# So what if you're the parent, the LAW requires us to serve your child milk. WHAT?!!!



## ACsMom (Apr 21, 2006)

Okay, I need to find out more information about this, and I've been surfing the web and can't come up with anything. A good friend told me this story: she has a 3-y/o boy who is allergic to dairy. She signed him up for a 2-day a week preschool program, and on his first day she informed the owner of the preschool that she did not want him served milk because of his allergy. She explained that he would have a reaction: a severe, painful rash and erratic behavior. The owner replied to my friend that it is "North Carolina law" that the school serve milk to all children. She pulled him from that school and put him in another, where they confirmed that yes, there was some kind of law in place to that effect, but very few schools actually comply with it if the parent doesn't want their child to have milk.

Does anyone know anything about this or know how I can find out about these "laws"? I know that the dairy industry has a very powerful lobby and I know that they do a lot of advertising to schools, parents, and children to get the milk-drinking habit firmly entrenched at as young an age as possible, but I didn't realize they had been able to influence law, at least in some states. I can see how it might be a "law" that schools must _offer_ milk, especially as an alternative to soft drinks or sugary juices, but it's hard for me to see how the law could dictate that every child must drink it. That seems, well, fascist. Of course, with the current administration....I'll quit while I'm ahead on that subject.

If there are, indeed, laws on the books in my state dictating that my child must be served cow milk if she attends school, then I'd like to find some way to fight them. We are a non-dairy family, for health as well as ethical reasons, and there's no way I'll allow my child to be given milk when she's too young to make her own informed decision about what she wants to put in her body.

Anybody have any info. on this kind of thing? I know it's probably a rather obscure cause...but thanks in advance for any thoughts or ideas.


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## <<<Scarlet>>> (May 19, 2005)

I have no idea if that is true, or where to find the information. But I really hope you get the answers your looking for !!!


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## eclipse (Mar 13, 2003)

When my mom was a preschool teacher here in California, they had to serve kids milk twice a day (whole only) in the absence of a note from a doctor. It's still a stupid law, but at least there was a health exemption.


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## alegna (Jan 14, 2003)

It has to do with the federal program that gives daycare and schools money for lunch (well feeding kids in general) IF they get money through that program, they MUST give all children milk UNLESS they have a drs. note. The Drs. note is the way around.

-Angela


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## TigerTail (Dec 22, 2002)

Do what?








Bureaucrats & Big Ag. You need a _permission slip_. Grand. And people wonder why I am an unschooling libertarian.

Opt out of the insanity! They won't listen till they lose their $. (I can't even buy raw milk in my state because of big dirty dairies not wanting the competition & owning the legislature.)


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## moondiapers (Apr 14, 2002)

It's because the schools participate in the federal food program. Ask for the allergy statement form....fill it out and sign it yourself or get a doctor to sign it. The forms I have say they need to be signed by a "medical proffessional" and if a mom signs it herself I just look the other way. I dont' think anyone is more credible that "Dr. Mom". You have to list acceptable alternatives to milk on the form. I suggest just putting down water. If that doesn't go over well you can opt to not participate in the food program. Just don't enroll your child, state religous reasons if you need to. They will have an opt out form for you and you'll have to provide your child's food.

-Heather


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## moondiapers (Apr 14, 2002)

Oh, if you pm with the state and county you are in I'll look for printable forms for you.


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## moondiapers (Apr 14, 2002)

Here's the link to the food program agencies by state.
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Contacts/StateDirectory.htm

call and ask about decline food based on religous grounds. Ask what form you'd need to decline particiaption in the food program for your child.


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## Aeress (Jan 25, 2005)

In NY state, any change of diet has to be in writing and filled in/signed by a dr for the child to get alternative forms of milk. This is above and beyond CACFP regulations. There isn't much wiggle room in the states requirements if you choose to participate in the food program. If you don't participate, then you can send your child their own food...


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## ACsMom (Apr 21, 2006)

Thanks for the replies, everyone. My friend did say she had to furnish a doctor's note, which took FOREVER.

Moondiapers, for some reason my browser isn't letting me pm. I'm in New Hanover Co., North Carolina. But plan to be living in Wake County by the time dd is old enough to go to school. Thanks very much!


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## ACsMom (Apr 21, 2006)

Oops, cross-posted. Thanks for the link, Moondiapers!


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## Momily (Feb 15, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ACsMom* 
Thanks for the replies, everyone. My friend did say she had to furnish a doctor's note, which took FOREVER.

