Officials looking into future of chocolate milk at New York City schools
NEW YORK (WABC) -- School officials are looking at the future of chocolate milk in New York City schools.
Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said Monday that the Education Department is asking nutrition experts for more information, but no decision has been made yet about its place on the school menu.
"I just want everybody to hold onto your milk," Carranza said. "We haven't taken chocolate milk out of the menu. We are, as we used to say in Texas, we are fixin' to look at it."
Carranza said they have to at least ask the question and what students are given at school should be healthy and help students be on the path to a healthy lifestyle.
He said a number of school systems across the country have already made an effort to take sugar and refined sugars out of students' nutritional diets.
"We are really proud of the fact in NYC that we have Meatless Mondays. We have NY Thursdays. We've removed processed meats from our menus," Carranza said. "We have students that are on our advisory council giving us feedback on the menus. This is just one more of those things that we are looking at."
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who transformed his own eating habits, is pushing for the ban. He explained the health implications of chocolate milk in a public health announcement, and offered a suggestion.
"We should be encouraging them to drink more water," said Adams.
But the State Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets and the Commissioner of Health issued a letter which in part says they're concerned about the ban, and that "in older children the benefits of drinking any milk outweigh those of drinking no milk at all."
----------
