By SHERRY BUNTING
Special for Farmshine
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Now that the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act was signed into law by President Trump, making whole milk a legal option for schools for the first time in over 15 years, Pennsylvania Sen. David Argall (R-9th) introduced a bill in the State Senate on Tuesday, June 2 to provide $500,000 in funding to help make it a reality in the Commonwealth.
The bill would establish a Pennsylvania whole milk pilot program to help schools purchase bulk milk dispensers, coolers, carts and other equipment as part of the transition and excitement around offering the whole milk option, while supporting local milk from Pennsylvania farms.
In a phone interview just before introducing the bill, Sen. Argall told Farmshine it builds on the national grassroots effort that really started in Pennsylvania, a movement he has supported in many ways from the beginning.
The bill is cosponsored so far by Senators Doug Mastriano (R-33rd), Lynda Schlegel Culver (R-27th), Michele Brooks (R-50th) and Gene Yaw (R-23rd), after Sen. Argall circulated his co-sponsorship memo on May 26. It is known as SB 1362 and is awaiting referral to a committee, but Argall indicated he believed the Ag Committee would take it up.
Bipartisan support is also evident in the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s involvement.
“Secretary Redding has been very helpful. I’ve worked with him over the years under several different governors, and he gets it,” Argall noted.
The bill is designed as a matching funds pilot to be implemented by the Center for Dairy Excellence in partnership with PDA, so information can be gathered, results from participating schools can be compared.
“I think we benchmark it. It’s a pilot. If School X serves a certain number of units of milk and School Y is higher or lower, we ask questions. Why is that? This is designed to see what works so we can repeat it and learn from it,” Argall said.
In his May 26 memo to colleagues, Argall wrote that the legislation “will not only help students gain the nutritional advantages that whole milk has to offer, it will decrease packaging waste.”
The memo cited examples from schools in Oregon and Virginia that reported significant reductions in waste of up to 91% after adopting milk dispenser systems.
“We’ve done all kinds of outreach and public hearings at the state level on the whole milk issue over the years. As in government, things take time, but we’re pleased with the result in Washington and certainly pleased with the efforts of our favorite congressman chairing the Agriculture Committee, GT Thompson,” Sen. Argall reflected, noting that Congressman Thompson made this a priority for many years.
“It’s simple common sense. I think a lot of us grew up with whole milk in schools and around the kitchen table, and we’ve seen the studies that show it is genuinely good for you. As it started going away, that never made sense to us. We’re glad to see things back on track,” he shared.
The Senate bill traces back to discussions in early March when members of the Grassroots Pennsylvania Dairy Advisory Committee met separately with Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding and Sen. David Argall to explore ways Pennsylvania could support whole milk in schools, sharing the efforts and results with whole milk celebrations coupled with bulk milk dispenser rollouts in Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia through public-private partnership grants and involvement of the Dairy Alliance, the Southeast regional checkoff organization.
Those discussions led to Bernie Morrissey, chairman of the Grassroots committee, contacting dairy leaders across many organizations to pull together what is now the Whole Milk Task Force managed by Jayne Sebright with the Center for Dairy Excellence and includes dairy farmers, school nutrition leaders, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, and representation from the Pennsylvania Milk Board, Farm Bureau, Association of Milk Dealers, Dairymen’s Association, PennAg, Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania, State Senator David Argall, and State Rep. John Lawrence.
Alongside PDA and CDE on the implementation and education side, are representatives of American Dairy Association North East and Allied Milk Producers, both checkoff organizations, as well as 97 MILK, the volunteer milk education nonprofit.
While the federal legislation restored whole milk as an option, Argall’s state senate bill addresses the practical challenges.
“The pilot would include 20 urban, rural and suburban schools of varying enrollment sizes. It could be everything from the bulk milk dispensers to coolers and carts that transport cold milk to classrooms,” Argall explained.
What does whole milk pilot program success look like to the Senator?
“If students are exposed to it at a young age, and they like it, chances are they’ll continue the healthy habit for the rest of their lives,” Argall replied. “I’m just glad we are finally at this stage.”