Moondiapers, for some reason my browser isn't letting me pm. I'm in New Hanover Co., North Carolina. But plan to be living in Wake County by the time dd is old enough to go to school. Thanks very much!

Did they say that they would serve the child milk, or they would unless they had a doctor's note.

Around here all schools require that children have a form filled out by their doctor before they can begin. That form has a place for listing allergies. In addition, many schools require that children with allergies (and certainly children with allergies as severe as the one you describe) have an additional form on file with a written plan to deal with any kind of allergic incident. Given that, I don't see how providing a doctor's note in unreasonable. Since the doctor is already filling out forms I don't think it's unreasonable to ask him/her for one more.

Having said that, I think that families should be able to have a say in what is served to their child regardless of whether the incident is medical or simply a matter of family preference.


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## TigerTail (Dec 22, 2002)

You don't think it is unreasonable to require a parent to have a note from a Dr to say 'no' to any reasonable dietary request?


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## PeacefulSeams (Apr 10, 2006)

When my DS was in daycare 1day a week, I had to have a dr note stating that he couldn't have dairy or any kind of meat due to his diet. We are vegetarian and the state we lived in required dairy and meat. I had to furnish my own options, but that was fine with me.


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## Momily (Feb 15, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *TigerTail* 
You don't think it is unreasonable to require a parent to have a note from a Dr to say 'no' to any reasonable dietary request?

As I said, I think it's unreasonable in some cases. I think that parents should be able to opt out of foods based on family preferences alone (e.g. if you're vegetarian you should be allowed to ask that your child not eat meat).

In the case of allergies, however, I don't think it's unreasonable to require a doctor's note. As an administrator in a school I can tell you that the information we receive about allergies can be very confusing and scary. I have had parents tell us "please don't serve him any milk" when what they actually mean is "this child has a life threatening allergy to anything dairy", and other parents tell us "my child is allergic to soy" and we take all sorts of soy precautions (e.g. not feeding any snacks that contain even traces of soy, checking the foods of the child sitting next to them, making sure we have soy-free recipes for any baking done in class etc . . . ) and then it turns out that the child possibly had diarrhea one time after they drank a large quantity of soy milk and so the mother limits (but doesn't eliminate) access to things like soy milk and tofu.


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## kneedeepnkidz (Jul 24, 2006)

In Texas, the Food Service must offer only fluid milk at lunch. The children are not required to take it, but we cannot offer anything in place of it. There is water available, and 100% fruit juice is available. We do ask that the parents give us a note from the doctor, especially if we have to substitute juice in the place of milk. We are required to sub the milk if a specific substition is requested. Unfortunately, the schools are having to police the nutrition of children because of the increasing childhood obesity rates that we have as a nation. There are a lot of parents out there that blame bad eating habits on the schools, but take their kids to McD's or the like for every meal outside of school. Because of this, even parents that make sure that their kids eat well-balanced meals suffer.


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## TigerTail (Dec 22, 2002)

Oh, for Pete's sake.







Maybe the schools that feel they must 'police' parents because of fat kids should reinstate _recess & P.E._. Because sitting on their hinders for 7 hours a day at a desk & then going home to 2 hours plus of homework couldn't have _anything_ to do with it.

(Ok Momily, got you. It's not politic to say that, since food fads are very popular, & people get edgy about you asking if they know the difference between 'my kid drops dead if they touch this' & 'we had a tummyache we associated with this food'. It's unfortunate that schools have to deal with this; anaphylaxis is some scary shite.)


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## grisandole (Jan 11, 2002)

I'm just sitting here in shock that schools are required to push dairy on kids, wow.

DS1 is allergic to dairy and on the few occasions he ate school lunches, they would give him water or juice instead of milk, without a dr. note. There were a few times when the lunch schedule changed w/out notice, and they ended up serving something w/dairy (like pizza), and they would make ds something dairy free just for him. I guess we were lucky! This was here in AZ, at two different schools. In CA I remember him having juice instead of milk.


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## kneedeepnkidz (Jul 24, 2006)

I completely agree with you, Tiger Tail. I, too, think that decreasing recess and PE times is ridiculous! I cannot stand to sit in one place all day, why should I expect my children to? I was only stating what the reasoning behind the USDA is, not endorsing it. I am all for increasing the nutritional value of school lunches, but I am not sure that some of the mandates are realistic and/or right. I believe that our children's health is ultimately up to us, and certainly don't want someone else to tell me what or what not to feed my kids. Mine don't have allergies, but I have 2 kids that love milk, and two that don't. It makes me livid when the ones that don't come home and say that someone "made" them drink milk. I don't like milk, and no one is going to tell me to drink it! Just my 2 cents!


