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On Thursday, November 20, the United States Senate passed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act by unanimous consent. The bill that would allow schools to offer whole and two-percent milk as part of the USDA reimbursable school meal program now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives where it successfully passed in December 2023. House sponsors of the bill include House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson (R-Pennsylvania) and Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Washington) who is a pediatrician by trade.
In 2012, changes to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and USDA nutrition policies limited the varieties of milk schools could serve as part of breakfast and lunch and receive reimbursement from the federal government. The regulation changed limited schools to only one-percent or skim white milk and just skim flavored milk. Following the change, school milk consumption dropped precipitously across the country. Naturally, milk consumption among school-aged children lagged further behind USDA Food and Nutrition Service recommendations. The return of two-percent and whole milk is seen by many in the industry as an important step toward reversing this trend in milk consumption among young people.
American Farm Bureau Economist Danny Munch has an article on the topic that details the shifting trends in the dairy industry and projects possible impacts to milk markets if schools suddenly started buying half-pints with higher fat content. According to Munch, “Whole milk contains three times more fat than 1%, so reintroducing it would pull more butterfat into fluid use instead of butter, cheese, or powder. If 25%, 50%, or 75% of schools adopt whole milk, annual butterfat demand could rise by 13-18 million, 25-36 million and 38-55 million pounds, respectively. A near-universal shift could divert 45-66 million pounds of butter –about 2-3% of U.S. production – into bottled milk.”
According to a member alert from the American Dairy Coalition, Chairman GT Thompson anticipates a House vote on the bill in the coming weeks. Dairy industry and nutrition advocates are also keeping a close eye on possible revisions to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has hinted could come next month. Those changes to the dietary guidelines could potentially include revisions to standards involving whole milk as both Kennedy and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins have voiced strong support for whole milk.
AFBF Market Intel: Whole Milk May Be Coming Back to Schools

Urge the House to Vote “Yes”
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