The Los Angeles school board voted, 6-1, to loosen its ban, dating from 2011, on sugary, flavored milk in lunchrooms, in the hopes that more relaxed rules will reduce food waste and encourage consumption of plain milk, says the Los Angeles Times. “We wouldn’t serve caramel apples to increase apple consumption,” objected Brent Walmsley, founder of the advocacy group Sugarwatch.
Students get a carton of milk as part of the standard school lunch and often don’t drink all of it. Board member Monica Ratliff won board approval for a four-part study in 21 schools to test ways to increase milk consumption, ranging from making flavored milk available along with plain milk to more appealing displays of plain milk. Parents and health advocates lobbied five years ago for the ban on flavored milk as a step against child obesity.
“Board members were unanimous on one point — their desire to change the Agriculture Department’s school meal regulations, which require schools to offer milk with meals in order to receive reimbursement,” said the LA Times. The school district estimates that it discards 600 tons of organic waste daily.