U.S. News
Trump Reverses Obama-Era School Cafeteria Policy
By Jake Beardslee · January 16, 2026
President Donald Trump has signed legislation reversing Obama-era school nutrition rules that restricted full-fat milk in cafeterias, restoring the option for schools to serve whole milk to students nationwide.
The newly enacted Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025 mandates that schools participating in federal meal programs may offer “flavored and unflavored organic or nonorganic whole, reduced-fat, low-fat, and fat-free fluid milk and lactose-free fluid milk, and nondairy beverages that are nutritionally equivalent to fluid milk.” The law also revises how milk fat is classified in federal nutritional standards, stating that milk fat in fluid milk products “shall not be considered saturated fat for purposes of measuring compliance with the allowable average saturated fat content of a meal.”
Trump signed the bill at the White House on Wednesday, celebrating the change as bipartisan common ground. “Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, whole milk is a great thing,” he said.
The shift marks a reversal of policies introduced under former President Barack Obama, which limited whole milk in schools in an effort to reduce childhood obesity. Whole milk contains roughly 3.25 percent fat, while reduced-fat alternatives contain about 2 percent. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in five Americans between ages 2 and 19 is obese, a statistic that fueled earlier nutrition restrictions.
Supporters of low-fat milk rules have long argued that reducing saturated fat in children’s diets could help prevent cardiovascular disease later in life. However, the Trump administration and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have promoted a broader “Make America Healthy Again” agenda centered on limiting processed foods and encouraging “whole” foods.
Kennedy has previously criticized reduced-fat milk policies, arguing that children rejected the alternatives and turned to less healthy drinks. He said there is now a “whole generation, 15 years, of children who were not getting vital nutrients… calcium, whole fats, vitamin D, and all of these other nutrients that are so good for our children.”
A leaked draft of a second “Make America Healthy Again” report indicated the administration intended to “remove restrictions on whole milk sales in schools, allowing districts to offer full-fat dairy options alongside reduced-fat alternatives.”
The law also arrives shortly after the release of the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recommend whole milk for children and encourage consumption of healthy fats from “whole foods, such as meats, poultry, eggs, omega-3–rich seafood, nuts, seeds, full-fat dairy, olives, and avocados,” while advising that saturated fat remain under 10 percent of daily caloric intake. The U.S. Department of Agriculture promoted the change online this week, sharing an image of Trump with a milk mustache captioned: “The Milk Mustache Is Back.”
The decision has drawn mixed reactions from nutrition experts.
Adam Lock, a professor in the Department of Animal Science at Michigan State University, told Newsweek: “All dairy milks (whole, reduced-fat, or fat-free) provide 13 essential nutrients, including high-quality protein, calcium, vitamins A and D, B12, iodine, and potassium. Whole milk also provides energy and fat-soluble vitamins that can support growth, brain development, and satiety in children within a balanced diet. In my opinion, few foods deliver more nutritional value per calorie than milk.”
He added: “Importantly, the best available evidence does not show harm from dairy fat; prospective studies and meta-analyses consistently find neutral or even beneficial associations between dairy intake and long-term cardiometabolic outcomes. The long-held assumption that milk fat is harmful is based on older, flawed science focused only on cholesterol levels.
“Our understanding of nutrition has evolved. Milk is one of the most nutrient-dense foods we can offer children; you get an exceptional amount of high-quality protein, vitamins, and minerals for the calories it provides, which is especially important for growing children. Importantly, modern evidence shows neutral to beneficial health outcomes. Policy should reflect the current science, not assumptions from decades ago.”
The new law will affect students in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, serving nearly 30 million students across approximately 94,000 schools nationwide.