Continuing the school food theme that began in Tuesday’s guest post from Jenna (Compromises in the School Food Revolution), today I share with you an email conversation between she & I, which was prompted by her comment that often when schools get rid of chocolate milk, so many parents complain that they have to bring it back.
Shocking isn’t it?
Me:
“Parents COMPLAIN that there's no chocolate milk??????”
Jenna:
Yes!! They are snowed into thinking the kids must have the calcium in the milk and since they won’t drink white milk they fear they won’t get calcium, protein, & vitamin D! That’s why many schools who have pulled chocolate milk from lunch have had to put it back, due to parent outcry and reduced participation. Also, kids complain that because the milk isn’t kept cold enough, it tastes funny. Plus because white milk isn’t preferred the turn over is lower, and there is more off-taste due to shelf life. And if there is no other option besides white or chocolate milk only (schools opt not to offer water, so that more kids pick milk as it’s a reimbursable component, water is not), it’s easy to see why with extra sugar and avoiding off-tasting white milk, chocolate milk is preferred.
Check this out, I posted a question on Facebook a few weeks ago. I was floored to see how many of my fans responded (people who voluntarily sign up for a page that talks about feeding kids healthy, not the general population):
Here is an article on chocolate milk ban.
Be sure and read some of the comments to that article. Very. Very. Sobering.
And the issue for school lunch programs is that in order to get reimbursements for school lunch, they have to offer these items: a grain, a vegetable, a fruit and a protein. And milk.
AND kids have to take at least 3 off the line. So if milk participation goes down because flavored milk is no longer offered, then it makes it harder for the school to comply with reimbursement requirements. Chocolate milk wars.
One study showed a 35% reduction in milk consumption when flavored milk is removed.
“It’s better for them to have some milk with some flavoring and a little added sugar than to go without milk,” said Ms. Pratt-Heavner, whose organization last month helped release a study that showed that elementary school children drank 35 percent less milk at school on average when flavored milk was removed. (Source)
It begins to make sense why districts are hesitant to remove chocolate milk. 1) parent outcry 2) more difficulties in meeting reimbursement requirements.”
Thank you, Jenna!
Can you believe all that?! What about you, what do you think?
Jenna is a recovering picky eater who believes all kids can learn to eat real food, and enjoy it. She is a School Food Revolutionist, swimming upstream without a map, trying to get better food to school kids. She blogs about finding ways to make food relevant to kids and her food revolution adventures at Food with Kid Appeal.
Photo credit, Creative Commons, 2.0
CatJB says
Wow, I just read that chocolate milk article. The mind boggles, I don’t think one comment said yes, ban it, they were all for it. I can’t think what to say, just wow. Sugar fix, anyone?
Andy Feng says
Too high sugar is bad! I agree, ban it from school!!!!!!!!!!
My Boys' Teacher says
Also, I want to be clear that I know that the oxalic acid will not block the absorption of ALL the calcium, just 2-3%. However, if the calcium is “the point” why block any of it?
My Boys' Teacher says
Sorry, meant one sentence to read “I assume she feels the milk is important for the kids to get the calcium.”
My Boys' Teacher says
Okay, I’m confused.
So, the woman who said
tina says
My kids don’t drink A1 milk which means they would never drink milk in schools.
Pavil the Uber Noob says
This whole federally based HEW stuff is just one big ugly tar baby. Good intentions become so horribly convoluted in bureaucratic red tape that the end result is worse than when it started.
Abandon hope all ye who enter.
KitchenKop says
I know schools don’t get reimbursed for it, but I wish they’d just serve WATER! That’s what I send my kids with in their lunches, and then they drink raw milk at home.
Kelly
jojoblackfoot says
EXACTLY!!!!
Heather says
Honestly, I would say the schools are between a rock and a hard place on this one. I was one of those kids who always took chocolate milk because the white milk always tasted sour in the little cartons. Honestly, even single-serving portions of milk sold in gas stations and such always taste “off” to me. Maybe it would be fine packaged in glass?
Lovelyn says
You weren’t kidding when you said the comments about the chocolate milk were sobering. How can they not realize a pile of sugar isn’t good for their children?!
