![\""A\"](\""https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/050525_School_Lunch_AH_CM_18.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1"\")
\n\t\t\t\tA student eats lunch at a school in San Diego on May 5, 2025. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters<\/p>\n
By Suzy Sayre and Emily Lin, Special for CalMatters<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tA student eats lunch at a school in San Diego on May 5, 2025. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters<\/p>\n
This commentary was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n Guest Commentary written by<\/p>\n Got milk? For the first time in history, every student in the El Monte Union High School District in Los Angeles County can finally answer yes.\u00a0<\/p>\n The federal Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act<\/a> includes a provision allowing schools to proactively offer plant-based milk options, such as soy milk, on the lunch line. It\u2019s a major step forward for millions of students who can\u2019t digest lactose or who choose nondairy options for health, ethical, religious or cultural reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n After the law change last year, we worked together \u2014 as a student advocate and the district\u2019s director of nutrition services \u2014 to bring soy milk to our lunch lines alongside cow\u2019s milk. About 99% of the students in our district are from racial or ethnic backgrounds with a high prevalence of lactose intolerance. They have embraced the new plant-based option.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now all of our students can benefit from the nutrients available in dairy and nondairy milk, and everyone feels included at the lunch table.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s still a problem. Due to federal policies that subsidize cow\u2019s milk and require it in school meals, soy milk costs about 75 cents more per carton. With reimbursements to schools at $5.71 per lunch<\/a>, most can\u2019t afford to offer nondairy milk without dedicated funding, which we were lucky to receive on a one-time basis from Friends of the Earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n California’s new budget will help address this challenge by investing $400 million in school kitchen infrastructure and training, allowing these funds to be used to procure healthy and sustainable foods, including plant-based beverages. For the first time, school districts will have a real opportunity to expand access to nondairy milk.\u00a0<\/p>\n But it\u2019s up to schools and districts to take advantage of it.<\/p>\n Nearly 70% of Americans agree students should have access<\/a> to nutritious plant-based beverages at school. That support reflects a larger reality: Millions of children cannot digest lactose.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lactose intolerance disproportionately affects students of color<\/a>. As many as 90% of people from parts of Eastern Asia, 80% of Native Americans, 65% of Africans and African Americans and 50% of Latinos are lactose intolerant, compared to 20% of Caucasians, according to Harvard Health. In California, where 80% of public school students are students of color and 60% rely on school meals, the lack of accessible nondairy options is a significant issue.<\/p>\n The benefits of expanding access to plant-based milk extend far beyond equity.<\/p>\n Research from Johns Hopkins University found that dairy operations contribute 32% of the greenhouse gas emissions<\/a> associated with school meals. Cow\u2019s milk is responsible for most of it. The same study found that substituting with soy milk could reduce school meal emissions by 25%.\u00a0<\/p>\n California is one of a handful of states offering free school lunches to all<\/a> public school students. It\u2019s also a leader in climate-smart procurement and sustainable food systems, so the state has a high-impact opportunity to reduce the environmental footprint of its school meals.<\/p>\n The current system is also remarkably wasteful. Nationally, about 45 million gallons of milk are discarded<\/a> in schools every year. Offering plant-based alternatives increases the likelihood students will actually drink what schools are serving, reducing waste.\u00a0<\/p>\n Students have spent years advocating for more inclusive cafeteria options. They\u2019ve pushed for policy changes in Washington and have worked locally to give students a voice in school food decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Their voices are being heard.\u00a0<\/p>\n California’s newly enacted budget protects School Meals for All and invests in school kitchens, farm-to-school programs and healthy, sustainable food procurement. By providing funding schools can use to buy nondairy milk, state leaders have created a powerful opportunity to make school meals more inclusive.<\/p>\n Now districts must seize this opportunity and ensure every student has access to a beverage that meets their needs.<\/p>\n This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Suzy Sayre and Emily Lin, Special for CalMatters A student eats lunch at a school in San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,7898,964,1570,4730],"class_list":["post-390760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-children-and-youth","tag-commentary","tag-health","tag-k-12-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}