On Monday, Congress passed a bill that would allow whole milk to once again be offered in public schools across the country, and the legislation has been a rare spot for bipartisan agreement.
In 2010, Congress passed a law limiting the kind of milk that can be served in public schools through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program.
In 2012, those changes went into effect, taking whole milk and flavored milks out of cafeterias across the country – leaving skim and 1% as the only fat content options available.
“That's been a big hit to our dairy farmers. It was a punch in the gut, and they've been trying to have it changed ever since at there were studies at the time suggesting that limiting whole milk in kids' diets was healthier, but there are new studies that show actually, it's better to have whole milk. It's healthier number one and number two, it reduces obesity rates, and the kids like drinking it a lot better, so they drink more of it. And we all know milk is so healthy for you, so the studies now show that we should have whole milk,” said Chuck Schumer.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke Monday at A. Ooms & Sons Dairy Farm in Valatie.
Last month, the Senate unanimously passed The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025, which revises the USDA’s meal program guidelines to allow whole, reduced-fat, and fat-free milk to be served in schools
Monday afternoon, the U.S. House of Representatives followed suit. And the legislation has proved to be a rare point of bipartisan agreement, with cosponsors ranging from New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. Regionally, it’s the kind of bill that has the of support of Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who is running for New York governor, as well as the support of Schumer, who said research on milk fat content has changed in the past decade.
“The old studies are outdated. The new studies are correct, and we need to do it. The bill is a win for New York dairy farmers who can sell their products for kids and the kids, it's a win for the kids. It's a win for the dairy farmers, and it's a win for the kids who will have more healthy and delicious drink to have. It's about time we brought whole milk back to our school lunch and food programs, plain and simple,” said Schumer.
Ashley Sardo, manager of National Affairs for the New York Farm Bureau, said the new legislation will be a boon for New York’s roughly 3,000 dairy producers that make more than 16 billion pounds of milk annually – making New York the nation’s fifth largest dairy state.
“While it provides schools the option to purchase whole milk has real impacts for dairy farmers, not only will this increase demand for whole milk, but it creates a market opportunity for our dairy farmers. This will pull milk that has currently been separated out of butter, cheese or milk powder into the fluid stream or class one market. So what does this mean for farmers? As we know, dairy farmers are price takers, not price makers. It means that the shift in fluid milk could lift our prices that dairy farmers receive for the milk they produce. In turn, this will create greater opportunities for milk producers,” said Sardo.
Eric Ooms says for every 100 pounds of milk sold, his farm pays 15 cents to promote dairy products across the country -- think the Got Milk? Commercials.
For Ooms, this legislation begins to reverse more than a decade of misunderstanding that has left farms like his unable to offer a full range of milk to local schools.
“For generations, we've been saying milk is healthy, and it's that messaging is finally getting through. Okay, so that that feels good, because we put a lot of money into promotion, but we can't promote Hudson Valley fresh. We can't promote Cabot cheese. We promote generic, well, we promote the benefits of milk. And it feels good that, because, you know, people don't for it seemed like people didn't care,” said Ooms.
