Milk In Schools

Legislation introduced in the U.S. House would provide more access to milk in schools.

The School Milk Nutrition Act of 2017 would allow schools to give students more milk choices.

John Newton with the American Farm Bureau Federation says the bill gives schools the flexibility to bring back low-fat flavored milk...

"Students in the school lunch program currently have access to low-fat milks, skim milks, but don't have access to that low-fat flavored milk. So, this would allow them to bring that chocolate milk that was so popular in my childhood at the lunch table back into the lunch program.

For a number of years, consumption of fluid milk in the United States has been declining. So, this is a great step forward in trying to reverse that trend. You have an opportunity to work with potential consumers at a very young age. By introducing them to low-fat flavored milk, you could potentially have a dairy consumer for life.

Dairy has so many nutritious ingredients in it. To provide the opportunity for low-fat flavored milk in school gives all those vitamins and minerals that's in the milk available to the school kids. So, putting it on the plate is definitely a step forward for the lunch program."