Your school cafeteria experience as a kid was probably a lot like mine. There was a serving of milk on our trays that we knew was healthy and we drank it.
Today’s cafeteria experience is much different, if kids are even going there in the first place. A USDA report from 2023 shows 57% of K-12 students participate in lunch and it’s even lower for breakfast: 30%. This represents a 14 million meal gap in daily participation between breakfast and lunch.
This beverage explosion has occurred over the last 30 years where we’ve seen milk, soda, juice, tea and others give up market share to bottled water, ready-to-drink coffee and sports and energy drinks.
The need for innovation in the dairy category is more crucial than ever, especially if we want to remain relevant with kids. Thankfully, the checkoff has found a way to drive fresh thinking in schools through a powerful partnership that is serving dairy in a whole new way.
Staying on trend
In 2022, Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) entered a partnership with Chartwells K12, an organization that serves more than 2 million meals daily in over 7,000 school districts. Chartwells’ goal is to make sure students leave cafeterias happier and healthier than when they came in. By introducing menu items and gathering feedback, Chartwells consistently looks for ways to serve breakfast and lunch to more students. They understand the need to stay current with trends and innovate with healthy foods, including dairy.
We found an immediate synergy with Chartwells as National Dairy Council has followed a century-long commitment to childhood health and wellness. Dairy farmers care deeply about healthy children, so we knew immediately this would be a mutually beneficial relationship.
One of the best parts is the brainstorming around finding ways to increase meal – and dairy – participation at schools. This aligns with our checkoff strategy that focuses on three key areas: improve the school milk experience, modernize nutrition education and expand student access to breakfast.
Last year was the first tangible proof point that we can drive dairy consumption by giving kids the type of product they want: smoothies. We know that among the limited-service restaurants kids in the Gen Z age range visit, three of the top four are smoothie companies. Additionally, Technomic, which provides consumer insights and other services to the foodservice industry,
found that fruit smoothies are more popular than energy drinks, flavored water, juices and soft drinks with Gen Z.
Giving kids access to smoothies at schools made plenty of sense, so we launched a pilot test in 130 Chartwells schools in 15 states to gauge interest. General Mills joined to provide culinary support and training materials for the school nutrition staff. This collaboration resulted in 30 recipes (15 each for breakfast and lunch) that contain at least one of the daily recommended servings of dairy and fruit.
The pilot gave us the result we were hoping for as we saw increased consumption of milk and yogurt. This was enough for Chartwells to offer its smoothie program at the start of this school year to its entire suite of districts and the positive reception continues!
Liking it ‘hot’!
This success led to the “what’s next?” question for the checkoff and Chartwells. Further research showed a strong interest by kids in another dairy-friendly area – hot chocolate milk. Make no mistake: hot chocolate is big business with a global market size valued at $3.8 billion in 2022 that is expected to grow to $5.77 billion by 2030.
We launched a new pilot with 58 schools where real chocolate milk featuring the same 13 essential nutrients as white milk is served hot with toppings such as cinnamon and peppermint. Some early anecdotal feedback is showing a great reception with kids enjoying it to the last drop. We also know from previous hot chocolate milk programs led by some state and regional checkoff teams there is hope for long-term success. These teams reported a 14-percent increase of milk sales and an 11-percent jump in breakfast participation.
The strategy of offering specialty beverages featuring dairy appeals to today’s changing consumer, and that is a great way to get more kids into the category and cafeteria. And while it isn’t how most of us consumed milk back in our day, the checkoff is showing how crucial it is to keep up with the changing times and align with trends that matter to kids.
This is happening thanks to innovative thinking and great partners such as Chartwells.
To learn more about your national dairy checkoff, visit www.USDairy.com/forfarmers or to reach us directly, send an email to TalkToTheCheckoff@dairy.org.
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