Tag: school milk

NMPF and IDFA Urge USDA to Improve Child Nutrition and Food Security Through Increased Dairy Consumption in School Meals

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Nutritious Dairy Options Are Essential to Child Health and Development, Yet Are Underconsumed, Groups Say

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) today submitted joint comments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service urging the agency to improve nutrition security by updating school meal nutrition standards to encourage increased consumption of dairy in keeping with recommendations from the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) report and with leading health organizations.

In 2020, the federal Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee report found that a staggering 79 percent of 9- to 13-year-olds are not meeting the recommended intake of dairy foods and thereby under-consuming a variety of nutrients during childhood and adolescence, including potassium, calcium, and vitamin D. In their comments to USDA, IDFA and NMPF noted that school children of all ages are falling short of these recommendations, and they rely on school meals to meet their nutritional needs. IDFA and NMPF also noted that falling participation rates in school breakfast and lunch programs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are a growing concern for overall  nutrition security among students.

USDA this spring announced transitional school meal nutrition standards for the next two school years that will allow schools to continue to serve low-fat flavored milk consistent with DGA recommendations, and pause overly stringent sodium reduction targets that threaten the ability of school meals professionals to serve nutrient-rich cheeses. USDA intends to craft more permanent standards for school year 2024/2025 and beyond that pave the way for healthy and nutritious school meals.

“IDFA applauds the USDA’s goal of creating ambitious, achievable, and durable nutrition standards for students that support positive health and development outcomes for children while improving nutrition security,” said Michael Dykes, D.V.M., president and CEO of IDFA. “The most recent DGA report is clear: children are not receiving enough essential nutrients for growth, development, healthy immune function, and overall wellness. School meals offer the most important opportunity of the day for children to get the essential nutrients they need, and dairy foods—including milk, yogurt, and cheese—are absolutely critical to building meals that children want to consume. Now the spotlight is on USDA to make dairy a central building block in its effort to craft ambitious, achievable, and durable school meal standards consistent with the DGAs.”

“On behalf of American dairy farmers, NMPF thanks USDA for their work to enhance school meal nutrition standards to reverse the underconsumption of dairy and help students boost their intake of key nutrients,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF. “Milk and other dairy products support USDA’s critical goal of boosting consumption of essential nutrients, including potassium, calcium and vitamin D. Low-fat flavored milk is fully consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and is a nutrient-dense option that kids in schools choose to drink.”

In their joint comments, IDFA and NMPF urge USDA to embrace the recommendations of the DGA report and expand nutritious dairy options that encourage dairy consumption among children. USDA can do this by continuing flavored milk and yogurt offerings in schools and setting sodium limits that accommodate  use of cheese in school meal products, the associations said.

An overall decline in school milk consumption has been identified in recent years, particularly after whole milk and low-fat flavored milk options were removed from school meals 10 years ago. “USDA can begin to reverse the trend through providing certainty for schools offering flavored milks, which provide the same micronutrients as white milk but with a flavor that many children prefer,” IDFA and NMPF said. “Flavored milks, like all cow’s milk, are a source of 13 essential nutrients, including calcium, vitamin D and potassium.”

Similarly, continuing to recognize flavored yogurt in school meals would encourage consumption of a nutritious dairy product that has been associated with higher diet quality in children, with higher intake of multiple nutrients, including calcium, potassium, magnesium, and vitamin D. In addition to being nutritious offerings for children, flavored milk and flavored yogurt have been shown to decrease food waste from school meals and increase overall meal participation.

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1% Flavored Win Means More Work Ahead

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

NMPF celebrated a key win on school milk in February, an important step toward keeping the milk variety in meal programs more permanently.

USDA’s final rule addressing sodium, whole grain, and milk standards for school meal programs, released Feb. 7, protects the option of low-fat flavored milk for the National School Lunch program, the School Breakfast Program, the Special Milk Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program through the end of the 2023-24 school year.

Maintaining the low-fat flavored milk option for schools has been a lengthy battle. Since USDA removed the popular option from schools with a 2012 rule, NMPF has led advocacy efforts to reinstate low-fat flavored milk more permanently as an option for schools, including supporting Representatives Joe Courtney (D-CT) and Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) leadership to advance their bipartisan School Milk Nutrition Act (H.R. 4635).

“Ensuring kids have access to the nutrients they need to grow and thrive is a top priority for dairy,” said NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern at the time of the announcement.  “We thank USDA for the rule’s provision that maintains schools’ ability to serve low-fat, 1% flavored milk. One percent flavored milk is not only fully consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, it is also a nutrient-dense, low-fat healthy option kids will choose to drink.”

Mulhern also thanked Reps. Courtney and Thompson for their long-time leadership on this issue, noting NMPF looks “forward to continuing to work with them, USDA, and others to help ensure everyone has access to nutritious food.”

NMPF plans to do just that, as the Feb. 7 rule provides transitional standards only through the 2023-24 school year. While the rule does offer schools more certainty than they had prior to the rule, USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services intends to implement additional regulations governing school meals beyond the 2023-24 school year to conform meal patterns more closely to the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. NMPF will continue to work both with USDA on the longer-term rule and with Congress to codify the allowance of 1% flavored milk in schools, using the new rule to add momentum to NMPF’s efforts to secure the low-fat flavored option permanently.

House Coalition Supports School Milk Options

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

As the school year ends across the country, a bipartisan coalition of 57 House members asked USDA to ensure that school children have access to low-fat flavored milk as the new school year begins in three months. NMPF worked with letter authors Reps. Joe Courtney (D-CT) and Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) to emphasize the importance of aligning USDA school milk regulations with the recommendations of the brand-new Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs), the latest of which were finalized by USDA in January.

As with past versions, the DGAs continue to recommend consumption of low-fat and fat-free milk, with allowance for limited amounts of added sugar to these and other nutrient-dense foods.  Accordingly, USDA has the ability under current law to allow schools to serve low-fat flavored milk.  After USDA removed 1% flavored products a decade ago, the option was reinstated as part of a 2018 rulemaking, which then was overturned in court last year on issues unrelated to the dairy provisions.

NMPF was able to preserve the low-fat flavored milk option for the current school year through congressional appropriations but is now working with Congress to bolster this position for the longer term. The letter helps reinforce NMPF’s message and signals that Congress will be closely watching the issue as the Senate and House prepare to take up child nutrition legislation.