Charlottesville's School Board is expected to discuss nutrition at its next board meeting. This comes as an online petition to restrict sugar in city schools is gaining momentum.
More than 500 people have now signed that petition and the parent who started it is hoping for a thousand before she presents it to the school board.
Ivana Kadija is cutting back on the amount of sweets she serves her kids at home.
"I'm very concerned about my children's health," said Kadija.
She says her two girls get plenty of sugar already at school.
Kadija stated, "As a country, we've gone to eating a whole lot of it, and too much of it, and it's directly contributing to the obesity epidemic."
Now she has started an online petition to get the city's school board to restrict the amount of sugar students have access to at school. Kadija wants it limited in vending machines, the lunch line and classroom celebrations.
Charlottesville City School Board Member Juandiego Wade said, "If we can reduce the amount of sugar, we know that that will have a big impact on the child, how they act during that day, but also in the long term."
In the long term, children are getting fatter. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that 32 percent of school-aged children are overweight or obese and that number is growing.
"It's a failure on a federal level to implement guidelines for sugar that are workable, that are effective," stated Kadija.
The USDA only recommends that sugar make up no more than 35 percent of a snack served at school.
Kadija stated, "So that means basically that if a third of the weight of whatever goes into a product is sugar, that's ok."
In the absence of stricter federal rules, Kadija hopes Charlottesville schools will take the lead.
"We're calling on the school board and the community of Charlottesville to really ban together and say less. We need less sugar than that," she said.
Kadija hopes to present that signed petition at the next school board's next meeting. If you'd like to read more about this petition, click here.
