School Bans American Cheese, Oreos

American cheese and Oreo cookies are banned from packed lunches at the Children’s Success Academy in Tucson. The school has a strict policy forbidding any processed foods, refined sugar or even white flour.

Each day, boys are girls at the public charter school are required to allow teachers to inspect their lunch boxes. Any forbidden foods are confiscated and students are given a “healthy alternative.”

“I will get them peanut butter and honey on whole wheat,” teacher Leticia Moreno told the Arizona Daily Star. However, the peanut butter can’t have any sugar.

The school doesn’t have a cafeteria so every student must bring their own lunch and according to the newspaper, the rules are creating a hardship for cash-strapped parents.

“It is challenging mainly because in grocery stores it’s so hard to find anything without sugar,” parent Breanna Chacon told the newspaper.

The list of banned foods is substantial – American cheese, canned fruit, flavored yogurt, white bread, peanut butter made with sugar – even Oreo cookies.

And there are no exceptions to the rule, said Nanci Aiken, the school’s director. “You don’t need a cake,” she said. “They can have nuts, or fruit.”

“I feel like the Wicked Witch of the West a lot of times, but it makes such a big difference,” she said. “When you eat sugar, especially by itself like a candy bar, you get a rush and crash. An apple will give not give you instant gratification or a rush, but it lasts longer.”