Today's Chocolate Milk Debate

[Anonymous]

How do you feel about chocolate and strawberry milk in school? The debate rages on. Go here to leave comments:

http://tinyurl.com/24r9lal

[Anonymous]

"breakfast at school" last year consisted of Lucky Charms with strawberry milk. Our choice as parents (i.e., don't give them the school breakfast) was removed because it was served in the classroom and every child was given a breakfast. I thus kept my kids home until 9 AM to avoid that, and fed them a good breakfast at home. If people want to give their kids chocolate milk at home, fine. I don't support that choice, but it's a choice. At school, however, only white milk should be served.

[Anonymous]

It is totally beyond me how the farming lobby, legislators, and the educational establishment in this country combine to force-feed our children this shit. How has it ever been acceptable to pump sugar into milk before feeding it to our kids? And they try to make it "OK" by removing the fat from the milk - when there is no evidence to suggest that higher fat milk actually leads to an increase in obesity, while all the evidence suggests that the link to sugar intake is unarguable. At least DC and Fairfax are trying to address the issue. Marla Caplon, director of food and nutrition service in Montgomery schools, is all for the flavored milk and should be ashamed of herself. Disgusting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"breakfast at school" last year consisted of Lucky Charms with strawberry milk. Our choice as parents (i.e., don't give them the school breakfast) was removed because it was served in the classroom and every child was given a breakfast. I thus kept my kids home until 9 AM to avoid that, and fed them a good breakfast at home. If people want to give their kids chocolate milk at home, fine. I don't support that choice, but it's a choice. At school, however, only white milk should be served.

Which school was this? My kids will be starting school soon - so far I have been packing their lunch for preschool - so I am quite worried about what we are going to have to do to try to keep them eating healthy. There is so much pressure from advertising and popular culture to eat crap.

[Anonymous]

11:20 here. Yes, breakfast this year is much better. No more flavored milk or pop tarts or "giant goldfish grahams." There's still concern overall about too much sugar (lots of sugary yogurt, for example), but at least the dumb flavored milk is gone, and they've got a strict "no more than 4 grams of sugar" rule for cereal. this excludes raisin bran, by the way, which has been a subject of HOT debate. Why are the raisins coated with sugar????

[Anonymous]

I always thought the sugar raisin thing was weird. Doesn't taste like a raisin. Dried out rubber with a few crystals. Ick. As to milk, if milk consumption drops drastically, where will menus make up the calcium difference? Our pedi says yogurt, even with some sugar, because one of mine won't drink milk of any hue. Oh well.

Has anyone eaten the new menus? Our school encouraged families to come during meals. I haven't yet, but would love to hear from other schools.
Has anyone gone and eaten school food with their kids? Our school is fine with parents coming for meals and is pushing breakfast. (Which looks more appetising than lunch).

[Anonymous]

Our child goes to Appletree Public Charter School, which is cAtered by An organic caterer, Revolution Foods. For the most part, meals are healthy and include a whole piece of fruit. Cupcakes and sugary treats are discouraged for bday parties because there are too many of then.

[Anonymous]

If you want to see what's on the menu (photos included) and learn more about what's being served in school, check out this blog:

http://betterdcschoolfood.blogspot.com/

I have found his blog to be a help to me as a working parent.