More on the great chocolate milk debate: an SFUSD fact sheet

Chocolate milk in San Francisco school cafeterias: the facts

Chocolate milk in school cafeterias is sparking debate around the nation. One view holds that flavored milk should not be offered because of the negative nutritional impact of sweeteners, especially high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is often an ingredient in chocolate milk. The other view contends that many children and teens who won’t drink plain milk will drink chocolate milk – often including those whose low-income families may be unable to afford nutritious food at home -- and that for those students, the nutritional benefits of the milk outweigh concerns about the sweetener.
Here are some fast facts:

• SFUSD will pilot testing in several school cafeterias in the coming months to find out how many, if any, children who willingly drink chocolate milk refuse plain milk if chocolate isn’t offered. Findings will be publicly reported.

• The Berkeley Farms nonfat chocolate milk that’s served in SFUSD cafeterias contains HFCS. SFUSD Student Nutrition Services (SNS) has requested that Berkeley Farms reformulate the milk without HFCS, and also with as little sweetener as possible. A wider community campaign is about to get under way to support that request. A response from Berkeley Farms is pending.

• National School Lunch Program (NSLP) regulations require all school cafeterias to offer two types of milk, in terms of fat content (nonfat, 1% or 2%). School districts are subject to high financial penalties for all NSLP violations.

• NSLP regulations also require a minimum number of calories for every meal (664 for grades K-6, 825 for grades 7-12). They also limit the amounts of fat and saturated fat.

• Those regulations complicate the removal of chocolate milk from SFUSD cafeterias. Because SFUSD has focused on reducing fat and empty calories in cafeteria items, the extra calories in chocolate milk are needed for the meals to meet the NSLP-mandated minimum calorie level. Yet offering 2% instead of 1% plain milk would exceed the fat content limits.

• If chocolate milk were replaced with the only other possible choice, nonfat white, an additional, low-fat but caloric item would have to be added to the lunch to make up the lost calories and meet the calorie requirement. That would add extra cost to the lunches. Because of the low NSLP reimbursement for meals, SFUSD’s meal program already runs a deficit – which comes out of funding for classroom needs. The most affordable item that would meet the calorie minimum would be a cracker -- a simple carbohydrate, which converts to sugar in the body. Adding that cracker would cost about $600,000. Adding an additional fruit or vegetable instead of a cracker would cost more.

More information, including calorie and nutritional data, will be available soon on www.sfusdfood.org