Dairy and Amazon Partner to Drive Sales; How to Host a Virtual Farm Tour

Foodservice Director Thanks

New England Dairy Farmers

In 2020, New England Dairy provided $360,000 in equipment and grants to 147 school districts to keep milk cold and safe for emergency school meals.

Ali West, the Food Service Director for Brattleboro School District in Vermont, thanked dairy farmers for grant funds she received to support school meals. To date, the coolers have helped provide over 180,000 meals safely to Brattleboro students.

DMI Partners with Amazon to Grow Dairy Sales

In response to the evolving grocery landscape and to meet consumer needs in e-commerce, DMI has formed a new partnership with Amazon. Through this partnership, Amazon looks to DMI as a resource for the latest dairy insights, trends, shopping behaviors, and category dynamics to ensure that dairy is effectively advertised and promoted in their digital landscape.

Learn More About DMI's Amazon Partnership

Enter the Virtual World: Easy Steps to Host Your Own Live Virtual Farm Tour

Hosting a live virtual farm tour is a great way to engage and educate audiences about dairy farming when they can't physically be on your farm or when you're limited by capacity or distance.

After hosting six live tours in 2020, we've outlined steps to plan and execute tours for farmers interested in hosting their own live virtual farm tours.

Read our planning tips here.

USDA Takes Steps to Put 1% Flavored Milk Back in Schools

On November 25, USDA posted a proposed rule for the Restoration of Milk, Whole Grains, and Sodium Flexibilities in the Federal Register for public comment. This proposed rule would once again allow schools to serve 1% flavored milk with school meals. USDA is accepting public comment on the proposed rule until December 28, 2020.

National Dairy Council will be submitting public comment, which we will share once it becomes available. Please note that, by law, New England Dairy and National Dairy Council cannot take a position on legislation or public policy, but we are able to inform decision makers by providing science-based education on the health benefits of milk, including flavored milk, in children’s diets. Learn more here.

Attention Processors: The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced the purchase of $60M in fluid milk for distribution to various food and nutrition assistance programs. Solicitations will be announced in December 2020 and February 2021, and will include gallons and half gallons of whole, 2% and 1% fluid milk to be delivered throughout 2021.

To be eligible to submit offers, milk processors must meet the AMS vendor qualification requirements. Deliveries are expected to be to various locations in the U.S. on an FOB destination basis. Bids, modifications, withdrawals of bids, and price adjustments shall be submitted using the Web-Based Supply Chain Management (WBSCM) system. If you have any questions, please reach out to Taylor Boone at IDFA (TBoone@IDFA.org) or Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (MMalcolm@MilkPEP.org).

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