Trump Signs Law Reinstating Whole Milk In School Lunches
President Donald Trump signed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act on Wednesday, officially reversing Obama-era regulations that banned whole and 2% milk from school lunch programs. The new law allows schools participating in the National School Lunch Program to offer fuller-fat milk options, rolling back a key policy from Michelle Obama’s controversial school nutrition agenda.
“Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, whole milk is a great thing,” Trump said at the White House signing ceremony, flanked by dairy farmers and their children. “With this legislation, schools will finally be able to expand their offerings to include nutritious whole milk. This is the perfect follow-up to the new Real Food pyramid.”
The law scraps prior USDA restrictions that required schools to serve only skim or 1% milk, a central plank of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. That program, championed by Michelle Obama, prioritized calorie and fat reduction in school meals—a move critics say led to bland, unsatisfying food and increased waste.
The new law also loosens rules around non-dairy alternatives. Previously, parents needed a doctor’s note for children to receive non-dairy milk substitutes. That requirement has now been removed, with Trump calling it “rather ridiculous” and praising the reform as one that “lets parents decide what’s best for their kids.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture celebrated the news by posting a photo of President Trump sporting a milk mustache on social media, alongside the caption: “The Milk Mustache Is Back. Drink Whole Milk.”
This legislative victory comes just days after major updates to the federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans were announced by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. Under the Trump administration’s new approach, the food pyramid has been restructured to prioritize whole foods, healthy fats, and proteins—while warning Americans to limit or avoid ultra-processed products.
Kennedy, a longtime critic of the modern processed food industry, previously pledged to overhaul school lunches. “We’re creating a diabetes problem in our kids by giving them food that is poison,” he told Fox & Friends in 2024. “I’ll get processed food out of lunches immediately.”
The move to reintroduce whole milk is the latest action under RFK Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative and marks a symbolic break from years of federal dietary policy that vilified saturated fats, even in natural forms like milk.