The New York City Department of Education is considering a ban on chocolate milk in all public schools, Fox News reports.
A major reason behind the possible ban is an effort to cut down on sugar in students’ diets, according to a DOE source who spoke to the New York Post, saying “these kids are already getting too much sugar, why are they getting it in their milk?” In an official statement, the DOE further said that “our priority is the health and well-being of our students.”
The ban would be the latest restriction on the types of milk that can and cannot be served in New York City public schools; in 2006, the city DOE banned the serving of whole milk.
In addition to backlash from parents on social media, the possible move also elicited criticism from the New York Farm Bureau, with NYFB President David Fisher pointing out in a letter to DOE Chancellor Richard Carranza that the ban would have a “substantial economic impact on New York dairy farmers that are already experiencing hardship,” in addition to negatively affecting the students “and the nutrients they receive.”
Previous efforts at government mandating the healthiness of school lunches have similarly proven widely unpopular, not the least of which includes former First Lady Michelle Obama’s efforts to nationalize lunch standards in public schools, which was a failure and eventually overturned by the Trump Administration.