I saw Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution too and I was shocked and appalled by the attitudes some of the people had about food.
Heather@Food Ponderings says
When I was growing up, my dad dissuaded me from drinking chocolate milk most of the time because he believed that the chocolate decreased the absorbtion of the calcium in the milk. While that’s not true, at least the result was that I drank far less chocolate milk than my peers (though occasionally I still do).
I also grew in an area where coffee milk was a treat (coffee syrup, not real coffee) for kids but it’s just as bad!!!
As for daycare, it makes me ill what my daycare serves my daughter. USDA program standards. Ugh. I don’t have too many options right now though, but I can’t wait until she’s old enough for the waldkindergarten at the local organic farm next fall!
Heather M says
Oh my gosh….that frustrates me so much to hear comments like that. In one comment the pediatrician said chocolate milk is fine, seriously I would have to doubt his abilities. If kids were not eating so much “garbage” I might not mind the chocolate milk. It breaks my heart that people just don’t get it, and that is because of the USDA and AMA. I just wish people would/could connect the dots that people are getting sicker and sicker with the recommendations from the government. I understand that the kids like the chocolate milk, I don’t fault them, I liked it when I was young. Everyones taste buds are so altered now from all the sugar in food that one can not tolerate what food should really taste like. No one said being a parent would be easy. We have to make the best choices for our kids, even if they don’t like it. They’ll get used to it. I greatly respect these women and men who work hard to education on nutrition. Never quit trying. Change is hard but well worth it.
Terri says
One other point worth mentioning about chocolate milk…..over 1 year ago I was watching some news show, I don’t remember which one, but they were talking about why dairies were making the ready made chocolate milk. It is a way to cover up the infected milk (milk with pus in it!) from the cows that are treated with hormones and anitbiotics. The cows are milked SO much and were producing more than normal milk because of the drugs they were given that their udders were infected. This is enough to make you ill just thinking about it. Are the school’s milk supply from milk not treated with RgGH? Doubt it, because the government says there is nothing proving it is unsafe…..Ha….
jenna Food WIth Kid Appeal says
SBISD does offer borden hormone free milk. don’t have stats on how many districts provide hormone free milk.
Sarah says
I’m most shocked by the comment on the article, the one where the woman is upset that the school won’t let her kid bring orange soda in his lunch. At least with the milk thing, I can stop and say, “I might have been that parent if I hadn’t had this life changing insight into real food nutrition.” (But I’m not that parent and they’d probably think I was off the deep end for wanting to home school, in part–but not the main reason–because of school food and nutrition messages, including exposure to vending machines with granola bars and additive city foods and adults handing it all out as health food!)
Sarah says
I meant additives in the food, not “city food”. (My toddler was climbing all over me when I was typing!)
Kate @ Modern Alternative Mama says
So sad. And they’re all about the food pyramid and low-fat too!! And passing that onto their children…. I so wanted to say something about that! They seemed to think chocolate low-fat or fat-free milk was the “best” choice! When the better choice would be no milk at all, given that as the other option!
My children don’t drink milk. They eat raw milk ice cream, raw cheeses, yogurt, etc. The one time I tried to offer chocolate milk (made with raw cacao powder, sucanat, and raw milk) they frowned at me and refused to even try it.
I’ve noted this incredibly common among toddlers. They don’t want milk. Their parents have to think up all kinds of tricks to get them to drink it. Umm…how about, your kid is smarter than you are?! Just stop trying! When they are older they will drink milk if they want, and most will eat yogurt, cheese, etc. They don’t HAVE to drink it! It’s not a magical food, to the point where there aren’t other foods or forms it can come in.
As for the HFCS and sugar issues…I actually forget how much sugar is in stuff. We just don’t eat that way. I use small amounts of raw honey and maple syrup but we do not have any sugar in our home. Even sucanat gives me a headache. To think about all the sources of sugar kids are getting daily…! Awful!
