Opinion: L.A. Unified takes a big step backward by giving kids chocolate milk

To the editor: As a school food service director who eliminated chocolate milk from our menus in 2004, I was saddened to read that the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education has voted to bring chocolate milk back. (“Don’t bribe kids with sugar to persuade them to drink more milk,” editorial, Oct. 26)

By doing away with chocolate milk, my school district, which serves about 4,000 meals per day, has eliminated roughly nine tons of sugar from our kids’ diets per year. If schools decided to roll the fresh fruit in sugar to get students to consume it, parents would be outraged. This is no different. We shouldn’t be trying to force milk on students by loading it with added sugar.

Last year, a report found that L.A. County has the highest obesity rate in the nation among low-income children ages 2 to 4. As schools across the country work vigorously to get more fresh fruits, vegetables and plant proteins on their menus, L.A. Unified has taken a big step backward.

Miguel Villarreal, Petaluma, Calif.

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