Over 30 members of Congress have written a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to ask that soy milk be offered as a milk alternative in school meals and that the Equity Commission at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) revaluate the milk program and provide a new civil rights impact analysis.
Under the current law, school meals must include milk to be eligible for federal reimbursement and students can only receive a milk alternative if they have a note from their doctor.
The letter states that lactose intolerance is most common in Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities. Requiring students to have dairy milk at lunch places an unfair burden on minority students, who are more likely to have adverse effects from drinking the beverage, the letter argues.
“America needs to embrace its diversity at the school lunch counter,” the letter’s authors write, noting that they'd "like to work together to ensure the health and nutritional needs of all our nation’s school children. We also believe an awareness campaign about lactose intolerance and maldigesting is essential, so that kids can more readily make food choices that will improve their health, wellness, and school performance.”
According to Boston Children’s Hospital, 80% of all African-Americans and Native Americans are lactose intolerant and over 90% of Asian-Americans are lactose intolerant.
The letter also says that offering soy milk would cut back on food waste and mentions a 2019 USDA report that revealed that American schools throw out $300 million worth of unopened, discarded milk each year.