MADISON, Wis. (WRN) — Legislation introduced at the Capitol would require Wisconsin school districts to serve real butter in school meal programs.
State Senator Howard Marklein is Senate author of the bill. He says the bill was drafted after meeting with farmers at a local Farm Bureau chapter meeting. A student brought home the margarine packets from school lunch.
“Representative Todd Novak and I have drafted a bill and it’s being circulated right now, which basically says that you can’t serve margarine in our schools,” Marklein said. “The school district was serving margarine in their lunch program and of course these dairy farmers, and there were several in that crowd were they were very upset because here you are, rural area. Those dairy farmers pay a lot of property taxes to that school district.”
The state already requires real butter in other government-supported meal programs, including at state prisons. Marklein says requiring real butter only makes sense, especially in rural areas where dairy farmers are a big supporter of school districts.