typically contacting principal Jacob Sirna or assistant principal David Egan. In the case of the French Honors Society’s crepe sale, junior Jacqueline Drown said this stipulation allowed them to hold their fundraiser.
“We were only allowed to sell the crepes if they had fruit in or on them so they could be considered ‘healthy,’ which was how we got approval from the school,” Drown said.
If students desire to sell items that do not meet nutrition standards, however, it must be on a date pre-chosen by RBHS for a specific event, Egan said.
“The regulations do allow for five exemptions, and those are determined before the school year even starts each year, as priority is given to classes and events,” Egan said. “The Business Principles project is one of the exemptions, as was the food trucks for the College and Career Village [and] Career Center meals [such as] Mardi Gras.”
The bakeries opened by Business Principles are a major project every year, which the entire semester builds to, freshman Anish Ganga said. Teacher Stacy Elsbury gave the class rules about their bakery, such as having school-appropriate designs, but left the students with a large amount of freedom in the food they decided to sell, Ganga said. The only requirements Elsbury set for the items the bakeries sold were that they had two recipes from the MyCuisine class and one bought from Walmart.
Ganga said the process taught him how to run a successful business.
“I learned that there are way more parts to starting a business than just selling the product and aiming for a profit,” Ganga said. “Good businesses require a lot of attention to detail.”

Do you enjoy school bake sales? Let us know in the comments.