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FARRAGUT COMMUNITY SCHOOLS AWARDED MILK MERCHANDISER

January 11, 2008

FARRAGUT COMMUNITY SCHOOLS AWARDED MILK MERCHANDISER

New Merchandiser Makes Milk Cool and Keeps It Cold for Students

Helping Them to Achieve Daily Calcium Requirements

Farragut, Iowa -- Providing nutritious meals that feed students’ bodies and minds is the goal of all school nutrition professionals. But recently, Becky Hughes, Kris Stacey and Mary Burkhiser in the Farragut Community school district went the extra mile.

Hughes participated in a Cold Milk Survey sponsored by the Midwest Dairy Council^® to ensure that milk, which is an essential part of all school meals, is served cold. As a result, she was named the winner in a drawing for a free glass-door milk merchandiser.

Valued over $1,200, the milk merchandiser is a refrigerated commercial cooler that provides an eye-catching tool to make milk “cool” and motivate students to choose it. In addition the new equipment will keep milk cold, storing it at the optimum temperature at which it should be served (between 35 and 40 degrees F°).

Midwest Dairy Council invites all schools to take the Cold Milk Survey. The survey includes a form for recording the temperature of their school milk and milk cooler(s) before and after each lunch period. If temperatures rise above 40 degrees F°, the school nutrition professionals are provided tips to solve the problem,

“The survey is a way of raising their awareness of their milk storage practices, and to help them enhance their techniques to keep milk cold, and in turn, delicious,” said Carrie Scheidel, School Nutrition Program Manager for the Midwest Dairy Association.“Serving milk ice-cold is how children like it best, and it helps them get their three servings of dairy they need each day for stronger bones and overall good health.”

Although the national Cold Milk Survey drawing is over, school nutrition professionals are still encouraged to use the Survey and Cold Milk Fact Sheet to evaluate and record their schools’ milk and cooler temperatures. Go to www.NutritionExplorations.org to download these tools and record your schools’ results.