Congress Passes Bill to Allow Whole Milk and Non-Dairy Milk in School Meals

December 15, 2025 – Legislators in the House of Representatives passed a bill Monday that will allow public schools to serve both whole milk and non-dairy milks to students. The Senate already passed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act on Nov. 21, and President Donald Trump is expected to sign it. Previously, the National School Lunch Program’s standards only allowed fat-free and reduced-fat cow’s milk; the new ruling lets public schools continue to serve these as well as whole and non-dairy milks.

The legislation had bipartisan support and has long been a priority of the dairy industry. “I m gonna brag on my staff, that we got whole milk across the finish line,” said Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), the lead sponsor of the Senate bill, at a Capitol Hill event last week, where he referenced the legislation as an example of advancing the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda.

“It took us five years to do it.” A recommendation to allow whole milk in school lunch was included in the MAHA strategy report in September. Experts disagree on how healthy whole milk is; most emphasize that it contains important nutrients and can be part of a healthy diet but that saturated fat in overall diets should still be limited.

Whole milk contains about 5 grams of saturated fat per serving, compared to 3 grams in 2-percent milk, 1 gram in 1-percent, and 0 grams in skim. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and many of his MAHA followers question the science on saturated fat’s overall health risks.

Current school nutrition standards require that saturated fat make up less than 10 percent of the total calories in a meal; the bill will exclude milk from that calculation. Some health experts warn that most children already have too much saturated fat in their diets, which is linked to an increased risk of heart disease. On Monday, the Center for Science in the Public Interest said the new legislation will increase that amount and its associated risks. The bill is also a big win for advocates of plant-based milks, which contain very little saturated fat.

Animal welfare, public health, and environmental groups have been lobbying lawmakers for several years to include non-dairy options on the menu. (Soy will likely be the only non-dairy milk included, based on other nutrient requirements.) Previously, opting for non-dairy milk required a doctor’s note.

Now, parents will be able to choose for their children. In a press release, Dotsie Bausch, executive director of Switch4Good, said the change is especially important for lactose-intolerant children. While intolerance is rare among very young children, up to 50 million individuals in the U.S.

are intolerant, including about 80 percent of Black Americans and 90 percent of Asian Americans. “This is a watershed moment and a tremendous win for our kids, our planet, and the future of school nutrition,” she said. (Link to this post.) The post Congress Passes Bill to Allow Whole Milk and Non-Dairy Milk in School Meals appeared first on Civil Eats.