Bill would prevent kids from having milk forced on them and save $400 million in annual milk waste
Washington D.C. — U.S. Representative Troy Carter and Senator John Kennedy already had plans in motion to reform the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) even before a little girl from Zachary, La., with known dairy milk allergies was forced to accept her daily milk, became sick from it, and was forced to clean up her own excrement.
The legislators’ proposal would have addressed rampant food and money waste and given 30 million kids participating in the program a healthy beverage option.
A 6-year-old girl, despite documented medical records of lactose intolerance and perhaps dairy allergies, was given cow’s milk at breakfast in the NSLP. She soon became ill and requested bathroom breaks, and the teacher eventually just told her to endure her condition. The child then defecated in her clothing and was forced to clean up the mess herself, humiliating her and conveying a lack of understanding that cow’s milk makes three-quarters of African Americans ill.
According to the National Institutes of Health, more than a third of Americans are lactose-intolerant, and the rates are especially high for children of African (75% lactose intolerant) and Asian (90%) descent. Nearly 33% of Louisiana residents are Black, and nearly 3% are of Asian descent, with a particularly large Vietnamese-American community.
This has been a continuing problem for lactose-intolerant kids across the nation, and it’s why lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are poised to introduce the Freedom in the School Cafeteria in Lunches (FISCAL) Act to prevent kids from getting sick from cow’s milk and to give them a nutritional plant-based beverage in its place.
“The recent incident at Rollins Place Elementary School in Zachary, Louisiana, is unacceptable and a glaring example of why we need immediate reforms in our schools to ensure all children have safe and appropriate dietary options,” said Congressman Troy A. Carter, Sr., D-La., who last year introduced the ADD SOY Act.
“I am a strong advocate for the right of all students to have access to milk alternatives in schools. No child should be put in harm’s way due to something as simple as a lack of dietary accommodations. My bill would mandate that schools provide non-dairy options to students with allergies or intolerances, ensuring they have a safe drink at mealtimes. No child should be subjected to pain, embarrassment, or punishment due to their medical needs,” he said. That bill now takes on the new name of the FISCAL Act in this Congress.
Senator John Kennedy was the lead Republican on that same legislation in the last Congress. He teamed up with Senator Fetterman, who was chairman of the Nutrition Subcommittee, on that bill last year.
“Elementary, junior high, and high school teachers and administrators—not just in Zachary, La., but across the nation—are in a terrible position because a Congressional mandate forces them every day to give kids cow’s milk even though millions of them are lactose-intolerant and cow’s milk makes them sick,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. “We need a revamped national food policy that makes healthy and nutritious plant-based milk products available to kids as an alternative to cow’s milk. Senator John Kennedy and Rep. Troy Carter are leading the reform efforts on this issue for the state and the nation.”
“We cannot and should not think of this as a one-off incident,” said Dotsie Bausch, president of Switch4Good and a silver-medal-winning cyclist for the U.S. Olympic team. “According to NIH data, we have at least 15 million kids, out of a total of 30 million participants in the national school lunch program, with lactose-intolerance or dairy allergies,” she said. “We see first-hand every year how desperate kids are for another choice, as according to the USDA, 29% of the cow’s milk cartons are thrown away by the kids unopened! We must do right by our nation’s children and choose fairness and free choice over politics.”
Under law, the USDA now provides a reimbursement of $1 billion for cow’s milk to public schools across the country, placing a carton of milk on every tray. According to the USDA’s findings, 29% of the cartons are thrown in the garbage unopened. Others just take a sip and throw out the carton, adding up to $400 million in tax dollars squandered because milk makes so many kids sick.
“This little girl is just an extreme case of a circumstance that befalls millions of kids every day in America,” said Kendrick Farris, a three-time Olympic weightlifter from Shreveport. Farris is lactose-intolerant and also had problems with the milk mandate when he was growing up in north Louisiana.
Animal-welfare groups and pro-health advocates are calling on Congress to pass legislation requiring the USDA to provide full reimbursement for soy milk in schools, which provide a non-dairy, nutritionally equivalent option for lactose-intolerant children.The FISCAL Act wouldrequire public schools to offer a nutritionally equivalent soy milk option to kids participating in the NSLP and allow for the USDA to reimburse schools for those purchases, just as it does for cow’s milk.
The legislation has been endorsed by a wide variety of organizations, including the National Urban League, the National Action Network, and other civil rights, nutrition, government waste, and animal-welfare groups. There are 550,000 soybean farmers in the United States who tout soybeans as health-promoting.
Animal welfare groups are also keenly interested in the FISCAL Act because of the unnecessary distress the excess milk production causes among dairy cows, only to have their milk tossed into the trash bin. Dairy cows now produce seven times as much milk as they did 50 years ago, leading to a range of health ailments, including mastitis and lameness. They are kept continually pregnant and separated from their calves shortly after giving birth.
“We put cows through a lot and then see tens of millions of their output tossed into the trash because kids don’t want the product,” Pacelle said. “That is not fair to the animals and does not honor their sacrifice.”