My first job out of college was planning events for the regional Dairy Checkoff-funded group at the time. A big focus back then was on milk and dairy with school breakfast.
I would spend months working on in-school assemblies to promote school breakfast to elementary school students in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and other urban areas across the Mid-Atlantic.
We had this larger-than-life character called “That Milk Thing” who would come in dancing to loud music and encouraging kids to power up with milk at breakfast. The kids would all go crazy cheering to the music and interacting with the character.
What fascinated me about that experience was how little those students knew about dairy at first. When we introduced That Milk Thing, we would ask them where milk came from.
Typically, we would hear “the refrigerator.” Occasionally, we would hear “the grocery store.”
Almost never did anyone answer “from a cow” or “from a dairy farm.” But, during the assembly, the students would hear about where milk came from and why it was good for them.
The character’s silly antics would help them remember, and we would reinforce his messages about milk, farms and breakfast at the end. It was all about building that connection and hopefully developing life-long milk drinking habits in those students.
June Dairy Month first began in 1937 to build connections with consumers. It started as National Milk Month initially to create stability for dairy demand and counter the milk surge that was typical in the spring back then.
Today, June Dairy Month is promoted nationwide to pay tribute to the nearly 28,000 dairy farm families and 9.4 million dairy cows in the U.S. Those farms provide the foundation for a nearly $800 billion industry that provides more than 226 billion pounds of milk to feed a growing population across the globe.
It’s our chance as farmers and others in the industry to build connections with our non-farm neighbors, helping them learn more about our products and the value we provide to our local communities.
Last summer, we started to spotlight dairy farm families who are connecting with their community during June Dairy Month as part of our “Celebrate Dairy Across Pennsylvania” campaign. This year, we are promoting 16 different events that showcase dairy in Pennsylvania.
These events range from train rides on the farm to a Moovin’ for Milk 5K run to an “all you can eat” ice cream social. They are all focused on sharing dairy’s story with the local community.
So how are you connecting with your non-farm neighbors this month and, for that matter, all year long?
It doesn’t have to be an elaborate event. It can be just stopping someone you see purchasing milk in the dairy aisle to say thank you.
Sometimes, a simple conversation can go a long way. To get you started, I found these tips on building connections and translated them into ways you could share dairy’s story.
Source: lancasterfarming.com
Photo Credit: gettyimages-chagin
Categories: Pennsylvania, Livestock, Dairy Cattle