Shenandoah dairy farmer Thomas French represented Virginia dairy farmers at President Donald Trump’s signing of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025 yesterday.
The legislation gives schools the option to serve flavored and unflavored whole and 2% milk. The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act overturns 2012 rules that limited schools to fat-free or 1% milk under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program, which serves nearly 30 million students daily.
French thanked Trump and the current administration for signing the Whole Milk bill into law. “We’ve worked 15 years on this with our industry,” said French, who is a sixth generation farmer. “I’ve been in the high schools and the middle schools where the students want milk. I even did a taste test one time at a high school, and they wanted the whole milk.”
Research shows that when whole milk isn’t available, children often choose sugary drinks like juice or soda. This change means better nutrition options for students and a boost for the dairy industry.
Currently, U.S. milk output is hitting record highs while fluid consumption is falling. Allowing whole milk in schools could provide an outlet for butterfat, which is key to dairy farm revenue, and create new opportunities for dairy farmers.
“Milk provided by the national school lunch program may be the only opportunity for many school children to consume milk,” said Tony Banks, senior assistant director of agriculture, development and innovation for Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. “The Healthy Kids Act allows all children the option to select between whole, reduced-fat and skim milk regardless of their family’s ability to purchase milk.”
According to Daniel Munch, an American Farm Bureau Federation economist, Americans drink far less milk than they used to—down nearly 50% since 1975 and 28% since 2010. Cheese, butter and yogurt consumption has surged, but fluid milk use continues to decline. However, whole milk is the exception: from 2013 to 2024, sales grew 16% while skim and reduced-fat options plunged. Whole milk’s share of fluid sales rose from 27% to 38%, driven by interest in protein-rich and minimally processed foods and even appetite-suppressing drug regimens that prioritize fuller-fat, higher-protein options for satiety and sustained energy.
Since the National School Lunch Program accounts for about 7.5% of U.S. fluid milk sales, even modest gains in school milk sales can strengthen fluid milk markets, boost butterfat utilization and improve returns to farmers, Munch explained.
“Those increases matter in an oversupplied market,” he said. More whole milk shifts butterfat into higher-value fluid milk channels, simplifying processing and reducing the amount of lower-value skim powder produced. For smaller dairies, it also could create local farm-to-school opportunities.
