Just in from our friends at Switch4Good:

Switch4Good delivered a demand to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, wherein 31 members of Congress asked him to address the dairy industry monopoly in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) that is forcing a food staple onto the breakfast and lunch trays of millions of kids of color.  

Because about three-quarters of African Americans, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos are lactose intolerant, kids are getting sick or are throwing away the product, undercutting the purposes of nutrition assistance and contributing to a massive food waste problem.

The letter, submitted to Secretary Vilsack this week, asks the USDA to provide soy milk as an alternative to cow's milk because its current system “is delivering detrimental impacts on BIPOC school children.”  

Up to 80% of Black and Latinx people, up to 95% of Asians, and more than 80% of Indigenous Americans cannot digest lactose without adverse effects. Under the NSLP, the USDA reimburses public schools if they serve cow’s milk with every meal, but does not reimburse for nutritionally equivalent alternatives offered to children who cannot digest dairy. 

“I applaud Congress for seeking to rectify what is one of the most egregious examples of racial inequity in nutritional policy,” said Dotsie Bausch, executive director of Switch4Good, a nonprofit disrupting the disinformation Big Dairy feeds the public. “Advocates for food justice have been asking for these simple shifts, such as a proportional reimbursement to schools for soy milk, to give children of color a fair start in school and set up a lifetime of healthy choices.”
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