House passes bill allowing schools to serve whole milk

Editor’s note: This report has been updated to note Senate passage is required before students would see more options in school cafeterias.

The House has passed a bill allowing whole milk to be served in school cafeterias for the first time since 2012.

The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which permits the National School Lunch Program to serve whole milk, passed 330-99 in the House on Wednesday afternoon. It now heads to the Senate.

Regulations have stipulated which kinds of milk can be offered in school cafeterias since 2012 when then-First Lady Michelle Obama moved to only permit low-fat milk variations.

The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, introduced earlier this year by Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.), revises those Obama-era requirements for milk. If approved by the Senate and the measure becomes law, kids would have the options of whole, reduced-fat, low-fat, and fat-free flavored and unflavored milk in school cafeterias.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) pushed for the expanded milk options with a seasonal twist in comments on the House floor on Wednesday.

“If whole milk is a good option to fuel Santa’s extraordinary Christmas Eve journey, then why isn’t it an option for American schoolchildren in their lunchrooms?” she said.

–Updated on Dec. 14 at 6:22 a.m.