New England Dairy COVID-19 Update: Schools, Sales and Sharing

Supporting School Meals in Crisis

New England Dairy continues to work with Departments of Education, anti-hunger groups, and school districts throughout New England to support emergency feeding sites for students. At this point we have ordered over 1,000 portable milk coolers to support 50 school districts across New England.

School Uses Grant-Funded Equipment

to Serve School Meals on the Bus

In 2019, Southside Middle School in Manchester, NH utilized our grant funds to purchase insulated cooler bags to keep milk cold for their second chance breakfast program.

Due to COVID-19, their students have transitioned to remote learning and the school food service team is distributing meals to them by school bus. They are repurposing the milk coolers to safely transport milk and keep it cool on the bus.

Read Southside Middle School's thank you email here.

Southside Middle School's food service team ready to load the bus with coolers filled with milk

Monitoring Increased Retail Sales

As COVID-19 continues to spread globally, consumers have been stocking up on many products at retail in preparation for stay-at-home orders. The U.S. retail sales data through the week ending 3/15/20 shows dairy products posted very strong growth.

Dramatically increased product demand and additional COVID-19 safety procedures have created some distribution challenges.

Challenges have included difficulty unloading trucks at grocery stores and distribution warehouses, maintaining full driving teams to meet product deliveries, and running quickly through their packaging supplies (milk jugs, shredded cheese bags, etc.).

National Response to COVID-19

NMPF expanded their coronavirus website, adding farmer resources to address dairy production needs and a podcast series featuring experts discussing crucial issues faced by farmers and the broader industry

Amid Challenging Times, Dairy Carries On: DMI CEO Tom Gallagher wrote a column for Hoard’s Dairyman discussing the checkoff’s work amid the coronavirus crisis

DMI is working with partner Feeding America to prioritize sending food and supplies to rural communities

USDEC is working to assure that dairy products coninue to flow in the critical export market

Dairy Farmers Continue to Feed our Communities

Stories and content in the news and shared on social media show how dairy farmers continue to nourish our communities. We are exploring more opportunities to tell the story about dairy farmers pressing on and giving back to their communities.

Our Food Supply is Strong

All is Steady on the Farm Amid High Demand

NOFA-VT Forms Database of ‘Relief Milkers’ for Local Farms

Local Company Delivering Milk Amid Pandemic

Munroe Dairy Praised for Going Above and Beyond

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