Senate committee gives due pass to bill letting schools offer whole, 2% and flavored milk

Representative Dawson Hawley (District 31) told the Senate Agriculture and Veterans Affairs Committee that House Bill 11 32 would allow schools to offer whole and 2% milk, and flavored milk, through bulk dispensers while not requiring districts to switch from existing reimbursable-meal choices. He said the measure would restore local choice and help North Dakota dairy farmers.

The bill matters because federal school meal regulations generally require that milk offered as part of a reimbursable meal be fat-free or 1 percent, and those rules shape what schools can receive federal reimbursement for. Lynell Johnson, director of Child Nutrition and Food Distribution with the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction, testified to the committee that the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program is federally administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and implemented in state rules under 7 CFR…