Got Whole Milk? Not These Cambridge Kids

New York and Los Angeles may be the home of the super-skinny runway models, but Cambridge is ahead of the game in curbing obesity in its school system.

Last week The New York Times reported that New York City instituted rules barring whole milk from the public school system to curb the childhood onset of obesity and diabetes.

The Cambridge Public School system (CPS) has been working hard to revolutionize its own school menus for the past decade, and eliminated whole milk more than five years ago.

“Several years ago now, probably 5-7 years ago...we made a conscious effort to change the meals offered in schools and to encourage healthy living practices,” said CPS Public Information Office Director Justin Martin.

According to CPS officials, this effort includes eliminating unhealthy snacks and replacing them with crackers and health food snacks as well as replacing sugary, processed foods with fresh produce from local farms and organic gardens.

Martin said the changes that CPS has made to its meal offerings will continue to change and adapt in the future, striving to become healthier and more appealing.

“We’ll continue to revise our menu and add as many new and healthy foods as we can and weed out anything that is left unhealthy,” he said. “We’re at a pretty good place now, but I think there’s always room for improvement.”

Fletcher Maynard Academy Principal Robin Harris expressed positive sentiments about the evolution of the school lunch menu over the past few years.

“Overall, people are very pleased...that the school department is taking a serious look at sweets and high calorie items that have been coming into the building and looking at limiting them,” she said. “We as a school changed our morning breakfast cereals to the low sugar, healthier types of cereals. We also went from the whole milk to the one percent and two percent.”

However, Harris noted that the healthy food transition has not been as easy or as simple as making a change in school system’s policies.

“It was slow in coming,” Harris said in regards to school children’s reluctance to drink the healthier one and two percent milk. “It took the kids a while to get used to, but now they drink it.”

The goal of encouraging healthier lifestyle choices in Cambridge’s school children goes beyond changing the menu options, Harris said.

“We got motivated and wrote one of the Jump Up and Go grants,” she said. “It allowed us to start an aerobics class...[and] walking clubs for children before school.”

Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) officials are also initiating a project to encourage healthier lifestyles among students.

“We’ve actually begun something called the Food Literacy Program,” said HUDS Communications Coordinator Jami M. Snyder. “We’ve focused on a few easily achievable goals.”

These goals have included the elimination of trans fats, increasing the amount of whole grain options on the menu, and adding trail mix in the dining halls.

According to Snyder, the menu changes that HUDS institutes are based on research released by the Harvard School of Public Health.

Although HUDS has made a number of changes to encourage healthy eating, Snyder noted that the University is limited in how paternalistic it can be when creating a menu.

“You guys are adults and we respect your choices,” Snyder said, referring to undergraduates. “We want to give you the knowledge that you need to make healthy food options.”

Snyder said that healthy eating for Harvard undergraduates is all about choice.

And as far as the battle between school systems and whole milk goes, Snyder again said that HUDS believes in choices for the undergraduate student.

“We have to respect that there is a balance to things and we’re not in a position to take away whole milk from you because there are some people who may need or want it,” she said. “It’s really about choice at the end of the day.”

—Staff writer Laura A. Moore can be reached at lamoore@fas.harvard.edu.