By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – Students are heading back to the classroom in the coming weeks, some for the first time in 18-months, and the St. Louis Dairy Council is working with school districts around the state to help promote dairy.

The program is called “dollars for dairy,” designed to promote student health with balanced, nutritious meals.

Speaking with WJBC’s Marc Strauss, Monica Nyman, Senior Nutrition Educator with the St. Louis Dairy Council, said the organization is already working with over 3,000 partners around the state.

“One of the resources that we offer is a make-it-yours poster, so schools can order these. They can put their school name and mascot on there and change the color to reflect their mascot. We also every October do a farm-to-school promotion. This year it is called Kids with Cartons, and it’s going to be a cafeteria promotion to highlight milk as the original local food.”

Nyman said the through the program, schools can apply for reimbursement on equipment or promotion that highlights dairy in school lunches.

In addition to promoting milk served at schools, the organization also focuses on bring locally produced produce from school gardens or local farms into daily meals.

Schools like Tremont have benefited from the program by receiving funding to purchase a vending machine loaded with dairy products.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].