Live the Live ™

It probably started with good intentions: clip the box tops off your favorite food products, bring them to your kid’s school, and the school can turn them in for cash, 10 cents per box top.

But if we’re really going to call them “Box Tops for Education,” then let’s start educating: most box tops are found on boxes of processed foods that are anything but healthy for our kids: sugar-heavy cereals and salt-loaded mac and cheese boxes…products devoid of nutrition like Hamburger Helper, taco dinners, Toaster Strudel, and Pillsbury Grands dinner rolls. Sure, there’s a few Green Giant vegetables in there, but why wouldn’t you buy fresh instead of something that comes with a foil squeeze packet of fake cheese sauce?

My daughter brings her box top to school once a month–yes, one box top from a box of Ziploc bags. She tells me she’s embarrassed because the other kids “bring in so many.” I told her she shouldn’t feel bad: it means she’s not eating junk food.

I understand that schools need money. And they’ll take it any way they can get it. And if the big food companies want to promote their products, devoid of nutrition as they may be, using the excuse of helping our educational system–not unlike the lottery–is a good way to do it.

As for me, one box top a month is all they get. And the next time the school needs some money, I’ll write ’em a check.