And the Winner is Sherry Kitson, Van Wert City Schools

Sherry Kitson, Food Service Director for Van Wert City Schools in Ohio took advantage of an exciting opportunity with the opening of a new school in her district last fall. She established a new lunch line system with six lunch stations offering six different daily lunch options. Plus, all six stations included a choice of three milk flavors – white, chocolate and strawberry. Each line conveniently marketed milk in 8-case closed coolers with magnetic clings on the outside of the cooler promoting milk. In addition, the school began offering 20-ounce easy-to-drink plastic bottles that the kids just love. Click here to read more of Sherry’s “Spotlight On” story or to enter your own success story.

Milk: The Cool Solution for School

Check Out Highlights from SNA ANC 2007!

The pressure is on for schools. Balancing the desire to offer healthier lunchroom options that kids will choose with the need to stay within a tight budget is no easy task.

This is especially important now, since concern about children's nutrition is a high priority. While every school is different, studies show that choosing the right program for your school can significantly increase consumption and improve financial performance. And the good news is that even a small change in how milk is offered or promoted can make a big impact on students' choices.

Help us track national trends and you could win a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate or be one of three winners of a $125 stereo system.  MilkPEP, School Nutrition Association and the National Dairy Council use the results from this survey to develop programs that support your nutrition foodservice and wellness efforts.  Take the survey.  Deadline is February 28, 2008.

In 2008, Body By Milk will continue its successful promotions in schools. Teens can access bodybymilk.com to learn more about the health benefits of milk and engage with their favorite milk mustache celebrities. They can also download their favorite songs just by providing a milk UPC. For more information, check out Body By Milk promotions page

Today's milk is available in a wider variety of fun flavors and packages than ever before, giving schools the opportunity to reintroduce kids to milk in a better, more desirable way. Recent studies show that giving kids a variety of rich-tasting milk flavors means more kids will drink milk. For example, if your school has always offered chocolate milk, compare its taste against store-bought chocolate milk. Chances are good that over time, tight budgets may have impacted the quality of your school's milk. And kids can taste the difference. You should talk to your local milk processor about better tasting flavored milk.

Many schools are experiencing great success simply by offering more milk options, and even rotating in new flavors adds to kids' interest in the program. New school milk programs can increase sales, grow overall meal participation levels and fulfill nutrition requirements. More choices during more dayparts can lead to healthier kids and increased revenue, making milk the solution that's cool enough for school.

We've developed a great brochure all about the important role that flavored milk plays in a successful school milk program. To learn more, and to download the brochure, click here for the Flavored Milk brochure. For more great tips to get your school milk program moving in the right direction, click here.

Whether you're a school foodservice director, administrator, principal, board member, staff, student or concerned parent, we have the proven ideas you need to make today's milk part of the solution at your school.