Priscilla Overberg is the manager of the Miles River Middle School's kitchen, in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. Priscilla has been using milk programs to make milk education more fun and to motivate students to drink more milk. Not only can students learn about the health benefits of milk by referring to the cafeteria bulletin board, but Priscilla has turned the cafeteria into a milk wonderland, featuring a wall mural, cow mascot, milk fountain, milk mustache posters, nutritional information, and more. The lunch staff put on skits about their programs, host cow tailing parties, read poems and even perform stunts! The staff even gets their local processor involved and the processor plans to feature the school in their national newsletter!
Priscilla and her hard working staff have made milk fun and exciting, and have made students more aware of new flavors and the health benefits that go along with drinking them.
These efforts have produced a 25.6% increase in reimbursable lunches served from January 2007 to January 2008. Purchases of milk per day have increased by 26.06% for the same period. And a la carte sales of milk have also gone through the roof!
The changes and programs at Miles River Middle School are still underway. The school district is committed to the health and well being of the whole child, nutrition education in general, and milk consumption in particular, are important ways of reaching that goal.
