Three-time U.S. Olympian Kendrick Farris connected with Louisiana lawmakers Rep. Troy Carter and Sen. John Kennedy, leaders of effort to help millions of lactose-intolerant kids.
(Washington D.C.)—Three-time Olympic weightlifter Kendrick Farris came to Washington D.C. last week to appeal to leaders in both houses of Congress to drop a “milk mandate” in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and give kids nutritious beverages that won’t harm their health. About half of the 30 million kids in the NSLP are estimated to be lactose intolerant, based on NIH data on the condition by ethnic or racial background. As a result, many kids just toss the milk away, including in unopened cartons, leading to a squandering of up to half a billion taxpayer dollars annually.
A Pan American Games gold medalist, Farris broke U.S. records while on a complete plant-based diet after struggling as a child with health issues related to drinking milk. He competed for the United States in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012, and Rio in 2016. Farris still holds multiple U.S. records in weightlifting, including a lift of a total of 831 pounds—370 pounds in the snatch and 461 pounds in the clean and jerk. He was joined on Capitol Hill by fellow Olympian Dotsie Bausch, who won a silver medal in cycling for the United States in the 2012 London games. She is a seven-time U.S. national champion and a Pan American gold medalist.
Between 70 and 95 percent of Black, Pacific Islander and Asian, Native American, and Latino individuals have a lactose sensitivity. In fact, the National Institutes of Health reports the majority of all people have a reduced ability to digest lactose after infancy, and lactose intolerance “is also very common in people of West African, Arab, Jewish, Greek and Italian descent.” Farris is Black and was not diagnosed with lactose intolerance until he was a teenager.
Bausch founded a nutrition and wellness organization called Switch4Good after she saw many athletes struggling with lactose intolerance at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. The organization works with clinicians, athletes, social justice warriors, and enlightened policy makers to promote ethical lifestyles and widespread behavioral change related to how we eat.
The national non-profit Animal Wellness Action has teamed up with Switch4Good to back H.R. 1619 and S. 2943, the Addressing Digestive Distress in the Stomachs of Our Youth (ADD SOY) Act, which requires public schools to offer kids a plant-based milk that meets USDA nutrition standards as part of the NSLP.
More than 200 organizations support the bipartisan, bicameral legislation, including the National Urban League, the National Rural Education Association, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders, Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Connection Team, American Soybean Association, and the Coalition for Healthy School Food.
“It just doesn’t make sense to put millions of cartons of milk on kids’ trays when the federal government knows full well that the product makes many of them wretch,” said Farris. “I am thrilled that Rep. Troy Carter and Sen. John Kennedy, from my home state of Louisiana, are leading this effort to get government working better and smarter. Now it’s time for all federal lawmakers to get on board and offer kids a beverage option that makes sense for them and to stop this absurd waste of food and taxpayer dollars.”
Farris lives in Shreveport, where he works with disadvantaged kids, teaches weightlifting, and promotes healthy eating. He said that when one of his children followed his lead and stopped consuming cows’ milk, the child’s chronic asthma vanished.
Essentially mandating it be placed on every lunch tray for 30 million kids, the federal government provides a reimbursement of $1 billion for cows’ milk to public schools across the country, denying the millions of kids who are lactose intolerant a nutritious beverage option. According to the USDA’s findings, 29 percent of the cartons of milk served in our schools are thrown in the garbage unopened, sending $300 million in tax dollars into the trash. Other milk is tossed after it’s opened, compounding the waste of both milk and tax dollars.
“It is both thrilling and heartening to see this bill come alive after years of fighting for all children with lactose intolerance or dairy allergies,” said Bausch. “In the name of social and educational justice, we now urge our leaders in the Congress to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act so that all children have access to nutrition that does not make them sick.”
“Our nation’s ‘milk mandate’ is a sure-fire way to cause digestive distress and to impede classroom learning for millions of school kids with lactose intolerance,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action. “It also pains me to see the sacrifices that cows make in production only to see their milk thrown in the trash. We are grateful to Reps. Troy Carter and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Sens. John Fetterman, D-Penn., and John Kennedy to deliver healthy nutritional choices in the lunchroom.”
During his visit, Farris also met with staff for House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise. He is a constituent of Speaker Johnson.
In 2020, the US Dietary Guidelines recognized fortified soy milk as a nutritional equivalent to dairy cow milk. But nutritional equivalency and cafeteria availability are not the same thing, and schools have failed to make soy milk readily available. Soybeans are a leading cash crop in Louisiana, and the soybean industry has endorsed the legislation.
“It is abundantly clear that the current milk substitute system that USDA employs is delivering detrimental impacts on BIPOC school children,” said Rep. Carter.“Too many children who cannot safely or comfortably consume dairy are being forced to accept containers of cows’ milk on their lunch trays. My ADD SOY Act ensures the health and nutritional needs of all our nation’s students are met. America needs to embrace its diversity at the lunch counter.” You can see a brief floor speech from Rep. Carter here.
Children can obtain non-dairy options through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) but not through the NSLP, which is a glaring inconsistency in our federal nutrition assistance programs.
“The government is overreaching by subsidizing and promoting milk beyond its natural appeal to consumers,” Pacelle said. “The feds allow for plant-based options for small children in the WIC program, and it should allow older kids this same option.”
At this month’s Summer Olympic Games in Paris, the Olympic Committee and the city of Paris are making an enormous effort to provide healthy, plant-based options for athletes and attendees. According to Sodexo Live!, 60 percent of all food and beverages across all sites for the public will be plant-based—including one fully vegetarian restaurant, La Concorde. And 30 percent of the items at Athletes’ Village will be vegan. Food sellers in Paris are preparing to serve 13 million meals during the games.