Newark students gain access to more dairy through healthy school meals
During National School Breakfast Week earlier in March, dairy farmer Graham Ackerly from Mount Vernon, N.J., teamed up with ADA North East, New York Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton, and officials from GENYOUth and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help tackle food insecurity for students at the Newark School of Global Studies in Newark, N.J.
Together the group unveiled critical new equipment to provide the students with greater access to school meals that include dairy. The equipment included a grab and go breakfast cart, a milk cooler and cooler bags that were provided by funding from national communications organization PRWeek through GENYOUth’s End Student Hunger Fund.
“As a dairy farmer, I am thrilled to see Newark’s priority in fueling students each and every day with a balanced and healthy breakfast that includes dairy,” said Ackerly.
GENYOUth is dairy checkoff’s national youth wellness nonprofit organization that draws funding from large corporations outside of the dairy industry. Fuel Up to Play 60, the flagship program of GENYOUth, was created by National Dairy Council and the National Football League and opens the door for ADA North East to implement school meal strategies that increase dairy sales – like the breakfast cart program.
ADA North East works with GENYOUth and the seven NFL teams in our region to identify Fuel Up to Play 60 schools that are in need of equipment to better serve their students.
Since 2017, GENYOUth’s grab and go breakfast cart program has combatted food insecurity within schools through the donation of more than 500 meal carts in American public schools, which have helped to increase average daily participation by as much as 27 percent, and to expand access to 50 million school meal opportunities.
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