Lawmakers say the return of more types of milk in schools will help dairy farms and may reduce obesity in children

WASHINGTON, D.C.– The changes the dairy industry has been lobbying for since 2012 has come to fruition in the form of those little cartons of milk on school lunch trays. With the Dec. 16 unanimous Senate passage of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, whole milk can return and schools can also offer reduced fat, low fat, and fat free choices in flavored and unflavored. The milk offered may be organic or non-organic.

Federal nutrition rules took whole and 2% milk off the school lunch trays of kids, a decision Gregg Doud, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation said isn’t aligned with consumer choice and was a flawed decision.

According to the International Dairy Foods Association, school milk consumption declined sharply after whole, 2%, and flavored options were taken off the table, leaving between 68 and 94% of school age kids not meeting recommended levels of dairy intake. Though fluid milk consumption declined in that time, demand for dairy in other forms, particularly cheese topped pizza, has increased.

The House passed the measure a month after the Senate approved the legislation, which overturns 2012 rules that allowed only fat-free or 1% milk to be served in schools. The action by Congress came as U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer visited a dairy farm Monday in Columbia County to give his support to the measure that he and other lawmakers said has hurt upstate dairy farms

According to one of the bill’s sponsors, Pennsylvania Congressman G.T. Thompson, the commonsense, bipartisan bill ushers nutrition and milk’s 13 essential nutrients back into schools. Thompson said milk has long been unfairly vilified and that deprived an entire generation of students of the nutrition necessary for healthy development and academic success.

The change to the National School Lunch Program requirements for milk is on President Trump’s desk awaiting his signature.