School Board, Wellness Committee debate merits of chocolate milk

The kids in school have already noticed. Their chocolate milk has been taken away. That was a decision of the Cascade School District’s Wellness Committee. As you might expect, this decision has been met with some push back, because you know, kids love chocolate milk. 

Wellness Committee Member, Danielle Gibbs, said chocolate milk is a big decision for a lot of school districts. 

“A lot of school districts have taken it away. It’s been a bit of contention for school districts. It’s the big one for people when we are trying to make change and create healthier options in our school lunch programs,” Gibbs said at the May 22 Cascade School Board meeting. “One thing we’ve talked about at the Wellness team in creating healthier lunches is going to take a lot of changes. Our lunches in the past, because of a lot of the commodity foods, they’ve been really unhealthy and not very good tasting either.”

A lot of foods that have been offered have been contributing to diabetes and obesity in younger and younger children, Gibbs said. As changes have been implemented, the government has been mandating healthier foods, the epidemic has started to turn around, she said. 

“The USDA sets guidelines that re-wrote the wellness policy to reflect. Removing chocolate milk goes above and beyond their policy. The reason for that is, some of their standards they set are a little bit lower than what up-to-date research shows us,” Gibbs said. “The USDA is catching up with that. The standards are industry driven, unfortunately. The milk industry makes more money on low fat milk because they can use the fat to create cream and ice cream and all that. They want to push that.”

Gibbs said they set a higher standard in order to create a healthier standard for kids. She believes the Wellness Committee’s role is to teach kids better eating habits, setting them up for success in life, a healthy body and healthy relationship with food. 

“One reason we picked chocolate milk ...kids love chocolate milk, adults love chocolate milk. The government policy right now is that we can offer food that is fat free, unflavored or flavored or we can offer the kids low fat, but only unflavored low fat milk,” Gibbs said. “We’re only able to offer them non-fat chocolate milk. The problem with non-fat chocolate milk is it immediately turns into bad cholesterol, it messes with insulin levels and turns into fat in your body.”

If the schools could offer full fat chocolate milk with real sugar, Gibbs said it would be a much better option, but they are not allowed to do that. 

“It seems like they are trying make changes according to the research. As we have governmental change, the standards change as well, so we don’t know what it will be,” Gibbs said. “We have the power to set our own local standards. I think it’s important we set standards that are based on facts and good nutrition and what is healthiest for our kids. I think treats are important too, but there are other treat options, which are not causing illness.”

Board member Kristen Wood asked how much chocolate milk was offered in the past. School District Food Director Colin Levy said chocolate milk was the most popular until this year when it was removed slowly. He said they served chocolate milk with breakfast and lunch. 

Kids could have two chocolate milks a day. 

“On top of that, they can buy more, but we’re not seeing them typically buy milk. Over at PD, where mom sends you with your lunch and you buy a milk. We don’t see it at the high school. We don’t see it at IRMS,” Levy said. 

So if they had a choice between chocolate milk and regular milk, they would never choose regular milk?, Wood asked. 

“I go over to Osborn and I talk to the kids as they go by. I hold out a chocolate milk and a white milk. I always hold the white milk ahead. There are kids, all they drink is white milk. That’s their thing,” Levy said. “Other kids will say, I don’t want that. I want the chocolate milk. I’ll ask them why, they say I don’t like white milk. You try to persuade them to take white milk and they won’t do it. They would rather they go without.”

The rule is 1 percent or nonfat regular milk. Chocolate milk can only be nonfat. 

“The new director of the USDA has issued a change to that. The new rules are with the milk, OSPI this summer will be looking to change that, because that requirement has gone away,” Levy said. “I don’t know how OSPI will deal with it. They may say it stays the same, but we do have the option of having a one percent chocolate milk, if they like the rules. Until we see the rules, we don’t know where we’re going.”

Kids at the high school and IRMS have a choice of beverages. At Osborn and PD, it is just milk and water. Students can get one serving of juice per day. That is served only at breakfast. 

Wood asked if this was an epidemic in school, people on insulin. District Nurse, Kesha Milne said there are four insulin dependent diabetics and two more Type 2 diabetics. 

