{"id":24722,"date":"2025-04-29T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=24722"},"modified":"2025-04-21T09:41:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T13:41:23","slug":"bill-introduced-in-congress-that-would-grant-schools-more-flexibility-to-serve-plant-based-milks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2025\/04\/29\/bill-introduced-in-congress-that-would-grant-schools-more-flexibility-to-serve-plant-based-milks\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Introduced in Congress that Would Grant Schools More Flexibility to Serve Plant-based Milks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD<\/strong><\/p>\n

Currently <\/strong>the requirements for public schools in the United States to provide a substitute for cow\u2019s milk for non-disability reasons (such as a vegan diet) include a fluid milk substitute meets specified nutrition standards, the milk substitute is requested in writing by a medical authority or the child\u2019s parent or legal guardian, and the school must cover any expenses that exceed program reimbursements.<\/p>\n

Recently, the bipartisan <\/strong>Freedom in School Cafeterias and Lunches (FISCAL) Act<\/a> (S.1236), was introduced in the Senate by Sens.\u00a0John Fetterman\u00a0(D-PA),\u00a0Cory Booker\u00a0(D-NJ), and\u00a0John Kennedy\u00a0(R-LA). This bill , would make it easier for schools to serve plant-based milks that are nutritionally equivalent to cow\u2019s milk. The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.\u00a0The bill was introduced in the House (H.R. 2539 FISCAL Act<\/a>) by Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), and John Mannion (D-NY) and was referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.<\/p>\n

To read more about school meals see:<\/p>\n

USDA Issues Revisions to Child Nutrition Programs<\/a><\/p>\n

Getting Vegan Food into Schools<\/a><\/p>\n

Vegan Options in a California School<\/a><\/p>\n

Vegan Options in Portland, ME School Lunch<\/a><\/p>\n

New York City School Lunch Program Features \u201cVegan Fridays\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

School Food Lunch<\/a><\/p>\n

Tempeh in School Meals<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD Currently the requirements for public schools in the United States to provide a substitute for cow\u2019s milk for non-disability reasons (such as a vegan diet) include a fluid milk substitute meets specified nutrition standards, the milk substitute is requested in writing by a medical authority or the child\u2019s parent or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24724,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24722\/revisions\/24724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}