Maybe I missed something- no chocolate milk in schools?

Probably because chocolate milk = more calories. Never mind that last I heard school lunches in the US had a calorie minimum... no, that was not a typo.

Maybe they dont have it anymore, or maybe the kids just dont care, but when i was a little kid there was a giant colorful nutrition triangle posted on every wall of the lunchroom. we were taught nothing about calories, but i remember one day we had a guest speaker come in and teach about what our body needs. maybe with the educational cut backs, things like this dont happen anymore. but its still not in our schools hands to teach the children these things, it's what happens at home.

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As I am not a citizen of the United States, I needed to read some articles about this topic. I clearly understand that they intend to reduce the amount of sugar that kids consume on a daily basis.

But what I found rather shocking was the report of a school teacher in which she said that many kids use to throw away their vegetables and "real" food. She compared days when hamburgers, fries and similar stuff was served with days when carrots and other vegetables were on the menue. While they need two trashcans on hamburger days they need up to ten trashcans on the other days.

I have also seen a documentation about school dinner in the UK where kids literally erupted in tantrums because they were offered vegetables instead of fries.

And I think that is what's going wrong. Chocolate milk won't do any harm to kids with a healthy nutrition.

It's partly because the veggies look like death on a plate.

But yes, my experience standing lunch duty backs up what you've read.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, chocolate milk.

Probably because chocolate milk = more calories. Never mind that last I heard school lunches in the US had a calorie minimum... no, that was not a typo.

Of course there's a calorie minimum. It would be awful if they weren't being served enough food. What part of that do you find funny?

I agree. It isn't funny in the slightest. There was a trend in several school districts in 2012 to cut the calories in school lunches based on USDA recommendations, and it backfired. The lunches served were NOT enough to sustain growing kids. Yes, there's obesity here, but there are also plenty of active kids who benefit from the added calories. Athletes, for example, could easily need 5000 calories a day in their teens. a 600 calorie school lunch isn't going to do anything for them.

And in many poverty-stricken areas (like where I taught in rural Arkansas) school breakfast and school lunch are the only meals a lot of kids get. We'd catch tons of kids stealing extra milk to take home with them.

Omgosh! This is so sad.

And in many poverty-stricken areas (like where I taught in rural Arkansas) school breakfast and school lunch are the only meals a lot of kids get. We'd catch tons of kids stealing extra milk to take home with them.

Omgosh! This is so sad.

In the district next to us one of the elementary schools sends dinner home with kids who don't get enough food at home. Churches and donations help keep the program going.

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Probably because chocolate milk = more calories. Never mind that last I heard school lunches in the US had a calorie minimum... no, that was not a typo.

That's just it though. There's not a ton more calories in Chocolate milk. Fat Free TrueMoo brand has 120 calories. The "low fat" version has 140. Regular milk has 110 calories so it's not a significant difference.

Their reasoning (I'm from CT also) is that there is a lot of SODIUM (?) and HFCS in it which I personally stay away from HFCS but again there are brands (TrueMoo) that uses cocoa and regular sugar. The state will get money if they take out the chocolate milk which is a joke because that money will go right back into their own pockets instead of going towards things like, oh say fixing the road situation? They actually put up ROAD CLOSED LOCAL TRAFFIC ONLY signs on one of the roads that leads to my house because they don't want to fill in the pot holes!

But any way, what they fail to realize is that taking out the chocolate milk isn't going to fix the obesity problem and they will end up wasting money on regular milk because the kids who preferred the chocolate won't drink it. But you will have our dumbass lawmakers backing our useless Governor and get this ridiculous law on the books.

Surprisingly, the reason it is going to fall under the ban is the added sodium. The bill restricts the sodium content of foods served, and chocolate milk happens to have enough added sodium to fall under the ban. Apparently, it was a last minute bill with unintended consequences.

Removing chocolate milk as an option is idiotic. Now those kids who would only drink chocolate milk won't drink anything. Did you know that the student HAS to pick up a milk product (even if they are lactose intolerant) when they buy the school lunch? So not only will kids not drink the milk but it will be wasted as well. Good job, government officials!!

This isn't true in our neck of the woods. In my kids' elementary school, they have a choice of 2% milk, chocolate milk, bottled water, and juice drink (This is the one that ticks me off - For pete's sake, at least make it pure juice. The kids don't know they're grabbing juice flavored corn syrup. I know this, because many kids have told me they're drinking delicious, healthy juice.). They're allowed to take 2 - any 2.

So my hunch is, this is a local thing. Could be your school board, could even be the meal providers. Let's not forget that in today's USA, most school meals are provided by companies that are hired by the school board. You may want to contact the food service provider and raise a little Holy Hell with them first, then go up the government chain.

I'm also in CT and from what I've seen on Facebook a lot of parents are really butthurt about it.

I don't see the problem. In my opinion chocolate milk should be a treat, not something you have with lunch every day. If your kids refuse to drink anything else that's due to lazy parenting, isn't it? And of course you can give them a nice, big glass of chocolate milk when they get home if you like.

I'm pretty surprised that people are blaming the schools for the fact that their kids are throwing away perfectly good food.

At most school, kids are required to pick up everything in the lunch line knowing that they wont eat it. So throwing food away is the parents fault?

It's just prejudice: White milk builds strong body's and teeth; Chocolate milk is bad for you.
Frosted flakes are "great" but you're koo-koo if you like coco puffs.
White rice is fine; but once it gets dark, they call it "wild" or "dirty" rice.
They keep the green olives in jars where every body can see them; but the black olives have to be locked up in a can!

I'm also in CT and from what I've seen on Facebook a lot of parents are really butthurt about it.

I don't see the problem. In my opinion chocolate milk should be a treat, not something you have with lunch every day. If your kids refuse to drink anything else that's due to lazy parenting, isn't it? And of course you can give them a nice, big glass of chocolate milk when they get home if you like.

I'm pretty surprised that people are blaming the schools for the fact that their kids are throwing away perfectly good food.

At most school, kids are required to pick up everything in the lunch line knowing that they wont eat it. So throwing food away is the parents fault?

In a way though it is. When I was a kid they posted the weekly menu in the news paper. My mom and I went through and picked out what appealed to me for a hot lunch and those were the days I didn't brown bag it. I don't have kids so I don't know whether or not they still do that but I never had a lunch that I didn't eat there. But then again I think the food that was served back when I was in elementary school was slightly better than it is now. Although I did get yelled at once from one of the lunch ladies because I wanted to eat my vanilla pudding before my meal. I got told I couldn't do that.

I'm also in CT and from what I've seen on Facebook a lot of parents are really butthurt about it.

I don't see the problem. In my opinion chocolate milk should be a treat, not something you have with lunch every day. If your kids refuse to drink anything else that's due to lazy parenting, isn't it? And of course you can give them a nice, big glass of chocolate milk when they get home if you like.

I'm pretty surprised that people are blaming the schools for the fact that their kids are throwing away perfectly good food.

At most school, kids are required to pick up everything in the lunch line knowing that they wont eat it. So throwing food away is the parents fault?

If it's happening all the time, yes. Or if you like, you can blame the kids for being picky.