For more than a decade, schools have been restricted in what type of milk they offer students.


What You Need To Know

  • Only fat-free and low-fat milk have been served in schools participating in the National School Lunch Program

  • Bipartisan legislation would bring back whole milk

  • Whole milk is a topic of debate in the health community

Only fat-free and low-fat milk have been served in schools participating in the National School Lunch Program. A law signed by President Barack Obama banned whole milk to reduce obesity rates among children. 

But those options haven’t sat well with all students.

During lunch at Capital Village Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., numerous students threw out their milk without drinking it.

“I don’t like school milk,” sixth grader Eli Matos said. “It’s just not my type.”

This week, the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry passed the bipartisan Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which would permit schools to once again offer whole milk.

Whole milk has support from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has called the Dietary Guidelines for Americans “antiquated,” and said he would encourage Head Start programs to switch from low-fat dairy to “full fat/whole milk.”

“I think it’s a travesty that in the United States schools can serve chocolate milk or strawberry milk, loaded with sugar and additives and flavorings, and not serve plain, whole milk,” Tufts University Director of Food is Medicine Institute Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian said. “There’s really no strong evidence to report that low-fat dairy is healthier than whole-fat dairy.”

But whole milk is a point of debate in the health community.

“Most children already consume too much saturated fat, and this change would disproportionately affect children from low-income families who rely on the school meals for their daily nutrition,” Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Senior Vice President Kelly Horton said. “We really should look for solutions that look at access and appeal, not weakening nutrition standards.”

Others argue dairy milk should be avoided, and they embrace part of the bill that would make it easier for students to access a dairy milk substitute of soy milk. Currently, students must have a doctor’s note to receive soy milk. The legislation would allow schools on their own to offer soy milk or for parents to write the letter.

“This idea that milk is a default beverage that has to be served in school, I think that’s kind of a larger issue that we need to get away from because for many families there’s not a carton of milk in the refrigerator, so when they’re at school they’re being served a drink that they're just not familiar with,” Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Government Affairs Director Andrew Binovi said.

When asked what she would like to drink at lunch, seventh grader Teyani Johnson said, “Honestly, I prefer water. I don’t like a lot of juices or things with a lot of sugar in them.”

Eighth grader Amari Woodall said he doesn’t really like the taste of the milk currently offered at school, but said if whole milk was served he would “drink [it] on a more regular basis. I wouldn’t mind drinking it in school.”

It’s a controversial option that would be available if Congress approves the legislation.