You'll have to eat that cupcake outside, sir

Let’s see. You work, play, pay taxes, and manage to live past your 65th birthday. You may be no genius, but you are smart enough to come in out of the rain and choose the food you eat.

Not so fast. If you live in Putnam County, N.Y., the County fathers and mothers don’t think you can tell a strawberry sprinkle doughnut from a serving of grapes. So in order to save their senior citizens from themselves, they banned doughnuts from the menu at the county’s senior citizen centers, which serve about a thousand lunches a day.

However, the beneficiaries targets of this nanny state ban are fighting back. They got up a petition and when presented with it, the authorities changed their tune. Now they say the problem is that much of the donated goodies were well past their sell-by date – even moldy. Oh, and the people serving the food can’t figure out if it’s moldy?

The compromise is that there will be “limited amounts” of doughnuts, cakes and other such goodies provided – but (I am not making this up) they will have to be eaten “elsewhere.”

I can see it now. Sheriff deputies patrolling the lunchroom.

“Step AWAY from the chocolate glazed, ma’am.”

“You can’t eat that piece of cake in here, sir. I’m going to have to ask you to take it outside. I’ll hold it for you while you stand up and collect your walker.”

Complete story below the fold.

Seniors shout down bid to ban doughnuts

By the Associated Press – August 22, 2007

CARMEL, N.Y. — Local officials are listening to their elders, and giving up at least part of a plan to ban doughnuts from senior citizens’ centers for health reasons.

Putnam County officials had proposed prohibiting free, day-old doughnuts from the county’s five senior centers, which serve about 1,000 lunches each day. Nutritionists questioned whether the doughnuts were suitable snacks for people over 65.

Seniors rebelled, saying they’re mature enough to decide what they eat. Some 250 people signed a petition blasting the proposal as a crummy idea.

On Tuesday, county officials proposed a compromise: Small amounts of doughnuts, cakes and other baked goods could be served at the centers — but they have to be eaten elsewhere.

The issue isn’t just fat and calories, officials said.

“We were seeing huge amounts of days-old items coming in,” said county Office for the Aging coordinator Doreen Crane. “Some of it was visibly moldy.” The suggested compromise isn’t enough for seniors.“Ludicrous,” said Joe Hajkowski, 75, who launched the petition drive even though he doesn’t eat doughnuts. “I don’t like the way they are treating the seniors.”

Copyright 2007, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.

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