Whole Milk in Schools Good for Health and for Industry

June is National Dairy Month, and it's no coincidence that the Senate Ag Committee has unanimously approved a bill to expand milk options in school lunch menus. Chris Galen, Senior Vice President for the National Milk Producers Federation, shares what this means for students and the dairy industry.

“Currently, the policy is that they can have either low fat or skim milk, fat free milk, either flavored milk like chocolate or white milk, but anything that has a higher fat content, like 2% or whole milk, is not allowed under current guidelines, which are ultimately overseen by the US Department of Agriculture. So the whole milk for Healthy Kids Act is legislation, both in the Senate and the House, that would expand those choices to give kids, once again, the opportunity to have 2% milk, and in some cases whole milk. So the bill has been approved over in the house by the House Education Committee and the Senate Agriculture Committee approved it. So now what happens is that hopefully the bills will be able to be voted on at some point here this year.”

Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, called the US Dietary Guidelines for Americans, antiquated, and is pushing to switch from low fat dairy to full fat dairy, including whole milk.