The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Putting whole milk and 2% milk options back on the trays of school lunches is the objective of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act. Since 2012, kids’ choices in the cafeteria have been limited to unflavored low-fat (1%), unflavored fat-free and flavored fat-free milk. In 2017, schools were allowed to start serving flavored low-fat milk as well.

In December 2023, the bill sponsored by Congressman and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., to restore whole and reduced fat milk to schools, received overwhelming bipartisan support when it passed in the U.S. House of Representatives with a 330-99 vote.

However, the bill was stopped short at its next destination, the U.S. Senate. Chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee — Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. —blocked the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act after Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. requested unanimous consent on the Senate floor to pass the Act.

“It just takes one senator to raise their hand and put a hold on a piece of legislation so they can give it another look,” said Rob Rosado, vice president of legislative affairs at the International Dairy Foods Association. “Stabenow is the Senate Ag Committee chair, so this is her jurisdiction. As chair, she determines what legislation is best for her committee.”

This setback does not mean the dairy industry has given up on getting the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act passed. Legislators in favor of the bill and industry organizations continue to fight for it.

“We’re really excited about the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act,” Rosado said. “We’ve been trying to find opportunities to get it passed, and hopefully there is a window of opportunity to do that later this year.”

Rosado said this is the first time the bill has ever had this much bipartisan support across the floor, with all but one Republican voting for the bill and a majority of Democrats voting for it in the House.

Under the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, schools participating in the school lunch program would be able to offer students a variety of fluid milks, including flavored and unflavored organic or non-organic whole, reduced-fat, low-fat and fat-free fluid milk, and lactose-free fluid milk.

“We believe this bill is important from a nutritional standpoint because whole milk provides all the same nutrients as low-fat and non-fat milk, but more people will consume it,” Rosado said. “That’s the end goal of what we’re trying to do here. We have strong bipartisan sponsors, and we keep going to find opportunities to move it forward.”

IDFA launched a website campaign for promoting whole milk in school meals. Rosado said there are many resources on the website and ways to contact members of Congress about getting on board with this bill. The public can voice its support for the bill by filling out a form to email to their U.S. Senators, encouraging their support of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act.

According to the IDFA website, milk offers 13 essential nutrients and is the No. 1 source of protein, vitamin D, calcium and potassium in the diets of children ages 2-18. Since the U.S. Department of Agriculture removed whole and 2% milk from schools in 2012, school milk consumption and meal participation have declined.

Measuring consumer support for whole milk is one of the ways IDFA is advocating for the bill. The organization found that 9 out of 10 parents serve 2% and whole milk to their children at home and want it back in schools.

“They want Congress to do something about it, and we’re going to keep pushing it,” Rosado said.

In September, IDFA is hosting a legislative fly-in, to talk about this issue along with others.

“We continue to have our senior executives in D.C. promoting the bill as well, as we try to build more bipartisan support,” Rosado said. “We’re going to continue to bang the drum for whole milk.”

Chairman Thompson said the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act has now been added to the House Committee on Agriculture farm bill, which passed the House committee in May.

“While we work towards the end of the year, it’s important for the Senate to take action, so we can work out the differences,” Thompson said. “I believe we are close, but the Senate must prioritize this bipartisan legislation.”

Rosado said that Sens. Stabenow and John Boozman, R-Ark., each have frameworks for a farm bill, and Boozman includes the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act in his framework.

“At some point, they’re going to need to sit down with Chairman Thompson and talk about the farm bill in the coming months because the current bill expires Sept. 30,” Rosado said. “Everyone wants to pass a new farm bill by the end of the calendar year, so we really want this to be in that conversation. We’re working publicly and privately to ensure the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act is in the mix.”

Rosado is optimistic that IDFA is making headway with Stabenow as the organization works to build support for the bill.

“We have a good working relationship with Chairwoman Stabenow and her staff and continue to have conversations,” Rosado said. “We are showing her the nutritional science is there as well as the bipartisan and public support.”

Rosado is hoping for action on the bill when Congress reconvenes after the November elections. If the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act does not pass by Jan. 3, 2025, it would start over from the beginning in the next Congress.

Sen. Marshall was the lead of the bipartisan Senate version of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act and continues to back the bill as well.

“We are still pushing for the measure to be considered before the end of the 118th Congress, hoping that Leader Schumer understands how important it is for nutrient-dense and delicious whole milk to be in the lunchroom,” Marshall said. “If the bill does not come to the floor independently, we will explore opportunities to attach it to another legislative vehicle.”

Another group working behind the scenes in favor of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act is 97 Milk. This non-profit grassroots farmer-led initiative based in Pennsylvania promotes whole milk as 97% fat free and is promoting the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act on its website and social media platforms.

Sherry Bunting is an independent agricultural journalist and volunteer with 97 Milk and the Grassroots Pennsylvania Dairy Advisory Committee.

“We’re working on educating the public about the issue,” Bunting said. “Most people don’t even realize kids don’t have a choice of whole or 2% milk at school. A big hurdle was for people to see the need for this legislation.”

Bunting said about half of the Senate Ag Committee, including Democrats and Republicans, are signed on as co-sponsors to the companion Senate bill, which contains identical language to the House bill that passed in December.

According to Bunting, Stabenow has not allowed her committee to take up the bill.

“On the Senate side, it has to move out of the ag committee to get to the Senate floor,” Bunting said. “On the House side, the bill moved out of the education committee to the House floor.”

Chairman Thompson obtained a waiver from education chair, Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., that would allow a whole milk waiver act to be included in the farm bill on the House side.

“With that waiver, he did what people said could not be done and made it part of the farm bill,” Bunting said. “The fact it’s in the farm bill makes me hopeful that if we can get a farm bill passed, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act will ride along. This would be the fourth time GT Thompson has put this bill forward over the last eight years.”

Bunting said new this time in the bill is language that makes the fat found in milk exempt from being counted in meal dietary guidelines.

Bringing whole milk back into schools will round out the school meal with a flavorful and nutrition-packed option that research shows many kids are already drinking at home.

“We’ve never been this close before,” Rosado said. “It passed the House with huge bipartisan support and has good bipartisan support in the Senate. We feel the time is right for Whole Milk for Healthy Kids.”