We have a hockey playing son and a speed skating son which means we are at an arena a minimum of four hours a week. I make no bones about how I feel about some of the snacks parents bring to sports games or the fact that snacks need to be provided for a whole team — at all. How about we take responsibility for our own kids because I don’t consider Rice Krispie squares, chocolate covered granola bars or goldfish crackers a snack. They’re a treat. And if I feel my kids need to be re-hydrated, they drink water. Not juice, not a freezie. Water.
Last month we were away at Speed Skating Son’s first out of town meet. Typically for his meets we pack a cooler bag with food to eat throughout the day but this was my first two-day, out-of-town meet and I made a rookie mistake — I didn’t pack a thing.
Big mistake. HUGE.
Like most arenas the snack bar was filled with chips, chocolate bars, hotdogs, nachos and pretty much everything I think of as a treat, not a healthy snack. This meant making food runs and I pretty much owe a big thank you to the mom who was not a newbie like me and had a bag full of cut up veggies and fruit.
Each week as I take the kids to their games or practices and we walk past the snack counter, I become the “no” mom.
Mom, can I have a Slushie? No
Mom, can I have some popcorn? No
Mom, can I have some…. NO
We’ve been to arenas where there are burgers, fries, hotdogs and soft drinks but no fruit. There are rows of candy and chocolate but not a whole wheat bagel in sight. I’d even be happy if they had air-popped popcorn.
We’re enrolling our kids in sports so they’ll be active and yet bringing them to arenas where they are surrounded by crap food choices to fuel their bodies. Conflicted messages much?
Many moms are living their lives at arenas with little ones in tow while older siblings are on the ice. As a mom it’s my job to ensure my kids are fed a balanced diet, I take full responsibility for that. But I’m also a mom who has days when we are running late and there’s no time to pack a quick snack. Or like the two-day meet, where I make a rookie mistake.
Arenas need to make a profit and I understand apples or bananas will go bad while a bag of chips can stay on the shelf for months but isn’t there some sort of in between? At least a couple of healthy choices made available?
What do you think? Should snack bars be for treats or should there be healthy choices available? And what do you think is a healthy choice?
It has become an issue for us when we go to my son’s hockey games… and it will become an issue again this summer with soccer. My son asks for a treat after every game and I hate saying no most of the time but I do. My younger son (the rink rat) always wants a sugary treat when we go to the rink too. They both bug me about it, and I do give in only on occasion.
As for treats? UGH. It’s a real pain to have to get treats for all the kids. Seriously! Usually it’s freezies or packaged cookies the parents bring… but I too am the mom who brings sliced oranges
I worked at an OHL hockey rink for 5 years in many different positions. It’s true, even with healthier options available, the high sellers were always the bad stuff.
Now, looking at it from a business perspective, you have to think what it could cost the arena every time product goes bad and has to be tossed. Things like fruits and veggies are perishable items that spoil quickly. If you were to ask an arena to sell something like fruits and veggies for a week and at the end of the week look at the profit margin for the healthy stuff and compare it to the unhealthy, not only would you see that the high sellers are the unhealthy things, but you may also see the business take a loss on the fruits and veggies, because remember, if it doesn’t sell and goes bad before it can, the establishment loses money.
Solutions: The business can try keeping a bowl of fruit on hand for quick sale, but that would require someone to go out and buy it to stock since they probably can’t order small amounts when they order the rest of their products. Another option is the arena having a restaurant. Where I worked, we had one major concession stand that was open all the time (others opened up during big events but stayed closed unless they were needed) and we also had a restaurant. The restaurant provided other food options to the regular “unhealthy” items. I can’t remember everything now, but I know we had salads, including chicken salads, and there was usually some type of soup available. Since we also served private boxes, the boxes also had the option of a veggie platter, but I can’t remember now if we had that option available in the restaurant, though I think we might have. The only problem with a restaurant is, a lot of arenas aren’t able to support one, either because they don’t have the space or they don’t bring in enough revenue. Then you’re pretty much back to square one in terms of how to get healthy food if you’re stuck in an arena all day. I think I see a possible business opportunity for someone willing get to do the work and take the risk if arenas are willing to cooperate.
My husband plays a lot of hockey and we frequent the arenas on the weekends. I’m already finding this an issue with my toddler, not quite 3 years old. Vending machines and crappy food and candy jars everywhere. The funny thing is he just figured out what the candy was a couple weekends ago when he saw another kid eating it. Now, it’s not so fun taking him to those places. It’s really disappointing.
Ugh. The same holds true for movie theaters. I hate to have to smuggle in food, especially to an independent theater, but if there are no healthy options, that’s what I do. We go to movies almost as often as we go to the arena for my son’s hockey, and I consider concession food a treat as well. I totally understand your mixed messages viewpoint.
