Whole, 2% milk to return to schools

School-age students across the country are a pen stroke away from seeing two popular beverage options — whole milk and 2% milk — return to meals served through the National School Lunch Program. The shift follows passage of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025, approved by the Senate in mid-November, 2025, and the House in mid-December, 2025. The bill is now headed to the White House for final approval.

“With the president’s signature — which is expected to be imminent — the bill becomes law,” said Alan Bjerga, executive vice president for communication and industry relations at National Milk Producers Federation. “From there, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will begin writing the rules to implement the legislation. We expect work on that to begin quickly.”

The bill rolls back restrictions established by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Implemented by the USDA in 2012, those rules limited schools to unflavored 1% milk, unflavored skim milk and flavored skim milk in an effort to reduce sodium, calories and saturated fat. Flavored 1% milk was added as an option in 2017.

“Milk is required to be served in the federal school lunch program; the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act gives schools greater choice to meet the nutritional needs of their students without requiring them to offer any specific type of fluid milk,” Bjerga said.

That added flexibility could also translate into higher milk consumption. Given the size of the NSLP, even small increases could add up.

The program serves about 30 million students each day and more than 4.8 billion meals each year, accounting for roughly 7.5% of all U.S. fluid milk sales. Milk remains a lunchroom staple, with 85% of students selecting low-fat or skim options. This represents more than 4 billion half-pint cartons annually.

Beyond volume, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act arrives at an opportune time for dairy producers because of its impact on butterfat utilization. Over the past decade, producers have increased milk butterfat levels by about 13%, creating pressure on markets for manufactured dairy products.

“Even moderate adoption (whole milk) could reshape component demand across the dairy sector,” economist Daniel Munch wrote in a recent Market Intel report for the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Each carton of whole milk contains about 8 grams of fat, compared with 2.5 grams in low-fat milk and virtually none in skim. This shift would move 5.5-8 grams of butterfat per carton into the fluid milk channel rather than into manufactured products.

“If 25% of schools adopt whole milk (representing an early, conservative estimate), total milkfat utilization would rise roughly 18 million pounds annually,” Munch wrote. “If half of all schools make the switch, the increase grows to about 36 million pounds, and at three-quarters of schools adopt whole milk, the added fat demand reaches 55 million pounds.”

A near-universal shift could divert 45-66 million pounds of butterfat — about 2%-3% of total U.S. production.

Higher milk consumption at school could also deliver nutritional benefits, especially as many children are falling short of key dietary recommendations. Under current federal dietary guidelines, most school-aged children consume less dairy than recommended.

Milk consumption in schools has dropped sharply since limits on higher-fat milk were put in place. Between 2008 and 2018, weekly milk servings per student fell from 4.03 to 3.39 containers — a 15% decline. Also, the pace of that decline has sped up. Consumption had been slipping by about 0.03 cartons per student each year, but after the 2010 rule change, the drop accelerated to 0.13 cartons per year, a 77% increase in the rate of decline.

“When students skip milk, both nutrition goals and dairy demand suffer,” Munch wrote. “Unopened cartons also create measurable food waste, raising costs for schools already operating on thin budgets.”

The bill also lines up with what parents prefer at home. A recent Morning Consult survey commissioned by the International Dairy Foods Association found that 91% of parents serve whole or 2% milk to their school-aged children at home and view those options as nutritious, healthy, wholesome and tasty. Nearly as many — 88% — say whole milk and 2% should be available to children in public schools.

The act gives schools a choice to offer whole and 2% milk, rather than requiring it, so parents may not see the change right away. Menu changes often happen between semesters or during annual planning.

“Some schools will jump at the chance to serve whole and 2% milk, while others will stick with 1% and skim or flavored options,” Bjerga said. “Those decisions will be made on a district-by-district basis, and we support that approach.”

Another key provision of the bill eases the effort to incorporate higher-fat milk by exempting it from saturated-fat limits under school meal guidelines. The language clarifies that milkfat will not count towards those limits, enabling schools to serve whole and 2% milk without violating standards.

“The original reason whole and 2% milk were taken from menus was their saturated fat levels, which made it difficult to stay under school meal fat limits,” Bjerga said. “Recent dietary science on the specific role of dairy fats has lessened many of the concerns that led to the adoption of those limits in 2012. That’s why the exemption is important, appropriate and necessary for the legislation’s success.”

The bill also includes a supply chain provision barring procurement from Chinese state-owned enterprises.

The move to allow higher-fat milk in schools also aligns with broader consumer choices outside the cafeteria. Though per capita fluid milk consumption today is half of what it was five decades ago, declines have not been consistent across milk types.

“Whole milk stands out as a rare success story within the beverage category,” Munch wrote. “Between 2013 and 2024, sales of whole and flavored whole milk grew by 16%, while reduced-fat options lost ground: skim (down 72%), 1% (down 36%) and 2% (down 33%). Whole milk’s share of total beverage sales rose from 27% to 38%.”

Recent interest in dairy may be driven in part by the “protein boom” and the growing use of appetite-suppressing drug regimens, such as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists —Ozempic and Wegovy — which emphasize fuller-fat, higher-protein foods for satiety, sustained energy and improved blood sugar control.

This consumer demand, coupled with the expanded availability of higher-fat milk in schools, could strengthen the fluid milk category, which accounts for about 25% of total U.S. milk use and carries the highest regulated value under the recently amended Federal Milk Marketing Orders.

Shifting cream to bottled milk also brings operational and financial benefits, including lower processing costs, increased value of milk components across all classes, and higher uniform milk prices for producers. Farm-to-school programs further expand opportunities for smaller and local dairy farms.

The dairy industry is once again on track for record milk and butterfat production for 2025, even as farm income remains under pressure. The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act offers a bright spot in the domestic market, with potential to simultaneously increase demand for both fluid milk and butterfat.

For parents and schools, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act also provides an opportunity to strengthen nutrition in programs that form a  foundation for many children nationwide.

“For dairy farmers, it’s a chance to bring forth their full range of products as they encourage the next generation of milk drinkers,” Bjerga said. “It’s hard to imagine a bigger win-win for students and farmers alike.”

Editor’s Note: Permission for use of quotes from Daniel Munch given by American Farm Bureau Federation. Quotes were retrieved from its Market Intel publication dated Nov. 4, 2025.