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Don’t Schoolchildren Deserve the Option to Have Healthy Alternatives to Cow’s Milk?

The Child Nutrition Act is the foundation for food policy in our schools. This year, Congress will reauthorize the law, providing us a tremendous opportunity to make it possible for schoolchildren around the country to readily have access to nondairy alternatives to cow’s milk.
 
Currently, virtually all children participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) are automatically served cows’ milk, despite the fact that as many as eight million school children are lactose intolerant, and countless others avoid cow's milk for health, environmental and ethical reasons. A long-standing federal policy stipulates that schools will only be reimbursed for meals containing a serving of cows’ milk. The effect of this stipulation is that in almost all schools participating in the NSLP, healthy, plant-based alternatives to cows' milk—such as fortified soymilk, rice milk and almond milk—are unavailable to children.

Denying children easy access to dairy alternatives is especially damaging to minority populations, particularly African Americans and Latino children who are not only more likely to be lactose intolerant according to the National Institute of Health, but also make up a greater percentage of those dependent upon the NSLP for good nutrition. The end result of this inequity is that while the dairy industry reaps profits from the NSLP, school children (and cows on dairy farms) suffer unjustly.

You Can Help
Urge your federal senators and representative to support a provision in the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act that would require that alternatives to cow’s milk, such as soy or rice milk, be easily available to school children. Send a quick and easy e-mail. Please personalize your message, using your own words and stories.