California’s new nutrition standards for food sold to students during school hours is causing trouble for a fund-raising staple—the bake sale, writes Dan Prives, a nonprofit financial expert, on his Web site, Where Needed Most.

Articles in The New York Times and The San Francisco Chronicle detail the effects of the new guidelines, he writes. “It seems to me that moderation is exactly what the guidelines implement, and exactly what the opponents reject,” he argues.

The new code he writes, “simply requires that snacks sold in school should not have more than 35 percent of its calories from fat (no more than 10 percent from saturated fat) and no more than 35 percent of its total weight from sugar. It also sets a limit of no more than 250 calories per food item. Trouble is, the standard bake sale items like brownies and muffins far exceed these reasonable standards.”

As a result, he writes, high calorie counts may continue to be a necessary evil for charities seeking to raise money through such grass-roots efforts as bake sales.

“Charity fund raising often seems to get mixed up mild forms of potentially unhealthy behavior, like gambling and drinking (bars are great places to hold charity fund raising events),” he writes. “So I suspect that bake sales will continue, and we’ll continue to hear variations on the justification, “what’s the harm, and anyway, it’s for a good cause.”