Hi Sharon,
Working for a municipality who runs vending machines in arenas, I will tell you that healthy snack just do not sell. When municipal councillors are looking to make cuts in budgets so taxes do not rise, vending machines are an important source of revenue.
As a mom, my kids do not eat the “crap” they sell in vending machines and concession booths either. Unfortunately I do not see a solution.
I have two daughters that play hockey and am in the rink at least 4x a week. I do notice changes to be healthier. I have seen oatmeal, apples, bannas, whole wheat bagels along side the other snack stuff. My local rink also offers a variety of herbal teas for us moms. It’s a start! Still an apple is a hard sell when they see that Slushie machine.
I find that really encouraging. And you’re so right about apple vs. slushie.
My son is still young, but it bothers me that at sporting events for kids, everyone claims that “healthy” doesn’t sell. Why not? That is totally on the parents at the event, in my opinion. That’s where the change is going to come from, but I don’t quite know how.
You know the family that brings orange slices as a snack? That’s us. And two of the kids actually asked us where the freezies were – we were all “this is it — oranges”.
I think snack bars are snack bars….they are there for treats and not to provide a healthy and wholesome meal. I think you should bring your own food if you do not want to eat what is at the snack bar. They are not there to provide any sort of meal, just a convenient snack/treat or a coffee or a drink which usually happens to be what you would term as junk food. I don’t think you should have an expectation of anything else because they don’t.
It just seems to me to be a mixed message – you’re going there to play sports and be active and here’s your sugary, processed treat. I don’t expect them to provide meals but the fact is, there are hockey, ringette, speed skating and figure skating meets that last an entire weekend – so to be able to have some healthier alternatives instead of slushies and chips, would be helpful. I think it’s a sad state that these are the only choices for a snack (and yes, I consider them treats – not snacks)
I’m probably not the best person to comment because I don’t have kids and I, myself, eat McDonald’s for breakfast as my standard pre-race meal
(what can I say, it keeps me from getting hungry between races). I will say, though, that even I am appalled at what kids are able to eat between races without throwing up when they go right out and skate hard 10 minutes later, and most of the junk is stuff they’ve bought at the concession stand. I do see the rink managers point, though–the healthy stuff probably doesn’t sell. At least they let us bring our own stuff in; I’ve heard that some roller rinks (where indoor inline races are held) even prohibit that!
You are a goddess, Miss McDonald’s
I’m not the grinch who stole treats but man o’ man, I think it’s a bad message for kids. And seriously? You can’t bring your own food? That’s messed up.
Gross! That’s pretty crappy, in terms of choice. Live and learn, I guess. By the way – I HATE shared team snacks.
Why can’t we all just be responsible for our own kids, right?
Completely agree – you would not believe how hard it is when you are the organizer telling people what to bring for a healthy snack.
You should be able to buy healthy if they are selling snacks.
Everyone’s definition of healthy differs, right? So for one parent a chocolate covered granola bar might be a health snack while I consider it a treat.
Yes please give us options! I’m the No and I don’t have any money on me mom. Not a popular person and since we’re at rinks 4-5 days every week it gets old. I pack food for long hauls, but it would help out if they could served up something other that reconstituted meat.
I tend to leave my money at home – then I’m all ‘Sorry’ *shrugs shoulders, pulls out empty pockets*
There should be healthier choices! As a soccer mom for 3, I never did the the junk food thing and my kids got used to it, after a while they just stopped asking. It’s funny now, because when I went on vacation with two of my kids, after a week of eating restaurant food, they said, “mom we want to go home and eat healthy food”. They are now 22, 19, & 17 yrs and are wonderful eaters of healthy food, prefer home-cooked meals and rarely eat out. So keep saying sorry to the chips, chocolate bars, etc.
It’s nice to hear from someone who’s been there and done it. Thank you.
Those packaged baby carrot and sliced apple snacks sold in grocery stores – could arenas bring those in for events and tournaments that draw a crowd? Some other snacks with longer shelf-lives: how about hummous, applesauce, rice crackers, raisins, frozen yogurt, yogurt, (real) cheese and crackers, instant oatmeal, or plain microwave popcorn.
You need to run a concession stand
I totally agree, especially if you’re in the arenas a lot. I was a dance mom not a hockey mom, and looking at the choices for the athletes to eat for snacks was deplorable. Pizza, chocolate , chips, muffins-the organized parents brought coolers full, but if you isn’t, your dancer ate junk all day. How hard is it to put out some apples? The worst is having to be the no-mom when the smell of fries is wafting and the kid next to you is eating chips and coke at 9 am
Even I have a hard time resisting the fries.
I completely agree! But when I’ve had this conversation with rec centre managers and dance schools, etc… They tell me those “things” don’t sell. I’m not sure what the solution is but I do know that things need to change.
In the meantime, I just keep bringing our food in a cooler.
It’s true Maija, they do not sell. I work for a municipality and we are always looking for ways to keep revenues up (to not add to any tax increases). Healthy options just do not sell.