The Dairy Checkoff has been partnering with the School Nutrition Association for several years. Audrey Donahoe, a New York Dairy farmer, talked about the Association and what the partnership is working on.
“It’s a not-for-profit organization. It represents nearly 50,000 members. It has a national board as well as boards in all 50 states for the School Nutrition Association state level that oversees all of the school feeding. We work with a lot of dietitians and school nutrition professionals, and it’s all about feeding these kids, and their goal is to make sure that these kids eat and enjoy the food that they’re getting at these schools. So, it’s a great partnership that we have with National Dairy Council because, as a dairy farmer, I’m all about that too. I produce a wholesome, healthy food, and I want to see the kids enjoying that and eating that as well. They’re making sure these kids are getting fed healthy, nutritious meals. And as a farmer, I’m producing a very healthy, nutritious product.”
Donahoe recently attended the School Nutrition Association’s Annual Conference, an event she’s been at multiple times.
“So, what it is is all 50 of those state school nutrition association members attend this event. There are nearly 6,000 attendees, and of course, National Dairy Council is front and center. We do a lot of partnering together on different programs within the School Nutrition Association, like Made with School Lunch, and all that is is a program to promote eating school lunch and making sure that the kids are getting this healthy, wholesome diet, and, you know, all the recommendations that they need to grow up to be productive adults.”
Donahoe talked about the dairy checkoff’s work with the Smart Swaps Initiative and how that was received at the conference.
“Well, the Smart Swaps Initiative is huge. National Dairy Council partnered with two chefs, and what they did is they developed some recipes that included dairy, sometimes multiple ingredients are dairy, of all breakfast items that are reimbursable. They were kid-tested, they were kid-approved, and everybody just thinks it’s a great idea to have that within the schools to feed the kids more healthy and desirable meals. Because these school food service professionals want to see the kids eat. They don’t want to see it in the garbage. You know, the Smart Swaps initiative has been huge for us as the partnership between the farmers and SNA, the Dairy Council and SNA, and the fact that these schools love these recipes because they taste good and they know the kids are going to want it.”
Dairy farmers are excited about whole milk now being an option for schools to give to students. She talked about how farmers can work with their local schools to lean into the expanded milk options.
“We have developed a lot of great resources for people if they want to try to get the whole milk in their schools. They have an outreach, a list of what you can do, and who you can contact. I know personally, like American Dairy Association Northeast, I’m president of that organization, which covers six states in the Northeast; they have a lot of resources within their website that you can go to and get what you need as far as reaching out to the processors and the schools. What can we do to help? And at the national level, we have a lot of resources as well. There are a lot of things you can do to help get the whole milk in schools.”