What does it look like when an entire school cafeteria adopts a calf from a dairy farm? For Lynne Shore, Nutrition Services Director at Willamina School District in Oregon, she made this a reality for the 800 students (K-12) her cafeteria serves. After planning a farmer’s markets for students a year earlier, Lynn and her team decided to take it a step further by participating in Discover Dairy’s “Adopt a Cow” program.

“I don’t think kids have much experience with dairy farms other than just driving by them. We have a farm-to-school education grant, and last year we did a farmer’s market where the kids could actually buy food from a farmer and take it home,” Lynne shared. “We had the Dairy Princess Ambassador come and she actually brought a calf. That’s kind of where the connection started, so we have been following that connection along with the Adopt a Cow program. It has been really eye-opening, especially for kids who don’t see dairy farms every day.”

With the cafeteria being a central point between all the schools in the Oregon school district, Lynne enjoys adding bursts of education and fun into the students’ lunch experience. After adopting a calf through the program, she received regular photos, video updates, lesson ideas and other activities throughout the year to share with students when they visited the cafeteria.

“I’m always looking for educational opportunities and this looked like a good one. It kind of went with our mission of providing milk for the kids,” she added. “I’m always looking for things that are touch-and-go education, because we really don’t have the kids in our cafeteria for very long and they have to eat while they’re here.”

Lynne created a bulletin board to share updates about their adopted calf Mabel, including photos and a growth chart. She also led a gender reveal activity where students used stickers to vote if the calf was going to be a boy or a girl. After receiving their calf announcement, she sent each classroom a box to open with a pink cow inside. On Valentine’s Day, she customized the valentine templates sent through the program and added a “Love from your cafeteria calf” message to them.

The farm tour videos provided through the Adopt a Cow program have been especially valuable for the cafeteria setting. Lynne will loop the videos on a monitor in the cafeteria to give students a virtual tour of a working dairy farm.

“They love it. One day they wanted more videos, so I put up the dairy farm tour. I’ve had kids ask if the milk they were drinking came from our dairy cow. I had another student who had no idea milk even came from a cow. They are asking good questions,” Lynne explained.

At a broader level, the Adopt a Cow program is helping the cafeteria staff make important nutrition-based learning moments with students – who now understand exactly where their milk comes from and have a personal connection with the farmers and animals that produce it.

“I think the program is really encouraging the kids to drink milk. It’s always important for kids to know where their food comes from, but especially milk and foods they see every day. It’s really important to see where it comes from and the process. It has been really fun for the kids,” Lynne shared.

Click here to sign up for the free program by September 15.

Discover Dairy is an educational series managed by the Center for Dairy Excellence Foundation of Pennsylvania in partnership with American Dairy Association Northeast, American Dairy Association Indiana, Midwest Dairy, The Dairy Alliance, Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, Dairy Management West, Dairy West, New England Dairy, Dairy Farmers of Washington, American Dairy Association Mideast, Dairy Council of Florida, United Dairy Industry of Michigan, Maine Dairy and Nutrition Council, and Oregon Dairy Council.