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## falcon (Jul 8, 2004)

When I was in HS and would buy lunch, they would always make me take a carton of milk. (I told them I was lactose intolerant, maybe a drs note would have helped...) I always traded it for a friends juicebox. This was 10 years ago, things need to change!


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## intorainbowz (Aug 16, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *TigerTail* 
You don't think it is unreasonable to require a parent to have a note from a Dr to say 'no' to any reasonable dietary request?

Yes I do. But that is what I had to do to keep the DCP out of trouble with the food program. I had to get the note or the food program was threatning to take away her certification for the rest of the children as well. I wanted DD to be on breast milk only until 6 months. We had to get a doctor's note to keep her off of cereal and solids. He wrote it so that all future feeding was at my discretion. He thought it was stupid and cited the AAP statement, as well as that DD is a preemie. I felt VERY intruded on, especially as I WAS providing all her food at that time. I mean DCP was not nursing her.







I attached a sternly worded letter to the Dr's note.

I vented in a thread on Lactivism.


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## wednesday (Apr 26, 2004)

I'm in North Carolina also and yes, we have gotten the "we must serve your child milk/soy milk unless you have a doctor's note" statement from every DCP and preschool we looked at. I don't think it's a federal food program thing, it apparently IS a state law here. My not serving DS milk or soy milk is a preference rather than a medical necessity which makes it tough. I actually even put yogurt in his lunch so I can't get away with claiming a medical issue. I just happen to think a serving of yogurt is more than enough dairy, and I think there's more nurtitional value (probiotics) in that than in fluid milk. I don't see why he needs both??!! Anyway our preschool director knows how I feel and just looks the other way.


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## caned & able (Dec 8, 2005)

To the OP: That has been the law for a very long time, even when I was in school.

It was made a law by pressure from the Dairy Council, long ago....


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## Maiasaura (Aug 12, 2002)

i'm in NC. when my ds was in daycare, the daycare lady was required to serve him cow milk, and if i didn't want him to have it, i was welcome to provide a substitute. we brought soy milk. but i bet you can bring rice milk, or whatever milk, and they won't give a hoot. most people don't. they DO have to follow the law, though, and as long as there is *something* milk (a "reasonable" sub for cow milk) for your child to drink, i'm sure they won't care. i never had to go as far as a doctor's note. i'm sure they won't give you that much hassle! where in NC are you? ARE they giving you that much hassle? or is it just getting built up on this forum?









HTH,
pamela
asheville


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## Momma Aimee (Jul 8, 2003)

I believe in MO you have to have medical doc of the allergy -- but that is all

A


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## moondiapers (Apr 14, 2002)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *intorainbowz* 
Yes I do. But that is what I had to do to keep the DCP out of trouble with the food program. I had to get the note or the food program was threatning to take away her certification for the rest of the children as well. I wanted DD to be on breast milk only until 6 months. We had to get a doctor's note to keep her off of cereal and solids. He wrote it so that all future feeding was at my discretion. He thought it was stupid and cited the AAP statement, as well as that DD is a preemie. I felt VERY intruded on, especially as I WAS providing all her food at that time. I mean DCP was not nursing her.







I attached a sternly worded letter to the Dr's note.

I vented in a thread on Lactivism.

A lot of food program sponsors interpret the law incorrectly. Solid foods aren't a requirement at all until the child reaches 8 months of age. This is to give the parent's time to introduce things at home first. Any solids before this age are purely optional as far as the food program is concerned. We don't do solids until a year though so if I weren't a provider, rather than get a note I'd opt to NOT enroll my child in the food program (many people don't know this is an option) and I'd provide all food myself.


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## mama naturale (Aug 6, 2006)

This is very interesting to me. We don't have such programs in Australia (logistical nightmare I would imagine).
They do have an optional fruit program.

Do they force the child to consume the milk?

My big boy doesn't drink anything other water as he has allergies to milk and soy. Milk is not the only way to gain calcium.


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## moondiapers (Apr 14, 2002)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *mama naturale* 
This is very interesting to me. We don't have such programs in Australia (logistical nightmare I would imagine).
They do have an optional fruit program.

Do they force the child to consume the milk?

My big boy doesn't drink anything other water as he has allergies to milk and soy. Milk is not the only way to gain calcium.


