The Monroe County Community School Corporation is still deciding whether to serve whole milk and two percent milk now that the U.S. Department of Agriculture allows it. 

The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act permits schools to serve whole milk across all nutrition programs, including breakfast, lunch and during afterschool programs, starting June 8th. The last time schools were allowed to serve whole milk was over a decade ago. 

Concerns on child intake of saturated fat from whole and two percent milk, as well as childhood obesity, inspired the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which required schools to serve food with less fat, sugar and sodium. As a result, the National School Lunch Program limited milk options available in schools to flavored and unflavored skim and low-fat milk. 

Gretchen Huntzer, director of child nutrition for the corporation, said she is working on a survey to get student and parent input on whether to offer whole and two percent. She said more parents want whole milk to be offered. 

“We are documenting every time a parent calls and states that they wish that their student could have whole or two percent milk, and we've got several of those calls,” she said.  

The corporation is evaluating whether it can afford to purchase whole milk and two percent. It costs three cents more per carton of whole milk compared to the current options of one percent and fat free. While an eight-ounce carton of whole milk costs 29 cents, a carton of two percent costs 28 cents, a carton of one percent costs 26 cents and a carton of skim costs 24 cents.  

Lisa Spence, research dietitian at the Nutrition and Exercise Center in Indiana University’s School of Public Health, said despite health concerns, whole milk provides thirteen essential nutrients, including calcium, potassium and vitamin D, that are beneficial to children’s bone and muscle health.  

She thinks giving kids the choice of multiple, diverse preferences is good for them. 
“I think that having the option back, it'll meet choice and preference, potentially for children that may have opted out of milk entirely if they didn't like, you know, the non-fat or low fat,” Spence said. 

There are five grams of saturated fat in one cup of whole milk, and no saturated fat in a cup of nonfat milk. Spence said there is a difference of 45 calories in saturated fat. U.S. dietary recommendations say people should get less than 10 percent of calories a day from saturated fat. Spence said whole milk can still be healthy for kids if they follow this recommendation.  

“Fat in the diet is important for kids, for their development,” she said. “It's just making sure that the total fat, and particularly the saturated fat, is considered in context of the full diet.”