National Dairy Council’s Legacy Carries on for Future Success

When farmers created National Dairy Council (NDC) in 1915, they did so to help assure school children understood the benefits of eating healthy. While much has changed in the school cafeteria this last century, milk has maintained its place as a pillar of quality nutrition. In fact, milk is the only specific food that’s required by the USDA to be offered with every breakfast and lunch.

It’s sometimes staggering to think how many meals move through schools. In 2019, schools served 4.87 billion meals to 30 million children who participate in the lunch program every day.

And, yes, that means a lot of dairy moves with those meals. In 2019, 3.6 billion pounds of total dairy were served for breakfast, lunch and summer feeding programs. The majority was fluid milk – 3.23 billion pounds – but cheese (250 million pounds) and yogurt and other dairy products (98 million pounds) also hold a firm place.

Obviously, the COVID-19 school year had an impact on feeding efforts, so overall participation was down but there is good news as schools return to normal.

In an average year, about 74 percent of the students who participate in school meals receive them for free or at a reduced-price. However, USDA declared all students will have access to healthy meals free of charge as the pandemic continues to threaten the food and nutrition security of our most vulnerable population. That’s great news because for many kids, it may be their lone meal of the day as 1 in 6 face food insecurity.

NDC strongly supports the overall nutritional quality of school meals and they continue to improve. Between the 2009-10 and 2014-15 school years, the Healthy Eating Index score of school breakfast increased by 42 percent and lunch increased 41 percent.

This quality is important because students who eat at school are more likely to consume milk, fruits and vegetables compared to students who eat lunches elsewhere, according to USDA.

Strategy overview

NDC’s school strategy has evolved since our humble beginnings, with various team members focused on specific priorities. My colleague Camellia Patey and I work primarily on the regulatory aspect of USDA school policies. While we can’t engage in the actual policy work, our role is to understand and report on policies, so we and our colleagues in the state and regional checkoff offices have a clear understanding of how we can operate within the school arena.

We also have Fuel Up to Play 60, which is designed to build health and wellness – and drive dairy consumption – in partnership with the National Football League in more than 73,000 schools.

Innovation is another key focus and team members work on implementing technologies, such as dispensing systems that address consumption challenges at schools, namely flavor, temperature and fat levels.

And we work closely with the checkoff-founded GENYOUth, which generates funding for Fuel Up to Play 60 and has been a champion for students during COVID. The organization’s End Student Hunger Fund invites schools to apply for grants up to $3,000 to purchase supplies for meal distribution and delivery. GENYOUth, with the support of its partners, has raised more than $12 million in cash and in-kind resources for 10,000 schools.

Beyond our checkoff teams, NDC works with key audiences including the School Nutrition Association. Because of our legacy and team of experts, we often are tapped for speaking engagements with this group and other prominent school and health professional organizations.

Teaming with USDA

Our relationship with USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) continues to grow and NDC has enjoyed a Memorandum of Understanding with the organization for more than a decade. We recently were asked to provide feedback on an FNS promotion titled “Back-to-School Menus – 5 Ways to Add Milk.” This bulletin was sent to USDA’s list of contacts inside and outside of schools across the U.S., providing another strong endorsement for dairy from a trusted source.

We also are engaged with USDA around farm-to-school efforts. In 2021, USDA awarded $12 million to support 176 projects serving 6,800-plus schools. USDA annually awards these grants to help schools plan, develop and implement farm-to-school programs.

USDA hosted a “Farm to School Grantee Gathering” in September, which included a Farm to School Partner Resource Panel. USDA invited me to speak along with members of Future Farmers of America, Association for Career and Technical Education, and Friends of the Earth. I was the only person representing a food industry on the panel.

My presentation included a GENYOUth survey that revealed students want to know more about the source of their food. This was the perfect entrée to share the great work of our dairy farmers. I spoke about farmer-inspired aspects of Fuel Up to Play 60, played a video titled Students Learn Where Their Dairy Food Comes From and encouraged grantees to connect with their local dairy council for resources.

During opportunities such as this, I sometimes think about our rich history and the group of forward-thinking farmers who founded NDC. Back then, there wasn’t such a need to share their farming story but there is today as times have changed.

I’m glad NDC changed with the times, yet nutrition education and outreach remain at our core. Our message today has simply evolved to dairy is essential and it’s sustainable, a strategy we’ll proudly carry into the future.

To learn more about your national dairy checkoff, visit www.USDairy.com or send a request to join our Facebook group. To reach us directly, send an email to TalkToTheCheckoff@dairy.org.