NMPF’s Chris Galen offers a Christmas-themed list of for listeners of Dairy Radio Now on several major achievements for dairy farmers: updating the milk pricing system, improving the Farm Bill, and expanding milk options in schools. He describes how NMPF successfully created momentum in the House of Representatives for a bill that would expand students’ milk options in schools.
The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) emphatically commended the House of Representatives for taking a critical step toward improving child nutrition by approving the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act today with a commanding 330-99 bipartisan margin. The measure, led by Representatives GT Thompson, R-PA, and Kim Schrier, D-WA, expands the tools schools can use to deliver vital nutrition to students by increasing the variety of healthful milk options school can choose to serve.
“NMPF is delighted that the House approved the bipartisan Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act,” said Jim Mulhern, President & CEO of National Milk Producers Federation. “Milk’s unique nutritional profile gives it an unparalleled role in providing kids the nutrients they need. Expanding the milk schools can choose to serve to include 2% and whole is a common-sense solution that will help ensure kids have access to the same healthful milk options they drink at home. House passage is a critical step, and we urge the Senate to consider this bill immediately so it may be enacted into law.”
School milk, a mainstay of lunch menus for generations, plays an especially important role in improving nutrition security as an effective, inexpensive way of providing the nutrition kids need. NMPF has been tireless in its advocacy for reinstating whole milk, which was removed from school lunch menus in 2012. Since then, advancing science on the benefits of milk at all fat levels, as well as evidence of increased food waste from current limited choices, makes its return a top nutrition priority for schoolchildren, the families who serve nutritious fuller-fat varieties at home, and the school meal professionals who strive to effectively nourish those whom they serve.
The House-approved Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act will now be sent to the Senate, which already has its own version of the bill. The Senate measure is being led by Senators Roger Marshall, R-KS, and Peter Welch, D-VT, and has Republican, Democratic, and Independent cosponsors.
Much has changed about milk consumption since 2012, the year that whole and 2 percent milk varieties were no longer allowed in federal school meal programs. Since then, the body of research supporting the benefits of fuller-fat milk has grown more robust, with research showing that dairy foods at higher fat levels are linked to outcomes such as lower total body mass in kids and lower childhood obesity. Milk is, simply put, a nutrition powerhouse.
Concern over food waste has also grown, with food waste rising when kids are given meals they don’t want to eat. Meanwhile, the gulf between what kids drink at home versus what they’re served in schools – already gaping when the ban took effect — has only widened.
This is the percentage of U.S. fluid milk consumption, excluding flavored varieties, in 2012, and again in 2022. Even at the time the rules changed, keeping whole and 2 percent milk off school meal menus was out of step with what parents gave their own children, with roughly 68 percent of consumption coming from those varieties. That should have been an ominous sign for anyone who ever thought children would flock to milk that didn’t taste like what they had at home.
That disconnect is even worse today.
In 2022, whole and 2 percent milk accounted for roughly 80 percent of consumption – and still, students don’t have access to the same healthy choices they almost certainly have at home. This is a lost opportunity for high-quality, affordable nutrition that kids would gladly consume. And that’s why, when the House of Representatives takes up the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act this week, lawmakers should take heed of the choices voters make at the grocery store – decisions that align with the latest scientific research on the benefits of dairy at all fat levels as well as consumer preference.
Having whole and 2 percent milk in school meals will nourish children and reduce food waste. And most importantly, it encourages kids to consume the nutrients they need. Taking the most popular varieties of milk out of meals was a questionable decision in 2012 – it’s indefensible in 2023. NMPF has a call to action urging lawmakers to pass the bill – the bigger the margin, the more pressure on the Senate to make it law. Dairy farmers, as well as parents and educators everywhere, will be watching the House with great interest this week.
And when common sense wins, we know exactly what we’ll drink at the celebration.
NMPF Senior Director of Government Relations Claudia Larson discusses the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which has bipartisan support in the House and Senate. The legislation would return whole milk to schools, encouraging better nutrition and reducing food waste. Larson speaks on the Rural Radio Network.
NMPF and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) sent a joint letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on May 9 calling for the inclusion of the growing body of science studying dairy fats in the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) review.
Several scientific research studies, including multiple meta-analyses, demonstrate that dairy foods, regardless of fat level, appear to have neutral or beneficial effects on cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, stroke and other conditions.
The committee, which held its second public meeting on May 10, will use three approaches to examine the evidence used to answer the scientific questions: systematic reviews, food pattern modeling and data analysis. NMPF and IDFA state in the letter, “NMPF and IDFA hope this committee won’t default to the overly broad recommendation to avoid saturated fats regardless of food source. This would fail to answer the 2025 proposed scientific question and, equally important, it would fail to address the 2020 DGAC report’s directive. We strongly urge the committee to develop protocols that will enable it to answer the question about specific food sources of saturated fat, including consideration of the recent science on dairy fats.”
From NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern:
“NMPF commends House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson, R-PA, and Rep. Kim Schrier, D-WA, for their bipartisan Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act to help increase kids’ access to milk’s vital nutrients.
“Good nutrition is a cornerstone of kids’ health and development, and milk plays an unparalleled role in providing the nutrients kids need to grow and thrive. However, most kids and adolescents do not meet the daily dairy intake recommendations made in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Kids take more milk, and drink more milk, in school when they have options they like. A growing body of evidence shows that dairy foods at all fat levels have a neutral or positive effect on health outcomes, ranging from lower prevalence of obesity and diabetes to reduced heart disease risk and healthy cholesterol levels.
“The House Education and the Workforce Committee’s approval of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act is a significant step toward expanding the popular, healthy milk options schools can serve to improve their students’ nutrient intake. ”
