Fourth Graders Protest Removal Of Chocolate Milk From Lunch Menu

A group of 26 fourth graders protested their elementary school’s decision to remove chocolate milk from their lunch menus, and their efforts paid off.

Jordan Reed, 9, urged his fellow classmates at Sierra Vista K-8 School in Vacaville, California to join him in protest of a 2020 decision made by the district over the drink’s sugar content. But as the district chef and culinary manager says, the boy’s efforts worked.

“I felt good about it,” Reed told The Washington Post. “I brought back something that everybody wanted.”

Last Friday, the 26 students in Jordan’s class marched with signs about their favorite dairy beverage in an effort to wake up the school administration to their requests.

The idea reportedly started after teacher Emily Doss assigned her students with reading a Scholastic News piece called Should Schools Serve Flavored Milk?, per the Post, which detailed other students fighting for the inclusion of strawberry milk on their own school grounds. From there, Reed and his classmates’ eventual chants of “What do we want? Chocolate milk! When do we want it? Now,” were only inevitable.

The district’s director of student nutrition then met with the group, and Reed explained that students were taking in less nutrients and wasting milk because of the decision. Ultimately, they brought back chocolate milk.

“It started off as not being a big thing, and then it just kind of took off,” Doss told the Post. “It went from a review lesson to this huge life lesson for these kids.”