President Donald Trump shows the signed bill in the Oval Office on January 14, 2026. Trump signed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which restores whole milk to school lunches nationwide. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed legislation Wednesday that would restore whole milk in federally subsidized school lunches.
Basic dairy products – after-school meal programs that have been running for more than a decade as part of a broader effort to reduce childhood obesity – will soon return to school cafeterias under the law.
Trump said during the signing ceremony in the Oval Office that Act on whole milk for hearty children “will ensure that millions of school-aged children have access to high-quality milk, making America healthy again.”
Sitting with a jug of milk on the Resolute Desk, Trump said the changes would also be “huge victories for the American dairy farmers that we love and who voted for me in large numbers.”
Ceremony at the White House
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins was ecstatic to see the legislation become law and said her department would release on Wednesday “new regulations that are necessary to get whole milk back into school lunches.”
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also praised Trump’s efforts and described the measure as “a long overdue correction to school nutrition policy that puts children’s health first.”
Trump was also joined by Dr. Ben Carson, national adviser on nutrition, health and housing at the USDA, as well as Democratic Sens. Peter Welch of Vermont, GOP Sens. John Boozman of Arkansas, Mike Crapo of Idaho and Roger Marshall of Kansas, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and supporters who supported the bill.
Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson of Pennsylvania, who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, and Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan, chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, also attended the ceremony.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill in December, following unanimous passage by the Senate in November.
Welch and Marshall, along with Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick, a Republican, and John Fetterman, a Democrat, introduced a measure in the Senate.
Thompson and Democrat Kim Schrier of Washington state brought appropriate legislation in the Chamber.
What the up-to-date law does
By law, schools participating in the USDA National School Lunch Program can offer “flavored and unflavored, organic or non-organic whole, reduced-fat, low-fat and fat-free fluid milk, and lactose-free fluid milk.”
Nearly 29.4 million children were served on a typical day during the 2023-2024 school year, according to the program, which provides free or low-cost lunches in public and private nonprofit schools and child care settings. Center for food research and action.
Schools can also provide “non-dairy beverages that are nutritionally equivalent to fluid milk and meet nutritional standards established by” the Secretary of Agriculture.
The law excludes milk fat from being considered saturated fat because it applies to the “allowable average saturated fat content in a meal” served in schools.
Parents and guardians, as well as doctors, can also submit a written declaration that their student will receive a dairy-free milk substitute.
Michael Dykes, president and CEO of the International Dairy Foods Association, celebrated the bill’s passage on Wednesday statement.
Dykes called the law “a win for our children, parents and school nutrition directors by giving schools the flexibility to offer flavored and unflavored milk, with all levels of healthy fats, that meet students’ needs and preferences.”
The signing of this agreement was the second major change in food policy this month. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released the report Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025–2030Which encourages more full-fat dairy and protein.
