Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Republican from Wisconsin, introduced legislation to stop the White House from excluding flavored milk in schools.
The MILK Act, which stands for “Milk is Indisputably Liked by Kids,” proposes amending the National School Lunch Act to require schools to offer flavored milk in their lunch programs.
“The Biden administration wants to exclude chocolate milk from being offered at schools across America. We believe that milk should be offered, including chocolate milk,” Rep. Tiffany said. “In fact, I think it’s a great tradition. I remember back when I was in school—every Friday, we had chocolate milk.”
He continues: “But on a serious note, this really does—for some kids—get them access to milk that they sometimes do not have, including with the flavored milks, and I think this is a good thing for kids to have milk in school. Our bill allows schools to be able to do that.”
While some argue removing chocolate milk from school menus will keep children from choosing sugary drinks, Tiffany argues that other options are worse.
“That’s a legitimate question, but you have to consider the option of what are kids going to drink instead of chocolate milk. I mean, oftentimes, they’re just going to go to the soda pop. Is that actually better for kids than chocolate milk? Of course, it’s not,” Tiffany said.
Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican from Kansas, also recently introduced the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2023. His recent legislation would also amend the School Lunch Act to allow participating schools to serve whole milk as part of the national program. Marshall says two out of three children today do not get the recommended amount of dairy.
