Ice Cold Milk Tastes Best and is Food Safe!

Milk tastes best when it's served between 35° and 40°F. Children will drink more of it, and get more of the calcium and eight other essential nutrients it has to offer. And, The Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act of 2004, requires each school food authority to have a food safety program in place, in compliance with HACCP principles. In support of this requirement, here are some tools to use.

Cold Milk Check Lists:

Monitoring your milk and equipment is an important practice to ensure that:

* Milk is served the way children like it best.

* Milk serving temperature is safe.

 

Product stays fresh as long as possible (the shelf life of milk is shortened a full 50% for every five degree rise over 40°)Download the Cold Milk Fact Sheet, for a quick-and-easy read to determine what you can do to check milk temperatures.

For a more in-depth analysis of your milk, equipment and procedures, download the Milk Quality Checklist  for you to use and evaluate your cafeteria.

 

 

 

Find tips, activity ideas and more for making the cafeteria-classroom nutrition connection in your school.

Classroom-Cafeteria Activities — School nutrition professionals are providing nutrition information to teachers, visiting and teaching in classrooms and using cafeterias as hands-on labs, more and more. This is especially the case as a means of achieving the goals of school districts' wellness policies. This section provides ideas and resources to help you connect to the classroom. Double the fun and team up classroom learning with the cafeteria experience.

 

Dazzling Dairy Carnival Brochure — Download this step-by-step guide for a carnival that teaches the importance of calcium for strong bones and healthy bodies.

 

 

 

 

Studies prove children who eat breakfast are better prepared to learn in school. Increase breakfast participation by Expanding Breakfast outside of the cafeteria!.  The benefits children receive from eating a nutritious breakfast are numerous and well-documented. However, many children don't eat breakfast at home and even if breakfast is offered in the cafeteria, many don't participate.

ThEy are too busy socializing, or affected by the potential social stigma that the program is meant for low income students. Capture those breakfast skippers from all socio-economic levels, by Expanding Breakfast into your classroom! It's an effective way to implement your wellness policy.

Breakfast in the Classroom — the most popular serving option, yielding the highest participation levels-up to 98% of enrollment.

Expanding Breakfast Program Options — Learn about the alternate breakfast serving methods that Expand Breakfast outside the cafeteria and help boost participation.

 

Milk vending is one component of the New Look of School Milk enhanced program and represents an excellent strategy to make sure students have convenient opportunities to make healthy choices and increase their milk consumption. To get the maximum benefit, ice-cold milk should be served throughout the school, anytime of day — and what better way to do that, then with Milk Vending.

 

Here are the facts, research and materials to get you started.

 

Vending Research

Milk Vending Report– Download the “presentation-style” report, showing that putting all-dairy vending machines featuring milk, cheese and yogurt in middle and high schools drives new consumption. Milk was the biggest seller, with 16-ounce plastic bottles increasing the total amount sold. Cheese and yogurt sales through the vending machines represented incremental sales beyond the school lunch line.

 

Milk Vending National Test– This executive summary  of a milk vending test placing 86 machines

In 5 diverse markets shows that vending milk offers significant opportunity. Based on the results

An estimated 130 million 16 ounce plastic bottles of milk would be sold each year.

 

Promote Your Milk Vending Program!

Generate milk vending awareness, interest and sales with these ideas for a Grand Opening, product samplings, and beyond! Download “Get Milk and Get Going Promotion Ideas to Boost Milk Vending Sales .

Don't forget a favorite old standby — your public address system! We've got some fun sample PA announcements. Check out "Get Milk and Get Going!" Sample Public Address Announcements .

Milk Vending Success Stories

Read about  Log Middle School’s “Press Your Luck” successful vending promotion in Warminster, Pa.

Making It Happen with Vending

A great new resource, USDA's Making It Happen! School Nutrition Success Stories, is loaded with information on improving student nutrition and 32 success stories. Included are details and success stories on vending, including sample vending policies. Be sure to check out the case study on dairy vending on page 119. Making It Happen! is now available from USDA online in its entirety AND it's also available in book format.