March 14, 2022

New York State (WRGB) —Rep. Elise Stefanik (R) is looking to make sure that kids have options for milk in schools.

This comes after New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ proposal to ban flavored milk in schools.

“Our dairy farmers in Upstate New York and the North Country work hard to produce nutritious milk for our communities, and I am proud to introduce legislation to ensure a variety of milk choices for our school children. Instead of taking away milk choices from students, my bill will give them better access to essential dairy nutrients critical for their development. Let our New York students drink chocolate milk!” she said.

The ‘Protecting School Milk Choices Act of 2022′, according to Stefanik, would prevent the banning of flavored milk falling under the federal school lunch program. It is considered an amendment to the already existing Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) says there are 25 grams of sugar in one cup of chocolate milk. That’s almost double the amount of sugar present in a cup of 1% milk, according to the same source.

On March 10th, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik joined others in writing to Mayor Adams, calling for him to abandon the idea, citing studies that eliminating flavored milk leads to declining milk sales and shows no proof of associated weight gain.

Read the full article here.