Food Fight: Mom's Crusade Against Sweets in the Classroom
June 17, 2009 — -- One Manhattan mom's battle to prevent her children from getting junk food has turned into a food war between parent and school.
MeMe Roth, a 40-year-old mother of two, objects to children getting sweets like popsicles, cupcakes and cookies even during special occasions in public schools like the one her children attend.
"You don't want to create an environment at school that promotes junk food," Roth told "Good Morning America" today. "Just because... you send your child to school and they're in someone else's care, that does not mean you're forfeiting your rights as a parent."
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Her campaign against Girl Scout cookies, doughnuts and candy is so extensive that Roth wants the school to attain permission slips for special sweets like birthday cupcakes.
"If you bring in a serving of one, that's about your child. If you bring in a serving of 25, that's about everybody's children and that's what I think people are missing. We don't bring food into school. We're asking other parents to stop feeding our children," said Roth of the National Action Against Obesity.
She's called Santa Claus fat on television, knocked "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks for being overweight, and was stopped by police from dismantling an all-you-can-eat ice cream display in 2007.
The display was at a Pennsylvania YMCA, Roth said, and was inappropriate for a gym.
"If you get off your butt and you show up at the gym, you don't want to be confronted by an all-you-can-eat ice cream bar," she said.
Roth said she called the YMCA and asked them to put out "something on the table that's a healthy alternative."
The junk food crusader's passion has deep roots. As the daughter and granddaughter of obese women, Roth saw firsthand the damage extra pounds can bring.
"When you see obesity rob the people you love the most of their health, and their hope, and their aspirations you really feel like you can't pleasantly sit back and allow it to happen to everybody else's kids and your kids," she said.
Now, she's determined to ensure her fourth-grade son and second-grade daughter won't have to go through the same experience.
She doesn't want them derailed by what she calls "second-hand obesity."
"Show me an American that knows what 'moderation' means," Roth said. "You're kidding yourself if you think we're not going to be in the throes of an obesity bailout."
And Roth hasn't shied away from trying to spread her message, using a sometimes in-your-face style of confrontation about food.
