The US Senate Agriculture Committee has voted in favour of a bill that would allow students access to plant-based milk in their school lunches.
Democrats and Republicans have unanimously advanced legislation that will put almond milk in school lunches for children with dietary restrictions.
The Senate Agriculture Committee this week voted in favour of the bipartisan Freedom in School Cafeterias and Lunches (FISCAL) Act, months after it was approved by the House Education and Workforce Committee with a 24-10 vote.
The bill will now move to the full Senate and House of Representatives, before heading to the desk of President Donald Trump. If passed, it would mark a major victory for advocates like the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and Friends of the Earth, who are members of the Plant Powered School Meals Coalition.
Current law only guarantees students a substitute for cow’s milk if a parent submits a physician’s note documenting a disability, and prohibits schools from proactively offering soy milk on the lunch line.
FISCAL Act puts parents in charge and eases health concerns
The bill was introduced by John Fetterman, a Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, who has a record of working across the aisle on legislation. He was joined by Senators Cory Booker (a Democrat from New Jersey) and John Kennedy (a Republican from Louisiana).
Currently, the National School Lunch Act requires kids to have cow’s milk on their trays for schools to be reimbursed by the government, irrespective of whether it suits them or not. The USDA already reimburses schools for 1% and non-fat cow’s milk, providing $1B to institutions across the country. But under the FISCAL Act, schools would be reimbursed for non-dairy milk too.
The bill’s text reads that schools “shall offer students a variety of fluid milk”, but Fetterman and co’s proposal would see “fluid milk” be replaced with “milk, including fluid milk and plant-based milk”.
The school lunch law also has a subparagraph stating that “a school may substitute for the fluid milk” if students can’t consume dairy because of a medical or dietary need, but this is only possible if the school notifies the state agency that it is making this change, and if the student gets a signed doctor’s note.
The FISCAL Act proposes removing this provision altogether. Instead, it would authorise parents and legal guardians, in addition to licensed physicians, to provide a note to guarantee their kids receive a plant-based milk alternative at school.
“Putting parents in charge of their children’s nutrition at school is long overdue. As is removing the unnecessary red tape that prevents students from being served healthy nondairy milks at school,” said PCRM president Neal Barnard.
One of the main drivers of the FISCAL Act is lactose intolerance, which affects around half of the nearly 30 million children who benefit from the National School Lunch Program. Lactose malabsorption rates are especially high among people of colour, with 65% of Hispanic and 75% of Black Americans suffering from the condition. That number rises to 90% for Asian Americans and 95% for Native Americans.
Legislation a boon for both dairy and plant-based milk
USDA data shows that 30% of milk cartons served in schools are thrown in the trash unopened, while another study found that kids discard 150 million gallons of milk per year, leading to food waste amounting to $400M in tax dollar losses.
So, saving taxpayer dollars is one reason why this initiative has support from both sides of the aisle. But there’s another factor at play. The FISCAL Act is a companion measure to the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which seeks to overturn an Obama-era reform that prohibited full-fat and 2% milk from being part of the school lunch programme.
The whole milk bill has gained bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, including Fetterman himself, who co-sponsored the legislation. The FISCAL Act ties both dairy and plant-based alternatives together – either both win, or neither.
It’s in line with Robert F Kennedy Jr’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative. As health secretary, he has called for the Head Start programmes – which provide health and nutrition services for kids from low-income families – to switch from low-fat dairy to whole milk.
The integration of plant-based milk into the efforts to bring whole milk back on school lunch trays is a marker of the compromises needed from both sides in the MAHA age. The bill comes amid a resurgence of dairy – particularly raw milk, in the country. Sales of cow’s milk grew by 2% in 2024, with whole milk intake up by 3%. Non-dairy milk, however, saw sales slip by 6%.
The FISCAL Act faces opposition from the American Farm Bureau Federation, which has already spent $325,000 on lobbying efforts this year alone, and may well have a say in how the votes in the two chambers turn out.
“If Congress truly wants schools to serve milks that best meet their students’ needs, soy milk and other healthy nondairy options should be easily available to all who want them,” said Barnard.
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