PORTLAND (AP) – Public health efforts to bar sales of soda and candy during school hours have been expanded this academic year, with Maine extending its ban on junk food to all hours of the day.

The ambitious anti-obesity initiative is being reviewed in some school districts out of concern that one consequence could be slimmer profits for booster clubs that put the proceeds from snack sales at sports events and band concerts toward projects that augment education budgets.

“We have offered healthier snacks, but they don’t sell like candy,” said Robin Marsanskis, a parent who volunteers at Scarborough High School and whose daughter’s cheerleading squad got a new exercise mat with help from concession sales.

School boards may set policies on nutrition standards that exempt after-school activities, and that option has drawn interest.

“As much as I support the idea of good nutrition, I don’t know that people are going to buy hummus at a football game,” said Scarborough Superintendent William Michaud.

Besides, he said, who would determine whether parents are selling foods that meet nutritional standards?

“Do hot dogs meet the standard? Does popcorn meet it? That’s not my field of expertise,” Michaud said.

Public health advocate Karen O’Rourke says nutrition standards are too low anyway, but that simple solutions could involve replacing hamburgers with turkey sandwiches and candy with fruit.

“It’s about money,” said O’Rourke, vice president of operations at the Maine Center for Public Health. “I think they don’t realize or can’t quite get their brain around the fact that they can make money some other way. So when someone tries to tell them they have to do something differently, there’s a lot of pushback.”

Obesity rates rose last year in every state but Oregon, according to an advocacy group.

Trust for America’s Health said data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the percentage of obese adults for 2002-04 stood at 22.7 percent nationally. The percentage for the previous cycle, 2001-03, was 22 percent.

In New England, Maine led both with the percentage of obese adults at 21.3 percent and with the biggest percentage gain in obesity – 1.3 percent – during the period.