Goodbye coffee, adios candy grams, see you later hot chocolate. The Texas Department of Agriculture has once again changed the Competitive Foods Policy. These policies are so restrictive this year that clubs may as well give up on all food and drink sale fundraisers.

First off, the new nutritional policies. This year, the Competitive Food Nutrition Standards for any food that isn’t made by the cafeteria has been raised to impossible heights. For instance, any form of soda cannot be sold because it is considered “non-juice, carbonated beverages that contain natural or artificial sweeteners.” Anything that is sold during the school day must meet the new nutritional standards and they are extremely limited. A few items made the cut – fruit, nuts, canned food and bottled water. Because of this nutrition rule, school clubs can’t sell or deliver candy, cookies, snacks, coffee or hot chocolate during the school day.

But wait, there’s more. While groups used to be able to sell these items before or after school, that rule has changed as well. Groups are no longer allowed to sell anything before school or at the bus lanes after school. Items that don’t meet the nutrition standards, like candy and soda, can be sold…30 minutes after school.

Overall, these new restrictions limit everything that clubs and groups ever did. The Friends of the Library Club used to sell coffee and hot chocolate in the mornings. But hot chocolate doesn’t meet the nutritional standards and the new no morning rule nixes it as well. The newspaper can no longer sell candy grams, even though they were delivered afterschool, because the 30-minute wait rule makes it impossible to give the items out. Groups who use to rely on chocolate and candy sales like Student Council and Project Grad will have to find another fundraiser to help their funding goals.

Small school organizations rely on food and drink sales to stay afloat. In this fervent effort to protect school cafeterias and fight obesity, The Texas Department of Agriculture has taken away clubs’ ability to raise money. Ultimately, the burden will be put on students and their parents to come up with additional money to support these groups.

Across Texas, affected groups need to let the government know how this decision has negatively affected their organization. Everyone restricted by these policies needs to band together and fight for their right to sell. Because a cup of coffee every once in a while never hurt anyone.