Wellington - New Zealand's Oteha Valley primary school has stopped pupils from bringing birthday cakes into class in an anti- obesity drive, according to news reports on Friday. Principal Megan Bowden told Radio New Zealand parents were trying to outdo each other by sending their kids to school with "delicious, huge" cakes, but there were so many birthdays that sometimes a class had to eat four of them in a week.
Opposition member of parliament Anne Tolley chided the government for introducing new national healthy eating guidelines for schools, calling it the "Birthday Grinch."
"What is New Zealand coming to when a Kiwi kid can't share a piece of birthday cake with his or her friends?" she asked.
