Contact: Jamie Evan Bichelman
Email: gro.doog4hctiws@beimaj
Vegan Olympic medalist Dotsie Bausch and animal welfare veteran Wayne Pacelle successfully collaborated with bipartisan policymakers on this historic bill.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass a historic piece of legislation championed by Switch4Good founder and vegan Olympic medalist Dotsie Bausch, as well as Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy President Wayne Pacelle. The bill now heads to the desk of President Donald Trump to be signed into law. The legislation — which passed unanimously in both the Senate and the House — will require schools to offer a variety of plant-based milk options to students in the lunch line for the first time in the nearly 80-year history of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).
The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act (H.R.649), which includes provisions from the FISCAL Act (H.R.2539) championed by Bausch and Pacelle, is a landmark piece of legislation that will begin to chip away at the $400 million in taxpayer money wasted each year on unopened and discarded dairy milk cartons given to public school students at lunchtime as part of the NSLP.
“This is a watershed moment and a tremendous win for our kids, our planet, and the future of school nutrition,” Dotsie Bausch, the founder and executive director of Switch4Good, said. “By supporting the inclusion of plant-based milk in the school lunch line, the House has shown that progress, compassion, and science can triumph together. As an Olympic athlete, I’ve spent my life fighting for what fuels health and human potential, and giving children access to healthier options is a victory that will ripple for generations. This is more than policy; this is a powerful step toward a healthier world.”
The FISCAL Act was introduced into the House by Rep. Troy A. Carter, (D-LA) alongside 11 cosponsors and the support of more than 200 racial and dietary justice advocates and groups. The bill was eventually merged with the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, itself a popular piece of legislation with 118 cosponsors in the House.
Under the current guidelines of the NSLP, cow’s milk was mandatorily given to public school children, despite the fact that an estimated 15 million kids participating in the NSLP are lactose intolerant. Once signed into law, this will effectively eliminate the cow’s milk mandate in the NSLP, thereby offering lactose-intolerant kids a healthy and suitable alternative to cow’s milk, supporting all kids’ freedom of choice.
“After its 80-year run, the cow’s milk mandate in the National School Lunch Program will end and kids will finally have the choice of selecting a nutritious beverage that they can safely consume,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. “With perhaps 40 percent of kids in the lunch program showing some degree of lactose intolerance, the long-standing federal policy put millions of kids in a terrible position – drink a beverage that makes them ill or go without any drink and toss the milk in the trash.”
Bausch’s history of groundbreaking food system advocacy
A spiritual predecessor to the FISCAL Act, the Addressing Digestive Distress in Stomachs of Our Youth Act (ADD SOY Act) was introduced in the 118th Congress (2023-2024), which both built upon years of advocacy by Bausch and Pacelle in Washington, D.C., and set the stage for the success that its successor, the FISCAL Act, enjoyed.
“The ADD SOY Act planted the first seed, which proved that Congress could put children’s health, inclusivity, and evidence-based nutrition ahead of outdated norms,” Bausch said. “That foundation made the success of the FISCAL Act not only possible, but inevitable. Seeing these protections now included in the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act shows what steady, principled advocacy can achieve. We’re witnessing a real shift in how our nation cares for its students, and it all started with the courage to say every child deserves access to nourishment that supports their wellbeing.”
Recognized in March 2025 by ProVeg International as the definitive leader “responsible for plant-forward food policy changes in the U.S. Dietary Guidelines,” Bausch testified in Washington, D.C., on several occasions throughout 2020 and catalyzed a record-setting number of followers to call on the USDA to revise the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Bausch’s efforts resulted in soy milk as a recommended source of nutrients in the current version of the guidelines.
Additionally, Bausch successfully advocated for plentiful plant-based updates to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (better known as the WIC program), resulting in numerous non-dairy options for WIC recipients for the first time in the program’s half-century of existence.
To learn more about Bausch and Switch4Good’s efforts to revolutionize the American food system, or to schedule an interview with Dotsie Bausch and Wayne Pacelle, contact gro.doog4hctiws@beimaj.
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About Switch4Good
Switch4Good is an evidence-based nonprofit that advocates for a dairy-free world and plant-based living. Founded in 2018 by Olympic medalist Dotsie Bausch, Switch4Good’s mission is to combat the distortion and disrupt the misinformation fed to us by the dairy industry. Switch4Good partnered with health experts, athletes, and the International Olympic Committee to write the first playbook for plant-based athletes titled “Let the Plant-based Games Begin.” Switch4Good’s new Kids and Dairy Symptoms program (KiDS) is purposed with educating doctors, dietitians, and parents about the harm drinking cow’s milk does to kids. For more information, please visit www.switch4good.org.
About Animal Wellness Action
Animal Wellness Action is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) whose mission is to help animals by promoting laws and regulations at federal, state and local levels that forbid cruelty to all animals. The group also works to enforce existing anti-cruelty and wildlife protection laws. Animal Wellness Action believes helping animals helps us all. Twitter: @AWAction_News
About The Center for a Humane Economy
The Center for a Humane Economy is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) whose mission is to help animals by helping forge a more humane economic order. The first organization of its kind in the animal protection movement, the Center encourages businesses to honor their social responsibilities in a culture where consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders abhor cruelty and the degradation of the environment and embrace innovation as a means of eliminating both. The Center believes helping animals helps us all. Twitter: @TheHumaneCenter