Kingwood Elementary School Stops Participating in Book-It! Program

Kingwood Elementary School in Kingwood, W.Va., announced to parents on Friday 7, that they would no longer be participating in Pizza Hut's Book-It! program. The school implied that the basis for this decision was to promote healthy children and discourage children from eating unhealthy foods, both at school and at home. The announcement said that students could still get a prize from the class' prize box for reading a certain amount of books. A check of Pizza Hut's Book It! program website still has Kingwood Elementary listed as participating in the Book-It! program as of Oct. 8.

The fact that Kingwood Elementary has discontinued its participation has some local parents fuming over what some see as the school trying to control what they feed their children. "Pizza Hut's Book-It program has encouraged children to read, with the ability to gain a reward of one Personal Pan pizza a month if the child meets the reading requirements for that month", one parent, who declined to be identified, said. "It should be my choice to take my child for a pizza reward for doing an excellent job, not the school's", the parent continued.

A check of Pizza Hut's nutritional fact information shows that a Personal Pan Cheese pizza contains 590 calories, 210 grams of total fat, with 0.5 grams of trans-fat. A check of Elementary School Pizza at myfitnesspal.com shows that one slice of the pizza has 280 calories, 8 grams of fat, and 0 grams of trans-fat. About 3 slices of the pizza would equal the amount of pizza in the 4 slices of Personal Pan Pizza. That equals about 840 calories and 24 grams of fat. The fat content is greatly reduced; however, the calories are greatly increased.

Pizza Hut is greatly known for donating portions of its profits to help out local communities, including schools. The Book-It program was designed as a way to encourage children to read more and to reward them with a free small pizza if they met the requirements every month. It is not likely a child is going to become overweight by eating one Personal Pan Pizza a month; however, it is still the parent's responsibility to ensure that a child is eating properly. The school can help by teaching children healthy eating habits at school and feeding them healthy food while they are at school, but don't take away a good program that rewards children, encourages them to read, and gives back to the community. Let me know in the comments what you think of the decision.

Sources:

Pizza Hut Book-It! Program: http://www.bookitprogram.com

Pizza Hut Nutritional Facts: http://www.pizzahut.com

MyFitnessPal: http://www.myfitnesspal.com

Kingwood Elementary School note sent home to parents