Whole Milk in Schools
Lawmakers voted by voice Monday to suspend the rules and approve legislation (S.222) that expands the purchasing options students have under the National School Lunch Program. The measure now heads to the President's desk.
Schools participating in the National School Lunch Program would be allowed to offer flavored and unflavored whole and 2% reduced-fat milk under S.222.
The bill would decouple allowable milk options for NSLP lunches from recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, overturning limitations set by an Obama-era law. That law aligned milk options to the standards issued jointly by the Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments that continue to recommend reduced fat or fat free milk. Participating schools can only provide flavored and unflavored fat-free and 1% low-fat milk to students.
“Whole milk is the most nutritious drink known to mankind, and for whatever reason, the federal government took it out of our schools over a decade ago – robbing an entire generation of essential dairy intake,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), the bill’s sponsor, said in a Nov. 20 news release.
The bipartisan measure follows attempts to pass similar legislation in the 118th Congress, including a bill (H.R. 1147) that passed the House with the support of 112 Democrats. The Senate didn’t that bill consider after former Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) blocked it, arguing “school meal standards currently based on dietary science should continue to be based on dietary science, not based on which individual food products that we support.”
Some House Democrats voiced concerns about a similar bill (H.R. 649), saying it “dismisses the apolitical and evidence-based nutrition science that we depend on to improve the health of school-aged children across the country” in the House Education and Workforce Committee’s report on the measure.
School Milk Guidelines
The measure would require schools participating in NSLP to offer students milk options that could include flavored and unflavored whole or reduced-fat fluid milk — in addition to existing options, all of which could be organic or nonorganic.
It would also require participating schools to offer students nondairy beverages that are “nutritionally equivalent” to fluid milk and meet USDA nutritional standards. Participating schools couldn’t restrict the sale of those beverages on school premises or at any school-sponsored event.
The bill would exclude milk fat in any fluid milk product from being classified as saturated fat for the purpose of assessing compliance with the allowable standard for average saturated fat content of an NSLP meal.
The measure would allow parents and legal guardians to provide a written statement that a student’s disability that restricts their diet and requires a milk substitute. Currently, only licensed physicians can do so.
The Defense Department could also make changes to nondairy beverage nutritional standards for overseas dependents’ schools if compliance isn’t feasible.
