BY REBECCA MORTON
Staff Writer
Mikayla Berk MARLBORO – Funnel cake, hot dogs, soda and candy were among Mikayla Berk’s options at the Marlboro Aquatic Center snack bar. The problem with this picture was that Mikayla wanted something different, something healthier.
It was a lack of healthy snacks which prompted Mikayla, 7, to go before the Township Council recently and offer her suggestion of expanding the snack bar’s selection to include healthier choices.
Mikayla is spending her summer days before entering the third grade participating in the recreation department’s summer camp.
“After lunch the ice cream truck is around,” Mikayla explained in an interview with the News Transcript this week, “and then there’s the snacks” at the aquatic Center.
Mikayla said one item that was popular among the campers was “a lollipop with a cover that has liquid inside that you put the lollipop in.”
“Essentially adding more sugar to the lollipop,” laughed Mikayla’s mom, Wendy Berk.
Berk said she tries to instill healthy eating habits at home and noted that Mikayla has learned about the food pyramid at school.
Mikayla came home from camp one day and told her mother about the lack of healthy choices for snacks. Mother and daughter had been attending town meetings and Mikayla wanted to suggest a change in the snack bar selections to the council members.
Berk was proud her daughter came up with a suggestion to improve the situation instead of just a complaint about something she did not like.
Mikayla said she was nervous about standing up in front of the council, but she found her courage and asked for a healthier menu listing.
“They told me to make a list of things I would want to eat,” she said.
The list she came up with included yogurt, granola bars, apples, carrots with dip and fruit snacks. Mikayla’s personal favorite on the list is the granola bars.
Berk was pleased by how fast the council took action on her daughter’s suggestion.
“It was only a few days later when she came home all excited telling me how they had used her list,” Berk said.
At the July 12 council meeting Councilwoman Rosa Tragni commented that Mikayla’s suggested healthy snacks were in place at the snack bar.
Stars are placed next to the healthy items on the snack bar’s menu.
Berk believes her daughter’s suggestion came at the perfect time, going along with Mayor Robert Kleinberg’s weight loss challenge and new nutrition rules for New Jersey schools.
The new model for school nutrition was set by the state Agriculture Department’s amended nutrition rule, according to a press release from June 2005 when the policy was decided upon.
It was enacted in phases with school districts having to adopt a nutrition policy by Sept. 1, 2006. All districts will have to match their policies to the Model School Nutrition Policy by Sept. 1, 2007.
Schools are not allowed to distribute during the day any items which list any form of sugar as the first ingredient and all types of candy.
Mikayla is happy with her new options and reports that other youngsters are choosing them, too.
“I saw a girl with an apple and some with fruit snacks,” she said.