The recent passage of the federal Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act marks a strategic effort to reverse a decade-long decline in dairy consumption.
By rolling back 15-year-old guidelines to let schools put whole and 2% milk back on menus, the law is aimed at providing a long-sought economic boost for local farmers and processors. Industry leaders believe the key to that boost lies in the flavor profile of higher-fat milk, arguing that better taste will naturally encourage students to drink more.
“Whole milk is going to taste better than skim or 1%, and it’s got some of those healthy dairy fats in it as well,” said Steve Turner, vice president of sales and marketing at Turner Dairy in Penn Hills. The company supplies milk to about 120 school districts throughout Pennsylvania.
For school food service administrators, it may mean a balancing act. While the law allows for more popular milk options that could reduce food waste and improve student satisfaction, officials must weigh those benefits against nutritional guidelines and tight budgets.
More than decade of decline
The shift marks a reversal of the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, which restricted school lunch programs to fat-free and 1% milk. Since those guidelines took effect, national fluid milk sales have decreased by billions of pounds.
After peaking in 2009 at 54.5 billion pounds, figures dropped to 40 billion pounds in 2024, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
“You can clearly see, from 2010 on, the national milk sales declining,” Turner said. “We’re pretty confident that’s got a lot to do with having only low- or no-fat milk options in schools.”
According to the nonprofit Center for Dairy Excellence, Pennsylvania’s milk production declined for the fourth consecutive year in 2024 at 9.78 billion pounds of milk. Those numbers received a slight bump in 2025 to 9.8 billion pounds.
“Kids have quit drinking milk,” said John Barkley, corporate sales manager at Marburger Dairy in Evans City, which supplies milk to 30 school districts. “I think bringing whole milk back into the (school) system will help bring that loyalty back.”
Impact on local agriculture
At Pleasant Lane Farms in Unity, about half of the milk produced by Jason Frye’s cows is shipped to Turner Dairy for processing, while the rest is used for on-site artisan cheese.
“There are two sides of it for us,” Frye said. “Having whole milk back in schools will hopefully help bring kids back to drinking milk, because it will have better flavor and more nutritional value. For us, it’s about driving that consumption back into schools and helping people realize it’s a good beverage to have as part of your diet.”
Butler County dairy farmer William Thiele, who was present at the White House for the bill’s signing Jan. 14, said the impact will be a “marathon, not a sprint.”
Thiele noted current prices paid to dairy farmers remain “very low,” and the lack of whole milk in schools has created a generation of consumers who simply don’t enjoy the taste.
According to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, the base price for raw milk was $14.70 per 100 pounds — or about $1.26 per gallon — as of this month. The price per 100 pounds is down nearly $4 from December, which was the lowest December price base since 2018.
“Fluid milk is our highest-priced commodity,” said Blairsville dairy farmer and former Pennsylvania Farm Bureau President Rick Ebert. “And it’s just a better-tasting product. It has flavor to it, it has body to it, and it’s just more of a complete package of nutrients.”
Thiele agreed.
“The past 10 or 15 years … kids have been drinking skim and 1%, and they grow up not liking milk as much,” Thiele said. “Hopefully, we can reverse that trend … and then maybe families buy a gallon each week instead of a half-gallon.”
Shifting nutritional landscapes
The change in federal guidelines coincides with a broader overhaul of nutritional guidelines by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). The new food pyramid prioritizes protein, dairy and healthy fats along with fruits and vegetables.
While the American Medical Association (AMA) supports efforts to reduce ultra-processed foods, the new direction has sparked internal debate. Some AMA members expressed criticism of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recommendations to increase the consumption of red meat and saturated fats.
Students switching to whole milk doesn’t immediately translate to more income for farmers and processors. Farmers will still ship raw milk. But they’d like to ship more of it.
“We pay farmers the federal mandated price and a quality premium on top of that,” Turner said.
For processors and farmers alike, the benefit lies with potential to build long-term dairy habits among students.
“Milk from farms is coming in around 4% butterfat, and whole milk is standardized at 3.25%,” Turner explained. “But there isn’t a big advantage as far as processing time. The big opportunity is to provide a better-tasting, healthier product for students that will hopefully create lifelong dairy consumers.”
Thiele sends raw milk to Marburger Dairy, and it doesn’t much matter to him whether it gets turned into whole milk, skim milk or cheese.
“We’re looking for this to help boost production overall,” he said.
Barkley agreed.
“A whole generation lost interest in milk,” he said. “Chocolate whole milk is a great way to win kids back.”
A balancing act
Schools will have to choose whether or not to reintroduce whole and 2% milk. The legislation does not make it mandatory.
“They’ll be talking to their students to see if there is interest in this type of a change,” said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokesperson for the School Nutrition Association.
If the interest is there, it won’t be as simple as adding two more varieties of milk to the weekly food order.
“School districts will have to talk with their suppliers,” she said. “There are regional availability issues, they’ll need to be sure their suppliers can provide those options regularly and they’ll need to talk about pricing.”
At Franklin Regional School District, communications director Deana Callipare said it’s a matter of cartons.
“Our food service’s dairy supplier said they do have enough milk to supply the schools in the area, but they don’t have enough of the cartons manufactured yet,” Callipare said.
Franklin Regional plans to test out whole milk by initially reintroducing it at the elementary level as soon as they can begin receiving a steady supply.
“We’re going to see how our students receive it,” she said.
Turner said it would take “a few weeks” to shift operations and begin producing whole milk for schools.
“Since we don’t typically produce as much whole milk pints compared to other school milk, we’d need some time to bring in packaging and increase production,” he said.
Barkley said Marburger’s turnaround time would be quick.
“We’ve got lots of milk — what you put it in is what matters,” he said. “We have several schools switching to whole milk as we speak, and what I’ve told them is to run out their current inventory of skim and 1% over the next few days, and we’ll fill in with whole milk right behind it. It’s just a packaging change.”
Adding one or two new regular items to the menu also could require a financial balancing act. The School Nutrition Association released a report last month outlining the financial difficulty some school meal program managers have in creating wholesome, healthy meals.
For Franklin Regional, regular whole milk is about 4 cents more per unit compared to skim and 1%, and chocolate whole milk is 6 cents more.
“Most schools have an average of about $4.70 to assemble a complete healthy meal, and that includes food, labor and supplies,” Pratt-Heavner said. “A change of even a few cents per meal can really be challenging. So cost is definitely a factor we’ve been talking about since the release of these new dietary guidelines.”