Dear US Senator Charles Schumer and US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand,

We know it can get very hectic on Capitol Hill, but we have to express our request in this timely manner before the opportunity spoils – please, don’t skim out on our kids’ dairy options in schools. A whole generation of children in New York State depend on you.

While the Whole Milk For Healthy Kids Act awaits its fate in the Senate, allow us to take a few minutes to note that allowing schools within the state to purchase, provide and sell whole milk, reduced fat milk and two-percent milk would benefit so much of our rural communities – not just the students who would be allowed a choice in their daily consumption – but also the farming community.

In Sullivan County, dairy farmers have been having a tough time for decades. What was once a thriving dairy industry is now reduced to a couple handfuls of dairy producers throughout Sullivan County .

Our farmers and neighbors work tirelessly to provide a product that is clean, healthy and homegrown. Imagine the bonds our eight public school districts could create with local dairy farmers if the State law allows the different variations of milk in schools. In Sullivan County we shop local, eat local and support local! Now, our schools should be given the options to serve whole milk to our students.

Our farmers have the students’ best health in mind, after all, they have their grandchildren, children, nieces and nephews in class. The science shows that whole milk is 97 percent fat free, and offers a great deal more for their growing minds and bodies than the ‘fat free’ variation that is currently mandated by a federal law which was passed in 2012.

We urge you both to please continue to push for this new bill’s passage and allow whole milk back into the schools.

Our children, farmers and entire community are counting on you.