In 2006, whole milk cost an average of $3.20 per gallon. This year, it’s up to $3.87 per gallon, according to the Boston Globe. Of course, milk isn’t the only food commodity to go up in price this year, but it is the item that seems to most infiltrate the use of all other products. It affects the cost of cheese, the consumption of cereal, competition with soft drinks. It even intricately involves itself in the economy of gas.
The possibility of growing bodies without milk is a problem school cafeterias across the country are worried about.
This year, Miami-Dade County schools anticipate paying $4.5 million more for milk than last year. Schools in Montgomery County, Md., expect a milk bill $600,000 higher than last year. And in Davie County, N.C., Yoo-hoo drinks have been put back in schools because they’re cheaper - less healthy, but still cheaper.
Luckily, schools in Temple and surrounding areas said they have no intention of swapping milk for Yoo-hoo, but they are concerned about prices.
Generally speaking, public schools work on a contract basis, so their milk prices are fixed at the beginning of each year. However, this does not entirely exempt them from the rising cost of milk on the market.
“We don’t know for sure what the cost of milk will be for next year,” Reba Baker, director of school nutrition for Belton school district, said. “But we expect it will go up a penny or so a carton. That may not sound like a lot, but that’s a significant amount for us. Nearly every kid has a carton of milk at breakfast and lunch. So that one or one-and-a-half cent increase will carry an impact of somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000 for us. That’s not paying for all food, you know; that’s money just for milk.”
Pearl Arthur, food service director for Troy ISD, estimates similar problems.
“We won’t know until we get our bid, but I feel sure that the price will go up,” Ms. Arthur said. “That means we’ll just have to go up with the budgeting. I mean we have to offer milk; it’s a USDA requirement. Taking away milk is never an option.”
Ms. Baker agreed.
“Milk is one of the most perfect foods they (students) can get,” she said. “Even if it weren’t required by the USDA, or by the state of Texas, which has an even stricter policy, we would serve it. Even if the price of milk goes higher, it’s not something you say, ‘Well, we’ll serve something else instead.’”
But the rising milk prices may cut back on the serving of other products, like cheese.
“We just got a notice from the USDA that we might not get much cheese this year because the price is so very high,” Ms. Arthur said. “All dairy has really shot up. So we may not get as much of some things because of the prices.”
But if the price of milk is going up, budgets aren’t really increasing, and schools are continuing to serve milk, the cutbacks will have to come from somewhere.
Regina Baird, district spokeswoman for Temple ISD, said the cutbacks are definitely not coming from educational monies.
“The first thing to know is that we’re working with separate pools of money,” Ms. Baird said. “Rising food costs are not gonna affect whether or not we hire that new teacher. It’s not like we’re not buying new textbooks because milk costs more.”
It’s more like they’re not buying new freezers because milk costs more, Ms. Baker said.
“We’ve started talking about it a little bit,” she said. “Probably one of the things that will get hurt first is the ability to purchase extra equipment. In schools as large as Belton, you plan your budget for big items like refrigerators, stoves and new mixers. With the rising milk costs, those things are now more likely to be left out.”
Temple ISD’s Director of Food Services, Angie Martinez, said meal prices may also have to go up to compensate.
“If there’s a big impact because of the milk, we may have to increase prices, meal prices,” she said. “I don’t want to increase prices at this point, but we also certainly do not want to go with a lesser quality of products. We can do other things, like watch our plate waste. We can watch our use of paper goods. Maybe we don’t need that utensil pack. Or maybe I won’t put the salt and pepper packs in there. But we won’t just start taking away food items.”
Milk retailers can be certain that schools are going to buy their products regardless of the expense, because milk has become a known staple of American health. In 1946, President Harry Truman signed the National School Lunch Act, which required each school lunch to include between one half to two pints of milk. In 1992, the USDA Food Pyramid recommended two to three servings of milk and other dairy products be consumed daily. Then the “Got Milk?” ads of the 1990s sealed the deal, when Americans witnessed some our most beautiful, talented and vivacious looking citizens sporting milk moustaches.
Now local schoolchildren drink almost nothing else.
“The (Temple) elementary students drink strictly milk,” Ms. Martinez said. “We used to offer fruit punch, lemonades, Gatorades and Powerades to the older kids. But now, even for middle school and high school, it’s milk, Powerade, water or a 100 percent fruit juice icee. We also have a milk vending machine.”
Belton ISD serves four different kinds of milk: white, vanilla, strawberry and chocolate.
“But we serve about three times as much chocolate as the other three,” Ms. Baker said. “The kids will drink milk if you offer chocolate. Since we know that chocolate will be the one they choose, we make that one fat-free to compensate. The other three kinds are one percent.”
Schools nationwide have had to pay more attention to fat content in the things they serve, because the USDA has implemented much stricter policies in an effort to fight obesity.
“We all serve all low-fat or fat-free milk because of the obesity issues,” Ms. Baker said. “And we also work to teach the kids about nutrition. We tell them that there are foods that aren’t ever bad.”
Belton kids are taught that there are “go” foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables. There are “slow” foods, like fruits made into desserts with a little added sugar or fat. Then there are “whoa” foods: desserts high in fat content that are reserved only for special occasions.
“We work well with the teachers in the district to ensure that the nutrition message is getting across,” Ms. Baker said. “Milk is a big part of that, along with exercise, sleep and water.”
Troy’s Ms. Arthur mostly emphasized the exercise component.
“We do our part with nutrition, with milk,” she said. “But I don’t think that food is the problem with the kids. You have to have nutrition involved, but our serving sizes are regulated by the USDA. We can only give them the recommended food and amount. So I really think the root of the problem is, you know, their exercise.”
