HARRISBURG, Pa. — Continuing a multi-year effort to expand whole milk access for students, Rep. John Lawrence (R-13th) offered a State House floor amendment A03413 on Wed., June 3 that would designate $1 million to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture for a whole milk pilot program, in coordination with the Center for Dairy Excellence, to purchase and place bulk milk dispensers in public school cafeterias to provide whole milk to students, sourced from Pennsylvania farms.

The underlying legislation is House Bill 2468, which deals with Ag Innovation grant funding. Lawrence said the proposal is designed to help schools take advantage of the newly restored federal whole milk options while supporting Pennsylvania dairy farms.

“We want to provide opportunities for Pennsylvania students to have access to quality whole milk from Pennsylvania farms,” he told Farmshine on the eve of the floor vote.

“It’s going to take time for facilities to ramp up production of smaller pints and half-pints (labeled) for these options. We want to get these products — whole milk, whole chocolate milk — into the hands of school children as soon as possible.”

In fact, some schools are reporting that their vendors and nutrition buying groups are reluctant to add whole milk to the choices offered, or they are quoting excessive and discouraging upcharges of 8 to 13 cents per half-pint, when the real difference in the milk cost from skim to whole is 1 to 2.5 cents per half-pint, according to national data gleaned by Farmshine, and state minimum price announcements by the Pennsylvania Milk Board.

Lawrence’s amendment comes as schools begin talking with vendors about implementing the federal Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, championed by Congressman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-Pa.-15), and one day after Senator David Argall introduced legislation in the State Senate to support whole milk pilot equipment funding. (See article on page 3.)

The House amendment focuses on funding bulk milk dispensers, which have gained momentum in schools around the country, particularly in the Southeast, where programs have expanded rapidly ahead of and along with whole milk implementation.

Pilot programs have shown higher milk consumption when students are given expanded choices, and recent implementation discussions have focused on dispensers as a practical way to deliver “fresh, cold, ice-cold milk” while reducing packaging waste and lowering costs to schools.

Recently, Lawrence pointed to milk dispensers at Black Rock Retreat Center in southern Lancaster County, where locally produced Maplehof whole milk is on tap, as an example of the fresh milk experience many students have never had. He has expressed concern that an entire generation has grown up without knowing what fresh milk is supposed to taste like.

The amendment reflects Lawrence’s long-standing efforts on the issue. In 2022, he authored the Whole Milk for Pennsylvania Schools Act, which passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support but stalled in the Senate. The bill sought to restore whole milk and 2% milk options years before Congress acted at the federal level, and Lawrence intentionally requested House Bill number 2397 as a nod to the 97 MILK movement that helped educate consumers and lawmakers about the issue.

Speaking recently at an event honoring Thompson’s successful federal effort, Lawrence reflected on how dramatically the issue had evolved, recalling how shocked his grandfather, a dairy farmer in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, would have been “if you had told him that the federal government would one day outlaw kids from drinking whole milk in school.”

Yet that is what happened in 2010 until January 2026.

“Talk is cheap, and doers are in short supply. We have a doer in GT Thompson,” Lawrence said of his persistence.

Lawrence acknowledged that offering his funding proposal as an amendment provided one of the few opportunities to obtain a legislative vote on the concept before the summer recess.

“The chance of actually getting a floor vote on this kind of thing in a standalone bill between now and the end of June is basically zero,” he said. “Your opportunity to get a vote is by filing an amendment to a bill that’s already moving.”

Lawrence’s amendment — and the broader Ag Innovation Grant funding bill to which it was attached — were expected to receive a House floor vote June 3 but were pulled by House leadership before consideration. Whether the legislation returns when the House reconvenes June 8 remains unclear. Sources familiar with the situation suggested some caucus members may have been reluctant to cast recorded votes against either the whole milk proposal or Lawrence’s separate amendment addressing phorid fly impacts on southern Chester County mushroom farms.

For now, the issue remains alive. With June Dairy Month underway and whole milk restored across school meal and child nutrition programs nationwide, discussions surrounding milk dispensers, equipment grants, and school infrastructure support are expected to continue as districts prepare for the new school year.