“When this whole thing came down, I went online and did research about it, looking at what other schools across the nation have done when they got rid of chocolate milk. What I found, milk sales decreased. Waste of milk increased, because kids aren’t going to drink it,” Milne said. “We have a very high amount of free and reduced kids in our district. What we’re taking away from our kids ...we’re taking away protein. We’re taking away calcium. We’re taking away vitamins. We have to look at that.”

Milne said the chocolate milk has 10 grams of sugar, 420 mg of potassium, 30 percent of their daily calcium, 20 percent of daily Vitamin D and 8-9 grams of protein. 

“We’re taking away a lot things by the kids not drinking their chocolate milk,” Milne said. “It’s not the healthiest option, but when you have kids who don’t have that option at home, that could be their healthy option at school.”

The kids who are not getting healthy options at home are the most affect by this, Gibbs said. That’s why it’s important we show them options that are healthy instead of options like chocolate milk. 

“What you’re seeing in the lunch room, they are stacking their trays and unopened milk. There’s 50 cartons at the end of lunch they didn’t open,” said Board Member Brenda Biebesheimer. 

You can get a lot of nutrients from other sources of protein, cheese, meats, Gibbs said. That’s why it’s important to make these changes with the food too.

“They can get all that nutrition from a taco. I don’t know a kid that won’t eat a taco. We need to work on that. We’re not there yet. The kids are not eating the foods they need to eat yet. A lot of milk is going to waste. It’s not working yet,” Gibbs said. 

Kindergarten teacher Caitlin Knox said a lot of students receive financial help from the government for their food. Parents are working multiple jobs to feed them, she said. 

“I have kids who are responsible for feeding themselves or who are fed by a third grade sibling. They are eating the processed food at home. So when they come to school and the lunch is butternut squash chicken curry with kale, which was delicious. I very much enjoyed,” Knox said. “They would not touch it. They would not take a bite at the elementary level. All some of those kids had that day was a chocolate milk. They are not going to drink white milk. I will go out to recess and they are so hungry in the afternoon.”

Kids are missing all that nutrition which would have at least come from somewhere,” Knox said. 

“They get back into the classroom just dragging. It falls upon us teachers to get them something to eat because we care about our students and don’t want them to go hungry,” Knox said. “Some of them, it’s questionable if they are getting fed at home. This is their only meal selection. I get at the high school and middle school level, where they have salad bars and they can make reasonable choices. They understand how the body works.” 

“They are able to make those choices, whereas at our level, they are not able to make those choices yet. They play plenty and move fast around that playground to burn off any sugar from the chocolate milk.”

Board President Carrie Sorensen said the Wellness Committee is trying to find a system that works. This one isn’t working, she said. 

“I might encourage the Wellness Committee. Maybe chocolate milk once a week, three times. Maybe some compromise,” Sorensen said. “If we are throwing away 50 containers, maybe there is a compromise option. We make decisions all the time that did not go like we thought it would. Back to the drawing board. We can’t make our decisions based on public votes. I would encourage you folks to discuss more.”

Wellness Committee member Sheila Reeves said they need to look at more than just chocolate milk. 

“Say for the little kids, we shouldn’t be serving them curry. We need healthy things familiar to them made from scratch. It’s not that we’re against chocolate milk. We’re against the chocolate milk the government is allowing us to have,” Reeves said. “We’re all on the same page. It’s make the steps in the appropriate way.” 

Can we encourage kids not to take milk if they aren’t going to drink it?, Wood asked. 

Across the district, it is offer versus serve, Levy said.  It is a program put in place by the USDA to try and eliminate waste. At lunch, students have to have three components, a grain, a protein, vegetable or fruit. 

“If they chose not to have milk out of the six components being offered, it’s not a problem. Kids want something to drink, not necessarily water. If it is chocolate milk, they’ll drink it. If it is white milk, they’re not,” Levy said. “If you tell them they don’t have enough components, they will, out of convenience, grab a milk. Those are the rules. We have to make them put it on their plate and take it. There’s a lot of food waste. It’s sad.”

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.