Senior Axel Aleman and fellow classmates in the leadership class are struggling to raise money for the senior class and school in light of restrictions to fundraising. This Valentine’s Day, grams were sold without any candy inside.

“It’s kind of disappointing because we can’t make money for our class and that means less stuff for everyone,” Aleman said.

Every year, the Associated Student Body fundraises through candy grams, typically $1-5 bags consisting of assorted candies and miscellaneous items during school events. ASB and leadership also sell concessions during after-school events. Current food and fundraising regulations have made it increasingly difficult to find a way to make money by selling food items. These restrictions make selling popular foods like chips impossible. Without the money raised from events and fundraisers, class councils will have less funds to spend on prom and grad night. Due to councils having less to spend, students will need to pay more out of pocket to these events. Alain Cruz, the librarian and ASB advisor, has only known these restrictions.

“Through the ASB perspective, we can’t fundraise during the school hours, and with items that are not on the (district) approved snacks and beverages list, you can’t fundraise with those items,” Cruz said. “For example, we’ve tried to include candy in Halloween grams in the past, and because they weren’t on an approved list, they didn’t get approved through the district, so we couldn’t do it. ”

After-school fundraising has looser restrictions, allowing ASB as well as the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA), to sell concessions at events like World Music Day and other events the school holds. School financial advisor Farzad “Fred” Radparvar runs the school student store and manages the money earned for each grade’s respective class councils, including ASB. According to Radparvar, fundraising sales have dramatically declined from around $6,000 for ASB last year to only $3,000 this year so far. Normally, the PTSA would produce approximately $3,000, but as of this year, only $300 has come from the PTSA due to last-minute cancellations of dances and other events.

“On a scale of 1-10, I think we’re a 7 in fundraising,” Radparvar said.

The guidelines for which kinds of foods can be sold are strict, including nutrition specifications and general rules like a ban against preparing any food or beverage item on campus. 

“They’re very specific,” Cruz said. “If we were talking about chips, for example, it’d have to be baked, not like the regular, or a specific reduced sugar cookie or something. And then they’re very specific with the product number.”

Ivy Marx, the senior nutrition specialist of the food services division at LAUSD, says that the difficulty of fundraising with food comes from the guidelines set by the United States Department of Agriculture’s “The Smart Snacks in School program.” The guidelines set by this program include a list of specific foods available for schools. Working within these regulations, the California Department Education elaborates on how California schools abide by these rules.

“They (fundraising restrictions) are from LAUSD, the state government as well as the federal level,” Marx said. “For candies, for example, none of those meet the Smart Snacks approvals.”

These regulations have been in place ever since 2015, created to encourage better eating habits in light of the obesity epidemic, proved by the National Institutes of Health, but also to ensure federal money is raised for schools.

“The school meals are federally funded with reimbursements from the USDA,” said Marx. “If they didn’t have these restrictions on fundraising and the student store, kids would not be participating in the federal meal system. This limits competitive food sales.”

Despite these restrictions, ASB continues to fundraise during and outside of school hours. The recent success of the annual World’s Finest Chocolate fundraiser, earning a total of $1,150 including costs, shows that money is still being earned by the class councils, but grams and other fundraisers may not be as successful. This Valentine’s Day, ASB sold candy grams without any candy or food items. Any sweet treats typical of the holiday were instead replaced with other items. These grams included stuffed animals, slap bracelets and other miscellaneous trinkets for the price of $5 for a big gram and $2 for a small gram. The grams have made minimal profit, according to Cruz, selling an estimate of $50 less in comparison to previous fundraisers. Senior Class Council Vice President Behishta Safi attributes this not only to the fundraising restrictions, but also to a lack of student participation in these events.

“We need a little bit more of the students’ choice because what we do is we raise for the students,” Safi said.