Why not just send your own preferred milk in a little bottle or thermos?

I remember when I was little I always bought chocolate milk because the plain milk was *nasty*! I wouldn't have drunk milk if I had to have that. These days, I think I'd just send my kid with a water bottle and forego milk altogether, but water wasn't as big then.

You might want to contact these guys - they've helped improve DPCS meals.

http://betterdcschoolfood.blogspot.com/

Why is this such an issue? What is the sugar content of this milk? Is there a healthier choice offered to the children?

I think children need adult help to make informed choices and take responsiblity. Maybe there could be signs posted to signal healthier options. (Although milk, even sugared, is more nutritious than juice.)
But I am biased: my child is drastically underweight, hates sugar, and I would love nothing more than to see him ingest something caloric like strawberry milk

Pack your child's lunch and snack!! If you DON'T provide money for your child to be fed there, they will not feed him/her.

This is an ongoing issue at MCPS. I've attended several meetings with local reps including Congressman Van Hollen and the head of nutrition services for MCPS. There is new federal legislation that is revising the entire school lunch nutrition requirements. There will be big changes, but it will take time for them to figure out all the new reqs and get them in place, implement, etc...

Did you know that 71 percent of all milk served in school cafeterias is flavored? Yuck.

Here's a good recent article from the NYTimes - hope it helps, OP!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/dining/25Milk.html?_r=1&ref=milk

Like some of the PPs, we have dealt with this issue by just packing lunches every day.

Oooh and you can contact your local congressional rep. I'm sure they'd love to have it on their record that they championed the nutrition of their district's school system. I've seen them take issue over much smaller less important things.

DS's school offers strawberry, chocolate, and plain milk. Most of the kids get strawberry and chocolate. While I am not thrilled, I am not terribly worried because he doesn't get a lot of junk food or sweets at home. Also, I like that he is taking in milk (rather than juice) for its protein and calcium. DS's school does have 2 hours of recess/PE per day, so I am not worried about the lack of physical activity in combination with sweet drinks. If he had no recess and sugary drinks, I might be a little more worried.

I totally agree! If parents have a hard time gettig their kids to drink milk, let them pack their kids lunches with sugar filled milk. There is nothing wrong with sending a letter along with info educating them on why it's wrong to raise kids to think they need sugar coated all over everything to make it ok to eat.

In the meantime stop giving your kid lunch money and pack his lunch and milk.

Contact Jamie Oliver! Seriously, go on his website - this was one of his big issues on Food Revolution.

Also you may want to contact the Center for Science in the Public Interest - they are a consumer advocacy group and though I find them quite annoying and nannyish at times, school food is one of their big issues.

I totally agree with you by the way. It irks me that we are sending the message that we have to drown things in sugar for them to be acceptable. It's milk - you just drink it. Not everything in life has to taste great, and not every experience our kids have needs to be so enjoyable. It's a symptom of a larger problem.

Geez, lighten up.

Is the strawberry milk your biggest concern? I would probably be more worried about the food that he is buying to go along with it and I would be sure to pack his lunch.

I am appalled that my 5 year old gets to (and does) buy strawberry milk everyday....I know there have been successful efforts locally to eliminate this crap from school lunch menus and am wondering if anyone has any advice on how to go about it? Is it something that can be done on the school level or is it best done at the county level (we are in MCPS)?

Thanks!