Freedom 7 Elementary in Cocoa Beach, FL is now home to a grassroots movement that has shaken the cafeteria to its very core. It didn’t take long for students returning from Thanksgiving break to notice something had changed. Mysteriously, and without explanation, the strawberry milk was gone from the drink choices in the lunch line.
That didn’t sit well (as most milk doesn’t) with Idris, a 5-year-old activist known for standing up to “The Man.” Or, more specifically, the milkman (or whoever’s in charge of school milk supply chains). For days now, the cafeteria has been strawberry milk-free, and these little revolutionaries decided that enough was enough.
“This was the last straw—berry,” said one student, throwing a carton of 2% back into the bin as a symbol of rejection. Armed with a petition and crayons, the five-year-old spearheaded a campaign, gathering signatures from his peers who are behind him in brining back the pink deliciousness.
The pint-sized activist overcame adversity when two of the crayons from his Crayola 8-pack snapped mid signature. Afraid the Supervisor of Elections would notice the discrepancy in the signature matching, he applied rubber grips to the remaining crayons to reinforce them and had them re-sign. He is worried that some of the kids spelling their names wrong could jeopardize the entire movement, but its a risk he’s willing to take convincing classmates to sign what can only be described as the Declaration of Indemilkendence. Students from other grades even started to take notice, proving that this wasn’t just about milk—it was about principles, but mostly about the taste.
A whistleblower contacted us about this Milk-gate to investigate who was behind the agenda, and we took a deep dive. We met great resistance at first when we called the Freedom 7 front office, and had to navigate a maze of phone prompts narrated by children who clearly had missing front teeth. It didn’t deter us and eventually we made it to the cafeteria manager and we pushed to get answers.
She was evasive at first, but when pushed harder she tried to shift the blame to “supply chain issues.” She assured us that the strawberry milk would soon return the the lunch line and it was just a mix up, but we didn’t buy it. Not even at the reduced lunch price did we buy it.
We reported our findings back to Idris’ mom, his chief campaign advisor and encouraged him to press on in his fight. He’s using the weekend to resupply, sharpen his crayons, and recruit 6th graders from safety patrol to use for security in the lunch room in case things get heated.
He said he’s going to ask his Spanish teacher to sign also because “she’s not a kid but I know she loves strawberry milk too.”
We will keep the community updated on this story as it continues to develop.