The other day I offered my kids some vitamin C tablets, that I’d gotten at a health food store. Later my son’s bottom had turned read — a red ring around his anus (called RROD, or “red ring of doom” in allergy circles). And the day after, open, red, bleeding sores on his bottom. FROM CORN SYRUP!! I, like one of the commenters, have absolutely no patience with any form of corn syrup. Look what it did to my son! In a TINY amount! He had one tablet! Never mind what some sweetened drink could do to him! When I’m strict with their real-food diet, they are just fine. Otherwise…sleep issues, bleeding sores, eczema, behavior problems, etc. So this is why even when other parents roll their eyes at playdates and make comments like “No processed food for you!” I stand firm. It’s worth it.
Stanley Fishman says
I do not actually know what kind of milk is available at schools, but I am almost certain that it is not organic. I am certain that it is highly processed, probably contains added unnatural growth hormones, comes from cows fed GMO soy and GMO corn, and that it is either homogenized or low fat, or non fat. I am almost certain that it tastes terrible, and the sugar in the chocolate milk tastes much better to a sugar addicted child.
My point is that I doubt that this highly processed milk is worth drinking, even without the chocolate.
I think drinking decent milk at home is a much better alternative.
jenna Food WIth Kid Appeal says
i hear you. the white milk is also not very nourishing. but at least is is not low fat, dead, GMO containing AND all sugared up. problem is stanley, in many schools milk is the only drink offered to kids. no water, no other beverage is available. water is not reimbursable nor is it one of the 5 components to meeting requirements to get reimbursement for a meal. i support water as a better alternative but then schools have a harder time meeting reimbursement requirements and free, reduced kids would not be eligible to receive bottled water without paying for it out of pocket. not sure what the solution is there. making tap water accessible to students at lunch is one idea.
Kris the crunchy catholic Mom says
Wow, a reminder of how the majority of the population is ignorant about food/nutrition. I agree completely with Psychic Lunch that the government shouldn’t be involved because then we also have problems as we do now with raw milk and cheese. I think it is a problem with parents/children not being educated.
I do know that my 7 year old has been taught enough about sugar/real food enough that she would not drink the chocolate milk if it had HFCS in it, and she probably wouldn’t like it anyway not being raw. I don’t think I am overestimating my child either. I have had friends say she ask about food at their house and makes choices upon what we do at home YEAH!
I think the argument should be about offerring a lower sugar chocolate milk made with sugar not HFCS. I don’t mean doing an artificial sweetener, I mean with less chocolate, I am always startled on labels to see how much sugar is in it, usually more than a soda pop. I know when we make choco milk at home it is much less sweet and still a treat (WOW that rhymes!).
I do offer chocolate milk for treats at home made with Trader Joes syrup, which usually lasts us 6 months! Many times our kids ask for white milk instead 🙂
At this point it seems if we ban one thing they will substitute with something worse. Next thing we know they will have Splenda sweetened choco milk – I would rather see the kids drinkiing HFCS (though my personal opinion not really researched).
Kris
jenna Food WIth Kid Appeal says
the government has to be involved because the USDA runs the school lunch program and sets the nutrition requirements. if the requirements aren’t changed, then how do you change what happens on the food procurement end, and in the school kitchens?
i would support less real sugar in choc milk at school paired with less availability, maybe once or twice a week. that reinforces that it is a sometimes food. but that involves getting the milk producers to reformulate, roll out to market, etc. how long would that take? 5 years? no clue, but sounds like a solution that wastes children’s health for too long.
with you on artificial sweeteners, they have no place in a school. and it’s scary to think of what negative trade-offs will come with any positive school food reform.
Kris the crunchy catholic Mom says
I totally support a BIG change in USDA school lunch requirements. It totally makes sense to change what is already in place. I feel that these requirements were put in because of political corruption in the first place.
Maybe if the USDA lunch requirements were changed then the choco milk issue would be changed within those regulations. I sadly think that is a long time coming. I bet that the corn industry has a lot of lobby money in keeping choco milk in the schools to use up all that federally subsidized corn. 🙂
THis issue and all that surrounds it could go on forever! :))
Debbi Does Dinner Healthy says
When my kids were in school, I made their lunches. I homeschool now so it’s not an issue.
