Colorado school district praised for ridding of milk cartons in lunchrooms

A school district in Weld County is receiving praise both locally and nationally for adjustments it has made to the school lunch program. 

Greeley Evans District 6 recently received praise from USDA Secretary, Tom Vilsack, for their school lunch program's initiatives, including a new push to rid of single-use milk cartons in their schools. 

Two schools in the district have begun the process of removing single-use and single-serving milk cartons from their lunchrooms, instead replacing them with dispensing machines for more fresh milk. 

"We really do serve milk to a lot of kids who take it because they think they have to," said Danielle Bock, Director of Nutrition Services for the district.  

Chappelow Arts Magnet School in Evans is one of the two schools in the district that has started handing out reusable and washable cups to students to use for their daily milk during lunch. 

The district hopes to have milk dispensers in all of its schools in the next three years.  

"I like (the new system and milk) a lot, it is really good," said Laura Fernandez, a 10-year-old student at the school.  

Fernandez says milk is her drink of choice every day for lunch. For years she has been used to drinking milk from small cardboard cartons. 

"I pick milk because it is healthy, it makes your bones stronger and it tastes really good," Fernandez said. 

Fernandez says the carton milk containers are not only difficult to open at times, but they also are wasteful.  

"We don't have to use cardboard anymore," Fernandez said. "If you just drink from it and then throw it away it makes no sense." 

Bock says the school district can help the environment by eliminating single-use cartons, while also saving money on lunches. And, Bock says the milk is not only more fresh but also tastes better.  

"It is colder, it is more delicious, it cuts down the amount of waste we put into the landfill. And, it is more economical for the food service department. We are buying milk for the ones who actually want it, and not the ones who just add it to their plate," Bock said. 

Bock says the only reason the rest of the schools in the district have not implemented the milk dispensers is due to a lack of funding to purchase the machines.  

Purchasing the machines will be an upfront cost for the district. However, Bock says the schools will save taxpayers an estimated 30% on milk purchases once every school is no longer buying the single cartons.  

At Chappelow, students only have access to chocolate milk two times a week as the district tries to limit how much sugar students have access to. 

Recently, there has been a push to outlaw chocolate milk entirely from being provided to students in schools. The USDA recently proposed removing chocolate milk from all U.S. school lunchrooms. 

Some have suggested the district start offering other drinks more often, such as orange or apple juices.  

"We could offer juice, but juice has a much higher sugar content than milk," Bock said.  

Greeley Evans District 6 is surrounded by a major dairy industry. Many of the students in the district have parents, who work in the dairy industry.  

Bock says the fresh milk the district purchases for the dispensing machines is guaranteed to be fresh and is bough locally, which keeps money in the community.  

"I don't think we could get much more local," Bock said.