Fluff for the senator

Rewarding kids with food as a token leads to eating disorders regardless of what food it is; it teaches kids that food is a comfort and/or that they get food when they're good enough. This can lead to bingeing and restricting behaviors. It's well-documented; you can find plenty of articles just by googling. Taking a kid out for a meal at a preferred restaurant or something as a thank-you is a totally different matter and doesn't generally lead to unhealthy eating, unless it's like the only time the kid ever gets attention.

There are a lot of better choices for tokens such as stickers, pencils, etc. The tokens can even be completely meaningless and still do the job -- if kids know they get a slip of paper with a dinosaur on it every time they do something kind or thoughtful or responsible or courageous, it's a motivator. Most kids are happy enough just to have the attention of being given the token and knowing that their number of tokens is growing. Behavior reinforcement just needs to be consistent in order to work.