I do daycare and am on the state food program. I believe my guidelines are the same as for schools for what I am able to serve. Cheetohs and doritos are a credible grain as they have enough “good” cornmeal or grain in them. So if I give the kids a hotdog, doritos, sweetened applesauce, french fries and chocolate milk, I am supposedly serving them a “healthy meal” and I get reimbursed for it. It’s amazing what is on the list of approved foods. Luckily my kids DON’T get all this but the fact that I CAN legally give it to them is just amazing. It really makes you wonder what these state guidlines are all about and how much they really care.
jenna Food WIth Kid Appeal says
it is amazing what meets “nutrition” standards. ketchup and french fries are considered a vegetable. not bashing potatoes as a veggie, but deep fried foods (even assuming they were tallow fried) several times a week is not the healthiest way to eat. the “grain” component is what gets me, so much of the food is served on over processed buns will little nourishment other than enrichment. the veggie component is met by offering a lettuce and tomato cup (sandwich topper) that most kids don’t take. they only need to take 3 of 5 things to qualify for reimbursable meal, so district programs rely on meat, bun, milk to meet requirements. there really aren’t any fiber requirements and don’t quote me on this but sodium may or may not have restrictions. i still have learning to do….
Psychic Lunch says
Don’t parents know that pasteurized milk is actually more harmful, nutrient-wise, than helpful? (Sigh; I know the answer: They don’t.) That doesn’t even factor in the sugars and flavors added.
Incidentally, I’m against government bans on food in general; the bad effects of such laws can be seen in the Rawesome raid or the general attacking of raw milk everywhere. However, letting children decide what is healthy for them is a bad place to start. OF COURSE kids will choose flavored milk.
jenna Food WIth Kid Appeal says
pyschic lunch – what would you propose as a solution?
Psychic Lunch says
I’m not sure; We’re a homeschooling family so it’s easy for us in that we just don’t let any of that junk past our doors. But of course that won’t work for the public schools who have to worry about government guidelines and laws, paying teachers and keeping the lights on, and all other such stuff.
I would hope it could be possible to extend parental guidance into public schools so that mothers and fathers could choose exactly what their kids eat. Theoretically, that is possible by implementing some kind of passcard system; parents could choose meal plans online which could sync to a student’s card. But… that’s a complex answer even if it is pretty slick. People won’t want to pay for setting something like that up, and I’m sure there would be loopholes because when you get right down to it, if a kid wants to eat some junk food while their parents aren’t looking, it may be very hard to stop them from doing so.
A more simple solution would be to just not provide school lunches, but I know what an uproar that would cause. Even though historically school lunches weren’t always provided, people have become accustomed to thinking they NEED these cheap meals that lack nutrition because they can’t afford the time and money to make the meals themselves. This is the situation you get when you start using “other peoples’ money” to pay for things.
So… I don’t know. The answer for my family is not to play the game. I feel really bad for the kids who are nutritionally thrown to the wolves of corporations and taxes in this fight, because it’s their long-term well-being that’s at stake. I can’t even hope that actual nutritional education for the parents involved would help, considering that did nothing with Jamie Oliver’s show. Parents NEED to know that they’re hurting their kids through their own ignorance of nutrition, though. Thus I say that’s probably the best plan of attack.
-Dan
Carla says
I’m new to all this school stuff since my kids are in their first year of school after homeschooling (well, unschooling). Their school is relatively healthy, not traditionally prepared with soaking and what not, but the food is all real, local (except what doesn’t grow around here or out of season veggies for salads), heavy emphasis on vegetables and they do not fry anything. They don’t even have fryers in the school. They sell milk at 35 cents a container (250ml) and the same size of chocolate milk is $1.60. We don’t have free or reduced lunch programs here, which is why I make the kids lunch. I can’t afford almost $10 a day for two kids to eat lunch! I give them milk money but they rarely get it since they bring their water bottles.
