WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, Pennsylvania U.S. Senator John Fetterman [D-PA], along with his colleagues Sens. John Kennedy [R-LA] and Cory Booker [D-NJ], introduced the Freedom in School Cafeterias and Lunches (FISCAL) Act. This bipartisan bill would grant schools more flexibility to serve beverages that are nutritionally equivalent to dairy milk for students who are lactose intolerant or may have other disabilities.
“We need to be doing whatever it takes to make sure our kids are fed in school. This bipartisan bill cuts the unnecessary red tape in our nutrition assistance programs so students can access meals that work for them and their dietary needs,” said Senator Fetterman. “There are over 30 million food-insecure children in this country, yet current school lunch policies waste $400 million worth of food each year. Feeding our kids and keeping them healthy isn’t a red or blue issue. I hope my colleagues can all agree with that and work with us to get this signed into law this Congress.”
“Most of this nation’s children of color are lactose intolerant, and yet our school lunch program policy makes it difficult for these kids to access a nutritious fluid beverage that doesn’t make them sick,” said Senator Booker. “This bipartisan and bicameral legislation will bring greater equity to the lunchroom, by giving students the option to choose a nutritious milk substitute that meets their dietary needs.”
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) has long required that all kids have milk on their trays for the school to be reimbursed for the meal, whether the milk is suited for them or not. Based on documented rates of lactose intolerance among different demographic groups, approximately half of the nearly 30 million kids benefiting from the school lunch program may have some degree of lactose intolerance. If a child wants an alternative, they need to get a note from a doctor or a parent, and even then, the school may not have a dairy alternative available for them. The FISCAL Act addresses this by allowing the NSLP to easily serve the same dairy alternatives as other our federal nutrition-assistance programs.
Additionally, according to the USDA’s own findings, 40 percent of the cartons of milk served in our schools are thrown in the garbage unwanted and unopened. Another study found that kids discard 150 million gallons of milk each year. That unacceptable level of food waste amounts to a $400 million loss of tax dollars a year.
The full text of the bill is available here.