Flavored Milk Might Be Squeezed Out of Santa Monica Schools

Flavored milk could soon be off the menu, but it might take a big fight for it to happen.

At a meeting that began Wednesday evening and crept into the early hours of Thursday, four people on the seven-member Board of Education determined the governing panel should vote on whether to ban flavored milk.

Board members heard from a group of students and parents who want because it has more sugar (2 teaspoons) than white milk. Also, the board received a presentation from a skeptical district staff. Although no staff recommendation was given, the presentation stressed that if flavored milk were eliminated, fewer students would drink milk and not receive what they considered to be its crucial benefits.

Three board members support a ban (Oscar de la Torre, Ralph Mechur and Nimish Patel) and three do not (Board President José Escarce, Laurie Lieberman and Maria Leon Vazquez). So when the proposal comes up for a vote Aug. 24, it will be Board Vice President Ben Allen who will be asked to break the tie.

"I am very interested in a ban," he said at this week's meeting. "I don’t think I have enough information yet to firmly make that decision."

Allen wants more opinions from dieticians and nutritionists, insight on how the Los Angeles Unified School District reached its decision last month to ban flavored milk and information on other districts' approaches to limiting high-sugar drinks.

SMMUSD students consumed 440,861 units of milk during the 2010-11 school year, according to a report by Food and Nutrition Services Director Orlando Griego and SMMUSD Nutrition Specialist Dona Richwine. Seventy-seven percent of that milk was flavored, nearly all of it chocolate (Griego said strawberry milk was recently discontinued due to low demand). The flavored milk does not contain fat and is only served at lunch.

Board President Escarce, who has a medical degree, said it would be too risky to eliminate the flavored option because it would lead to fewer students drinking milk. He noted the results of a two-year published study that was included in the staff presentation that looked at 58 schools where flavored milk was eliminated. Milk consumption decreased by 37 percent.

"I think milk is too important," he said.

Among the nutrients included in white and flavored milk, according to the staff presentation, are calcium, potassium, phosphorus, riboflavin and Vitamins A and D.

Alana Witting, who will enter third grade at  in the fall, did not agree with Escarce's prediction.

"Kids at my school choose chocolate or strawberry milk because it tastes sweet and they have a choice," she said. "If they didn't have a choice, I think that they would drink regular milk; my friends would for sure."

Board member Patel said he believed milk consumption would decrease in the immediate future if the flavored option were eliminated, but this would change over time.

"We are trying to teach them how to make better choices," Patel said. "But saying, 'Oh, we give up because with human nature, they're just not going to drink it [is not a good approach].' We can change human nature through education."

Board member Lieberman, who said she had done lots of research on the subject since it first came to the board's attention last month, said milk was being wrongfully targeted.

"We should be focusing on what are truly empty-calorie drinks like soda … sports drinks, fatty foods, fried foods and all kinds of foods I think we should be looking at as a district," Lieberman said.

All the board members said the district needs to take a good look at what food and drinks it offers, and make changes to increase the nutritional value of school meals.

The proposal for a ban comes from a group of parents who approached the board last month shortly after the LAUSD approved its ban. Several of the parents spoke at the meeting.

"This campaign is to improve school food and beverages," said Santa Monica parent Harriet Fraser. "And this is our first step. Eliminating flavored milk, we feel is a very important first step. It's a simple message to send to parents and students at their schools about added sugar in the diet."

Morris Salem, a pediatric cardiologist and father of an incoming second-grader at Franklin Elementary, said of flavored milk, "It's a lot of empty calories for absolutely very little nutritional bang for the buck. It does no good."

This article was originally published on Malibu Patch.

Do you support the proposed ban on flavored milk in Santa Monica schools? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.