Milk Give-Away Helps Feed Area's Hungry
Published: Friday, April 17, 2020
There is a growing number of families becoming food insecure due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. High unemployment numbers have put many bread-winners out of work, and families are turning to food banks and other providers to put meat, milk and eggs on their respective tables.
Last Friday, the American Dairy Assn. of Indiana participated in one effort to stock the refrigerators of seven child care centers in South Bend. Working in partnership with the Indiana Department of Education, ADAI and local volunteers gave away several dozen gallons of milk.
Brooke Williams, ADAI communications director, said the milk was available exclusively through DOE's Child and Adult Care Feeding Program, which serves daycares around the state. Those wanting milk had to pre-pay $2 per gallon and then stop by Cultivate Culinary on Prairie Avenue last Friday to pick up their orders. The daycare centers, including Our Lady of the Road and El Campito, will be reimbursed by the DOE.
"Like our Indiana dairy farm families, Indiana's Department of Education is keeping child nutrition top of mind," Williams said. "We've been fortunate to partner with DOE and provide child and adult care facilities with enough milk to serve those in need. Over the past three weeks, over 1,300 gallons have been requested in the Indianapolis and South Bend areas."
The 85 gallons of 1%, 2% and whole milk, distributed last Friday in South Bend, were sourced through Prairie Farms.
One current challenge facing many childcare providers is finding milk in bulk quantities. Emily Bastine, executive director of El Campito, said milk is served twice daily at her facility to about 25 children ranging in age from 1 to 5 years. With that many mouths to feed, she needs at least 20 gallons of milk per week. However, her staff can't purchase more than six gallons at one time due to store policies that limit quantities sold. The result is they have had to shop at several stores to make those purchases.
Thanks to the ADAI/DOE program, Bastine was able to pick up 10 gallons of milk in one stop last Friday.
Jo Broden, a local advocate and former South Bend Common Councilwoman, helped with the distribution. She said this is the first time that DOE has conducted a milk give-away in South Bend.
When Broden first learned about the opportunity, she contacted area nonprofits to make arrangements. Jim Conklin, president and co-founder of Cultivate Culinary, said volunteers helped relocate a portable refrigerator that would serve as the distribution point for the promotion.
In the wake of COVID-19, disruptions in the food chain have caused temporary shortages of some food items at retail locations. Restaurants, schools and food service establishments are closed during the pandemic and are no longer selling food. Consumer demand has shifted to supermarkets and the retail sector. In a knee-jerk reaction, some stores responded by placing limits on how many essential items—meat, milk, eggs and bread—can be purchased at one time.
For the milk market, the loss of demand from restaurants and schools has created a supply imbalance that hasn't worked itself out yet. Processing plants are operating at full capacity, and some farmers have dumped their milk because the supply chain is overwhelmed. Last week, the dairy industry urged farmers to cut production by 10 percent.
As the food system tries to address the supply issues, many families and nonprofit groups are scrambling to find enough food to meet their needs. Many schools are providing daily food distributions, not only to the students, but also to their families, Conklin said.
According to Conklin, Cultivate Culinary is serving as an important resource for the South Bend Community School Corp. as it provides 36,000 meals per week to students and their families. With funding from the United Way, Cultivate is accepting food from restaurants (see related story on page 2) and repackaging it for distribution at 23 sites in the South Bend community. The nonprofit is also helping to stock the shelves of various food banks in the area.
Both Conklin and Broden credit these partnerships, including the American Dairy Assn. of Indiana, for making a difference in the lives of so many families.
For its part, the dairy association wants the public to know that milk has all of the essential nutrients that people need to stay healthy during this crisis. The other key message is that there isn't a shortage of milk.
"In Indiana, we have plenty of milk and dairy products to provide and we are doing our best to make sure they're arriving in hands and mouths across the state," Williams said.
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