June marks the closure of a dynamic and productive year at Dairy Council of California as we complete our current initiatives and prepare for the year ahead. At the June Board of Directors meeting, we highlighted strong progress toward our annual goals, fully achieving our collaboration objectives, exceeding advocacy targets and advancing education efforts through the final campaign of the year, June Is Dairy Month. The board also reviewed program impact, including continued expansion of the Mobile Dairy Classroom beyond traditional school settings and increased engagement with foodservice leaders, health professionals and communities across the state.
Building on this momentum, a central focus of the meeting was the introduction of the FY 2026–2027 Strategic Success Plan and budget, which positions dairy within “Food as Health” as a guiding framework that highlights the organization’s next phase. This forward-looking plan emphasizes advancing dairy nutrition education across the lifespan, strengthening partnerships to drive system-level impact and expanding Dairy Council of CA’s role as a trusted leader in nutrition science and public health.
The board aligned this strategic direction with a shared commitment to deepening impact, sharpening focus and delivering measurable outcomes in the year ahead. We look forward to our continued partnership with the board as we enter the new fiscal year in July and advance this next chapter together.
June is National Dairy Month, and we're highlighting how dairy supports healthy communities through nutrition, access and education.
This month, Dairy Council of CA partnered with Lodi Unified School District to support summer meal distribution efforts that help connect families with nutritious foods while school is out. The video captures that impact in action.
We also joined Mother's Nutritional Center in Los Angeles for a community nutrition event that reached 338 children and adults through hands-on dairy agricultural education, nutrition resources, food sampling and family activities.
Together, these events demonstrate the power of partnerships to connect families with nutritious foods and trusted nutrition information. Visit our June Is Dairy Month landing page and toolkit to explore resources, share key messages and help amplify dairy's role in supporting healthy communities.
As part of Dairy Council of CA’s Let’s Eat Healthy Community Grant program, Hidden Valley Elementary students, families and educators visited Beretta Family Dairy in Sonoma County for a hands-on learning experience exploring milk’s journey from farm to table.
Hidden Valley Elementary was one of the program’s grant awardees, and the tour helped bring classroom nutrition education to life through firsthand exposure to dairy farming, animal care and sustainability practices. The experience strengthened agricultural literacy and fostered a deeper appreciation for the people and resources involved in producing nutritious dairy foods. View the tour and learn more here.
A new educational resource, Farm-to-You: Milk, has launched during National Dairy Month. The handout is designed to help students explore milk’s journey from California dairy farms to schools and communities while building understanding of nutrition, agriculture and food systems. A short companion video supports the handout, which is available to order in English and Spanish.
On May 8, 2026, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a final rule expanding milk options in federal Child Nutrition Programs by allowing whole and reduced fat (2%) milk options for participants ages 2 years and older. A 30-day public comment period followed from May 8 through June 8.
Dairy Council of CA submitted public comment to commend the agency’s efforts to improve the health of U.S. children and acknowledge the important role of milk in Child Nutrition Programs. Read the full public comment here. Dairy Council of CA will continue to monitor the implementation process and will keep the California dairy community apprised of important updates and implications.
In May, Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut introduced bipartisan legislation, the Scratch Cooked Meals for Students Act, aimed at increasing access to fresh, nutritious school meals by helping districts shift from processed foods to scratch cooking with whole ingredients through a competitive grant program at the USDA. Learn more here. Dairy Council of CA continues to monitor legislation on federal nutrition programs, including school meals, and will provide updates on developments that may impact the California dairy community.
In October 2025, Gov. Newsom signed into law AB 1264, named the Real Food, Healthy Kids Act. It will prohibit serving particularly harmful ultra-processed foods in California schools. The legislation also directs the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to define “ultra-processed foods of concern” and “restricted school foods,” which schools will be required to phase out no later than July 1, 2029.
With an approved budget allocation from the 2026–2027 state budget plan passed on June 15, 2026, CDPH will begin moving forward with the implementation process to formally identify and define these terms. Dairy Council of CA will monitor the implementation process to identify opportunities for engagement.
In the last year, there has been an increase of state-level actions to restrict foods that can be purchased through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Twenty-three states now have waivers in place to restrict what participants can buy with SNAP benefits, such as sugar-sweetened beverages and candy. Recently, a federal judge blocked these SNAP restriction waivers in five states, ruling the USDA exceeded its authority in approving them. Read more here.
California dairy farmers are now invited to apply for the Dairy Plus Program to implement advanced manure management solutions on farms across the state to reduce methane emissions, improve water quality and address nitrogen and salt surpluses through innovative, sustainable projects. The 90-day application period opened on June 16, 2026. Applications are due September 14, 2026, at 5 p.m. PT.
For more information on eligibility, application materials, awarded projects and eligible practices, visit California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Dairy Plus Program webpage.
Registration is open for the California Creamery Operators Association annual meeting, June 29–30, 2026, at the Tahoe Blue Event Center in beautiful South Lake Tahoe. I will be presenting on dairy’s role in the food and nutrition and policy landscape, which is part of this year’s conference theme, The Return to Real, Dairy at the Center of Modern Nutrition. The meeting is a great place to network and learn more about the latest California-specific challenges and opportunities for dairy.
If you have questions, concerns or feedback you would like to share, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Best regards,
Amy DeLisio, CEO
Dairy Council of California
adelisio@DairyCouncilofCA.org