The kids don't have to eat or drink anything we give them, we just have to serve it in the proper approved amounts and forms.


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## ACsMom (Apr 21, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *moondiapers* 
The kids don't have to eat or drink anything we give them, we just have to serve it in the proper approved amounts and forms.


See, this was part of my problem. My friend's child is only 3. He can't make choices about what he eats and drinks. In fact, he LOVES cow milk. So if he's offered it he's going to drink it, even though he'll be very sick later. It really chaps my *ss that the laws require DCPs and schools to give milk to kids who are too young to make a choice about whether or not to drink it. My child is not allergic to cow milk, as far as I know (I really haven't given her much dairy at all other than some organic yogurt). My objection to dairy foods has to do with the hormones and antibiotics and pesticides and herbicides and other harmful stuff that's in it nowadays. Not to mention the ethics of how dairy cows are treated in American factory farms. I had non-Hodgkins lymphoma three years ago and I was told by doctors at the NIH that there's some evidence now that shows the proteins in cow milk are cancer-promoters in humans. (I also read The China Study - and there have been big long debates about that book at MDC so I'm not bringing that up to start that discussion now, just wanted to point out where I'm getting my info.) In other words, it's possible that cow milk could act as a complete carcinogen - the pesticides in it could initiate cell mutations, and the proteins over time could encourage the progression of disease. Regardless of whether this is completely true or not, I feel like there's enough evidence out there that cow milk is just not the wonderful healthy thing that the dairy industry would have us believe. Therefore I feel it's wrong for governments to require it to be pushed on kids. I realize that you can send your child to school and not have him/her participate in the lunch programs - i.e. send lunch and snacks with them every day. I will most likely do that if my daughter goes to public school, but not everyone can afford to. Wouldn't we be upset if the government required children to be given potato chips every day as a snack? I mean, they're vegetables right, like ketchup!







: I don't know. I'm bothered that I'd have to provide a doctor's note (someone said permission slip - very apt) to exercise a healthy choice for a family member.


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## moondiapers (Apr 14, 2002)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ACsMom* 
See, this was part of my problem. My friend's child is only 3. He can't make choices about what he eats and drinks. In fact, he LOVES cow milk. So if he's offered it he's going to drink it, even though he'll be very sick later. It really chaps my *ss that the laws require DCPs and schools to give milk to kids who are too young to make a choice about whether or not to drink it.

This is just my point, the law requires us to give it to children that are ENROLLED in the FOOD PROGRAM. If you don't want your child to have it you can opt to NOT enroll in the food program and provide your own food.


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## CherieBerry (Feb 16, 2007)

I am a USDA CACFP (Child and Adult Care Food Program) manager (RD, too) for four schools and pre-schools in the northern suburbs of Chicago, IL. For IL, the regs state that we must serve (serve, not force the kid to drink) the child milk for Breakfast and Lunch (or with Dinner for shelter's that serve dinner) for us to receive reimbursement for the meal (funding schools desperately need to be able to afford quality food items). If the child is unable to consume the cow's milk we purchase, I must have a note on file from the child's doctor. With a note, the school will receive reimbursement for the meal and the child can drink the milk he or she needs. Each milk/meal substitution must be noted. Like, Little Johnny can't have dairy, so, if on this day, his milk, mac&cheese, or any other food with a dairy product was substituted for another item in our inventory, I need to record the items used and correlate it the purchase receipts. It's such a hassle. But, as long as the child has a note, I do whatever I can. My daughter goes to one of my schools, and she is on organic milk. All I needed to do was provide (myself, ha!) with a doctor's note that outlined that she was to be given organic milk. There was a time that I let the parents bring in the special milks even if the child didn't have a note, because I'm a parent too (and I was doing the same thing), but then the State came in for a surprise audit and I didn't have the paperwork to back up the milks, so we had to pay back funding we received. Beaucracy sucks, but our food program really needs the CACFP money we receive to provide the children with quality meals. I have children on varied diets, (Vegan, religious, organic) and all I need is a note and for the child to receive one of our meal components and we receive full reimbursement. Sounds like your CACFP person just a *******.


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## ACsMom (Apr 21, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *moondiapers* 
This is just my point, the law requires us to give it to children that are ENROLLED in the FOOD PROGRAM. If you don't want your child to have it you can opt to NOT enroll in the food program and provide your own food.

