Every student who regularly frequented the cafeteria or snack bar last year remembers lining up for food and being welcomed by a beloved carton of chocolate milk as a reward for their hard work done at school. For the past several years, the beverage options have been low-fat, fat-free, and low-fat chocolate milk. Students have grown familiar with the iconic green, pink, and brown cartoons at the beginning of the lunch line. As of this year, Wilcox has officially removed chocolate milk as a beverage option for school lunches. Contrary to administrative opinion, many Wilcox students agree that the drink should be brought back.
Adjusting to the change has been riddled with dissatisfaction. For many, chocolate milk was their favorite part of their lunch. Many prefer chocolate milk over regular milk or fat-free milk. When asked about the change, Wilcox senior Vunji Li stated that “I don’t drink it personally, but I know it has hurt a lot of people.” Raina Katira, another senior, voiced, “I think [Wilcox] should have chocolate milk because if there is no chocolate milk, then no one is going to drink milk at all.” She explained that she stopped eating bagels in the morning because the chocolate milk option was removed, so now she opts for chocolate muffins instead.
Without chocolate milk as an option, many students chose to drop the idea of getting milk at lunch at all. This leads to a nutrition-imbalanced lunch, leaving out key sources of calcium, protein, and vitamin D in student’s diets. Wilcox senior Nihu Chakrabhavi explains that “Kids drinking chocolate milk is better than kids not drinking milk at all. It has nutrients and we still need some.”
When asked about the change, Nutrition Services Director Karen Luna discussed how the nutrition guidelines have changed, stating that “We needed to look for ways to reduce sugar in our meals to comply with the new rule and the health of our customers…chocolate milk was removed due to the added sugar.” This creates more scrutiny around the milk company, Crystal Cow, and the production of chocolate milk. Wilcox always has the option of switching their milk provider, but that requires effort and switching around the budget, which may not be plausible for staff currently.
This creates discussion for a bigger topic: the flawed production of school milk. In health, students learn that low-fat milk is pumped full of sugar to compensate for the taste when fat is removed. Wilcox senior Kimei Amirkiai suggests that Crystal Cow should, “bring back the fat and get rid of the sugar.”
Without chocolate milk as an option, students have started to not pick up milk at all, depriving them of important nutrients. Removing chocolate milk was supposed to reduce sugar in students’ diets, but it may cause more harm than good. Without a drink at lunch, students opt for other alternatives such as Starbucks drinks or milk tea, which are not a part of a balanced diet and can have higher sugar levels than Wilcox’s chocolate milk. The shift in beverage choices demonstrates the importance of choices for students in the school cafeteria. The absence of chocolate milk can greatly impact dietary habits and preferences at school.
