Montgomery County parents who grimaced at a councilman’s fury for McDonald’s school fundraisers shot back last week, encouraging moderation.
The fundraisers in dispute — McDonald’s McTeacher nights — involve the restaurant hosting the school while teachers serve up burgers.
A portion of the profits goes to the school’s parent-teacher organization.
At a Jan. 31 County Council meeting discussing food marketing in the schools, Councilman George Leventhal compared the event to a fundraiser in a cigarette store.
PTA members were not persuaded.
“Smoking cigarettes is illegal for minors. There are no healthy cigarette choices,” wrote Claudia Phelps, PTA president for Matsunaga and Longview elementary schools in Germantown, in a letter to the councilman.
Phelps explained the school has used the nearly $700 in proceeds to repair and replace communication devices, called Big Macks, for Longview’s population of mentally retarded students. The PTA calls the nights “Big Macs for Big Macks.”
Although she said Leventhal was polite in his response, the councilman remains wary of McTeachers.
“This is our teachers endorsing a junk food product, and I think that’s unwise,” Leventhal said on Friday. “We should be careful about lending the hard-earned prestige of our teachers and schools to a marketing campaign.”
Bob Murphy, PTA president at Great Seneca Creek Elementary, thought Leventhal might change his mind if he stopped by a McTeacher night, so Murphy offered him an invitation.
“He was unable to attend,” Murphy said of the event last week, which raised $400 to help pay for the school’s artist in residence.
“The way we see it, it’s a tax partnership. McDonald’s will take that money one way or another, so if we can take a bit back through our schools, we’ll do it.”
Murphy and Phelps both added their PTAs are supportive of Leventhal’s efforts to keep marketing out of the schools.
Though still opposed, Leventhal took a lighter approach. “My initial reaction was sincere and spontaneous,” he said. “But I’m not telling the PTAs what to do.”