I am having trouble with finding things they like to put in their lunches (I’m still learning about real foods and they are still picky from eating SAD). They don’t get much time to eat since their school focuses on a lot of physical activity and they feel rushed to eat.
jenna Food WIth Kid Appeal says
$10 for two kids? wow, at least you know it’s real food that way. lunch in SBISD is $1.50 (includes milk) at elementary. the price is subsidized by free/reduced lunch program (the paying kids pay less because of government funds.)
i recommend you ask you principal to consider changing schedule to recess before lunch. I wrote about it here, my post has an article to a NYT article and pilot study results of benefits. https://foodwithkidappeal.blogspot.com/2010/03/recess-before-lunch-chocolate-milk.html
Carla says
They actually do have recess before lunch but they get 15 minutes to eat, which apparently isn’t enough time once they get settled in. Many, many people have talked to the principal as lots of kids are finding they don’t have enough time but she just assures us that they do get enough time. Seems to me if so many kids are having this problem, they would look into it or allow a few extra minutes to get coats off, washed up, grab their lunches, ect…
jenna Food WIth Kid Appeal says
only 15 minutes! that is too short. the school has the physical activity part right, but there should be more time for lunch! maybe you can link food to brain function (like eat to learn does) and find some compelling studies/articles to sway the school administration. another idea is to start a petition and see how much parent support yet get.
Heather says
Kelly, do the majority of the people who commented on your facebook page actually READ what you write? I was prepared for some of the comments, but the so many seem like they have never seen what you say is healthy. EVER. Happy it’s at least low fat? Problem with children’s eating being too much fat and salt? I had to stop reading before the end.
Kristia, they don’t even solve the one problem. Unless my lunch is an hour and a half after breakfast, Lucky Charms and whole wheat donuts is going to make me MORE hungry than if I skipped breakfast altogether. And I don’t skip breakfast.
I remember being in school and drinking chocolate milk. I began because we had moved from a farm community where I had real milk to suburbia where we couldn’t get real milk even for home consumption. Whole milk was often not available at school so I drank the chocolate milk because the low fat and skim literally made me vomit. Still does. To prevent this when we travel, and when the kids are old enough for school, we pack a thermos with real milk.
jenna Food WIth Kid Appeal says
heather – the comments were on my facebook fan page, Food with Kid Appeal. I suspect some of my FB audience are not regular readers of my blog. because i focus on helping parents teach better eating habits to their kids, much of my audience is more mainstream than real foodies. that being said, i was SHOCKED to see some of the responses!
Kristia@FamilyBalanceSheet says
I saw this on Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution over the summer and I was outraged. It was okay if the kids got the sugar if they were getting it with their calcium. I’ll have to go check your comments.
On a side note, did you read the article in USA Today a few weeks ago about the free breakfast program that one school district in colorado was offering to all students so that the poor students didn’t feel stigmatized. My problem with the program wasnt’ that they were giving all of the kids a free breakfast, my problems was that the free breakfast was Lucky Charms and whole wheat donuts. So to fix one problem of children being hungry all day, we are creating another by feeding them sugar and teaching them that sugar is an okay breakfast.
jenna Food WIth Kid Appeal says
Free breakfast for all students programs are being adopted in a lot of districts. HISD, Houston’s largest district just adopted it lasts year. Most teachers don’t like it because milk and food gets spilled in the classroom and then they have to live with food odors, (sour milk). And yes, the quality of breakfast being offered is often boxed sugary cereal or breakfast on a bun, because they are convenient for the classroom. Another way we teach kids “convenience” food is best. I would hate for our school district to adopt a free for all students lunch UNLESS the food offered was more nourishing.
Gina says
When you said that the comments were sobering, you weren’t kidding. I am amazed at how many people think chocolate milk is ok for you and are enraged that schools would even think of banning it. The excuse that they won’t have milk unless it’s flavoured is silly, if a child is only given white milk, it’s what they know. It makes me sad to think that kids are not being provided the healthy food they need for nourishment at schools. I am still shocked by all those comments!
Sandy Munroe says
I found it interesting when I watched Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution how much kids wanted their flavored milks. Growing up I always picked up the “red” white whole milk because it was what I knew. I remember trying the chocolate one and just thinking it tasted awful. It didn’t even taste like real chocolate. I say this because it’s all a matter of taste and what you know. You take it away and the kids will get used to white milk. Parents have to do this at home too not just expect the kids to learn to start drinking the white milk in schools. I suppose a lot of times parents feel like they have to choose their battles and don’t want a child crying over the foods they can’t have so they just continue to give it to them…..