Dive Brief:
- The House on Monday passed a bipartisan bill allowing schools to offer students whole milk and nondairy beverage options in school meal programs, sending it to President Donald Trump for signature. The Senate passed the legislation in November.
- Districts are currently permitted to only serve fat-free and low-fat milks in school meals due to concerns that milk consumption contributes to high cholesterol and obesity in young people, according to a fact sheet from the House Education and Workforce Committee.
- Schools are already required to offer a milk substitute to students with doctor’s notes saying they have a disability limiting their ability to consume fluid milk. The newly passed Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025 would allow parents and legal guardians to submit similar requests to schools to serve their children nondairy substitutes.
Dive Insight:
Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said in a Monday statement he was proud to see the bill’s passage that would return whole milk to schools.
“Good nutrition is the foundation of a child’s life, including his or her ability to learn and grow,” Walberg said. “Unfortunately, misguided policies removed whole milk from schools, stripping children of options to get important and essential nutrients — driving students to caffeinated and sugary alternatives that often do more harm than good.”
Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, called the bill “a major win” for students and farmers. “The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act will help future generations grow stronger and let dairy farmers in Vermont, Kansas, and around the country do what they love — feed our communities,” he said in a Monday statement.
If the legislation is signed into law, schools would need to take several steps before adding more milk and nondairy options to their menus.
The availability of different milk and nondairy options packaged for school use varies by region, said Diane Pratt-Heavner, director of media relations at the School Nutrition Association, in a Tuesday email to K-12 Dive.
First, she said, schools would need to evaluate student interest in the new options and then reach out to suppliers to gauge availability and pricing. Then, they'll need to reach out to suppliers about pricing and availability for the products. And milk processors will need to decide if they should scale up production of whole and 2% milk for schools, she added.
“School nutrition professionals appreciate the opportunity to offer new options that meet the requests of students and their families,” Pratt-Heavner said.
With the expanded ability for families to request a required nondairy milk substitution, schools could see more requests for nondairy options, Pratt-Heavner said.
In addition, the legislation would allow schools to broadly offer nutritionally equivalent nondairy beverages if they want to, she noted. But as with offering whole and 2% milk, schools would “need to evaluate demand, pricing and availability before making any changes to menus across the board,” she said.