Sure, I agree - and if you keep reading in my last post I said I will most likely do that, but it still seems unfair to parents who can't afford to not participate in the food program. What if you're a family of ethical vegans BUT you're also poor? In that case, it sounds like there would be some places where you wouldn't have a choice about what your kids eat or drink. If a government-sponsored food program wants to require certain foods to be served to children based on what they believe to be the best nutrition possible, then that's totally fine. But it seems that our government isn't doing that. They're basing their food requirements at least partly on pressure from industry, not what's best for the kids. Now, from what everyone's said here, there are many schools/DCPs that simply let it slide if a parent doesn't want their kid to have something. The schools themselves are trying to do what's best for the kids on a case-by-case basis. I'm more upset about the larger political issue at work here.


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## CherieBerry (Feb 16, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Momily* 
In the case of allergies, however, I don't think it's unreasonable to require a doctor's note. As an administrator in a school I can tell you that the information we receive about allergies can be very confusing and scary. I have had parents tell us "please don't serve him any milk" when what they actually mean is "this child has a life threatening allergy to anything dairy", and other parents tell us "my child is allergic to soy" and we take all sorts of soy precautions (e.g. not feeding any snacks that contain even traces of soy, checking the foods of the child sitting next to them, making sure we have soy-free recipes for any baking done in class etc . . . ) and then it turns out that the child possibly had diarrhea one time after they drank a large quantity of soy milk and so the mother limits (but doesn't eliminate) access to things like soy milk and tofu.

Isn't wild how many children are allergic to soy now? Five years ago, I don't think I had a single child with a soy allergy. Now I have many, even some that go into anaphylaxis. Very scary, especially since soy is in nearly every single item. Is it the vaccines? Is it the lack of breastmilk? I don't know.


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## ACsMom (Apr 21, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *CherieBerry* 
I am a USDA CACFP (Child and Adult Care Food Program) manager (RD, too) for four schools and pre-schools in the northern suburbs of Chicago, IL. For IL, the regs state that we must serve (serve, not force the kid to drink) the child milk for Breakfast and Lunch (or with Dinner for shelter's that serve dinner) for us to receive reimbursement for the meal (funding schools desperately need to be able to afford quality food items). If the child is unable to consume the cow's milk we purchase, I must have a note on file from the child's doctor. With a note, the school will receive reimbursement for the meal and the child can drink the milk he or she needs. Each milk/meal substitution must be noted. Like, Little Johnny can't have dairy, so, if on this day, his milk, mac&cheese, or any other food with a dairy product was substituted for another item in our inventory, I need to record the items used and correlate it the purchase receipts. It's such a hassle. But, as long as the child has a note, I do whatever I can. My daughter goes to one of my schools, and she is on organic milk. All I needed to do was provide (myself, ha!) with a doctor's note that outlined that she was to be given organic milk. There was a time that I let the parents bring in the special milks even if the child didn't have a note, because I'm a parent too (and I was doing the same thing), but then the State came in for a surprise audit and I didn't have the paperwork to back up the milks, so we had to pay back funding we received. Beaucracy sucks, but our food program really needs the CACFP money we receive to provide the children with quality meals. I have children on varied diets, (Vegan, religious, organic) and all I need is a note and for the child to receive one of our meal components and we receive full reimbursement. Sounds like your CACFP person just a beeyotch.


And this is a precise example of what I'm talking about, how the government makes it difficult for you to accomodate everyone's needs, which it sounds like you try very hard to do! It makes a lot of extra work for you, having to collect the doctor's notes or other notes and then keep track of who gets/doesn't get what. And then the stress of possibly losing some funding if you don't do everything according to the rules. I'm just saying it shouldn't be this way. I'm glad to hear that organic milk is available - that's a big step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned. The schools in my area don't seem to have the money to provide that option. Some of the schools here recently started serving soy milk, but again it makes work for the administrators who have to keep track of all the substitutions.


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## CherieBerry (Feb 16, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ACsMom* 
I'm glad to hear that organic milk is available - that's a big step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned. The schools in my area don't seem to have the money to provide that option.

It was one of the first changes I made when I took the job. Oddly, eventhough I put the notice out to the parents letting them know that organic milk is an option and to contact me for more information, only a handful of parents cared. Very sad.


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## ACsMom (Apr 21, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *CherieBerry* 
It was one of the first changes I made when I took the job. Oddly, eventhough I put the notice out to the parents letting them know that organic milk is an option and to contact me for more information, only a handful of parents cared. Very sad.

That is sad. Maybe since the organic movement is growing, you'll see more and more parents interested.


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