3-A -Day is on the count!

Today more and more children are overweight, yet undernourished. Only 2% of the youth meet all the recommendations of the Food Guide Pyramid, and 16% don’t meet any of the recommendations. It is also reported that only 30% of school children consume the recommended milk group servings. With two-thirds of schools allowing students to buy food and drinks from vending machines and school stores during lunch, more students are avoiding the main line, where more nutritious foods are served.

School milk is a highly nutritious drink that contains several critical nutrients such as Vitamin A, D, E, calcium, phosphorous, zinc, riboflavin and protein. It provides more calcium and protein per penny than other foods served on the school lunch menus. With nine out of 10 teenage girls and seven out of 10 teenage boys not meeting the recommended daily calcium intake, we need to find a way to increase milk consumption.

A successful program that increased milk sales was the School Milk Pilot Test. The National Dairy Council partnered with the American School Food Service Association to create this program. After finding out what kids didn’t like about school milk, such as poor selection, bad packaging that sometimes leaked and warm milk temperatures, they created a new look of school milk. Here’s what is focused on:

Packaged in plastic containers
Offered in at least three flavors – white, chocolate and usually strawberry
Served ice-cold; visibly displayed
Offered in all three locations: the mainline, a la carte and vending

The School Milk Pilot Test lasted one-year and encompassed 100,000 children from 146 schools in 18 districts from 12 U.S. markets. It was a huge success, increasing milk sales by 15% in elementary and 22% in secondary schools. 86% of the increase came from the main line, and 14% came from the a la carte and vending. It also pulled more kids through the main line – almost 5% more in secondary and 1.5% more in elementary schools.

Another program that has been a success at increasing milk sales is right here in Indiana. The American Dairy Association and the Dairy and Nutrition Council created a cost-share opportunity to have milk vending machines in middle and secondary schools that have a minimum of 500 students. Indiana School Food Service Directors have the opportunity to cost-share a Maytag Dixie-Narco milk vending machine. A variety of milk flavors are offered to the students in plastic bottles, instead of the traditional cartons. Promotional materials, which include a banner, posters, floor decals, Press Your Luck Promotion stickers, and lighted pens, are also provided to help insure the success of the program.

As of March 10, 2004, 66 schools in Indiana had milk vending machines in their schools. Schools that have participated in this were willing to partake in the promotions and a survey that provided sales data. They reported milk sales of all flavors for three weeks, with the second week being the promotion week.

The surveys have shown that the vending machines are a success. The new plastic milk bottles and flavors have been a big hit with the students. In addition, the promotional materials helped get students excited about milk. There was a 47% increase in milk sales in the promotion week compared to the first week. Some of the flavors the schools offered were: white, chocolate, strawberry, banana, vanilla, chocolate shake, strawberry shake and vanilla shake. Chocolate milk was the favorite with the shake flavored varieties not far behind.

The vending machines were placed at different places throughout the schools. Some common places were in the cafeteria, hallway outside cafeteria, lobby and athletic facility. The most successful location of the vending machine was in the cafeteria. Also, the milk sales were the highest at schools that had the vending machines available 24 hours.

All in all, milk vending machines are a great way to get kids to drink more milk. The plastic bottles and variety of flavors have been very popular with the students. Since there are so many choices in the cafeterias, getting students to choose milk is a guaranteed way to give them a complete nutrient package.

New Look of School Milk