Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025
Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025
Plain Language Summary
# Summary: Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025 **What It Does** This bill would change nutrition rules for milk served in school lunch programs across the United States. Currently, schools can only offer fat-free or low-fat milk. The bill would allow schools to also serve whole milk and reduced-fat milk—both flavored and unflavored varieties—giving students more milk options at lunch.
It would also allow schools to offer either organic or regular milk. Additionally, the bill would expand who can request milk substitutes for students with dietary restrictions, allowing parents or guardians to submit the request instead of requiring it to come only from a doctor. **Who It Affects** This primarily affects schoolchildren participating in the National School Lunch Program, as well as public schools that participate in the program and make decisions about which milk options to offer. The changes would give schools more flexibility in what they can serve. **Current Status** The bill is currently in committee, meaning it has been introduced but has not yet been voted on by the full House of Representatives.
CRS Official Summary
Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025This bill revises requirements for milk provided by the National School Lunch Program of the Department of Agriculture (USDA).Currently, schools participating in the program must provide milk that is consistent with the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans; USDA regulations require milk to be fat-free or low-fat and allow milk to be flavored or unflavored. The bill modifies these restrictions and instead permits schools to offer students whole, reduced-fat, low-fat, and fat-free flavored and unflavored milk. The milk that is offered may be organic or nonorganic. Further, USDA may not prohibit a participating school from offering students any of these milk choices.Further, schools currently must provide a substitute for fluid milk, on receipt of a written statement from a licensed physician, for students whose disability restricts their diet. Under the bill, a parent or legal guardian may also provide the written statement.In addition, schools currently participating in the program must provide meals that meet certain nutrition requirements; USDA regulations require that the average saturated fat content of the meals offered must be less than 10% of the total calories. Under the bill, fluid milk is excluded from the saturated fat content calculation; milk fat included in any fluid milk provided by the program must not be considered saturated fat for the purposes of measuring compliance with USDA regulations.Finally, the bill prohibits schools participating in the program from purchasing or offering milk produced by Chinese state-owned enterprises.
Latest Action
Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 111.