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 a historic bill that empowers U.S. schools to offer a variety of plant milk to students in the lunch line.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Senate unanimously voted to pass a historic piece of legislation spearheaded 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 landmark legislation will afford public school children the option of non-dairy milk with school lunches, and empower schools to offer a variety of plant milk to students in the lunch line for the first time in the nearly 80-year history of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).
Attesting to the remarkable and bipartisan nature of the bill, it was also approved unanimously by the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee in early June, their first such action in three years. The bill is an amended version of S. 222, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which incorporates provisions from the FISCAL Act that Bausch and Pacelle championed through Congress.
“Not only is the FISCAL Act scientifically sound, but it will soon combat an immense amount of food waste and officially end the 80-year-old ‘cow’s milk only’ mandate in our nation’s schools,” Dotsie Bausch, the founder and executive director of Switch4Good, said. “We are proud to be the groundbreaking stewards who will usher in this historic legislation.”
With the backing of more than 200 racial and dietary justice advocates and groups, the bill entered Congress with tremendous momentum. Once signed into law, the work will begin to mitigate the $400 million in taxpayer money wasted each year on unopened, discarded dairy milk cartons given as part of the NSLP.
Prior to the bill’s passing, 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. The bill effectively eliminates the cow’s milk mandate in the NSLP, thereby offering kids a healthy plant-based alternative to cow’s milk, supporting their freedom of choice.
“Passage of S. 222 as amended will pull the federal government into the modern era, providing options for lactose intolerant kids in K-12 public schools and reducing immense milk wastage from cows selectively bred and bioengineered to produce six times more milk than they did only decades ago,” said Wayne Pacelle, the president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy.
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.
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.
“Undertaking multiple food system revolutions over the last half-decade necessitated unflinching resilience and aligning ourselves with bipartisan policymakers who recognized the dire nature of the impact industrial dairy is having on our planet,” Bausch said.
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