Press Releases

Cow-Spotted Cooler ‘Meant to Be’ at Reserve Elementary

“Ultimate Fridge Makeover Contest” – One Way to Get Families to Enjoy More Nutritious Foods

PHILADELPHIA (August 21, 2007) – When the old, white milk cooler at Reserve Elementary in Glenshaw had chilled its last milk at the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year, cafeteria manager Sandra Zulkowski was excited about the prospect of getting a new refrigerator. “But another elementary school was scheduled to get a new refrigerator, so we got their old one,” Zulkowski said.

While registering her son in the “Milk: The Breakfast Power Drink” program promoted on a poster in the cafeteria, Zulkowski noticed a similar contest for schools. As required by the contest, she collected breakfast participation data for three weeks and recorded the numbers on www.milkandbreakfast.org.

Several weeks later, Zulkowski was stunned to learn her school won a cow-spotted milk merchandiser and a personal DVD player. The DVD player was raffled off to the students and the money raised was donated to the PTO for school activities. The new black and white cooler arrived just before students left for the summer.

“Recent research shows that children who eat breakfast tend to be more productive in the classroom than children who skip breakfast,” said Janette Carpentier, vice president of school marketing at Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association, which locally sponsored the breakfast contest. “Students at Reserve Elementary have a new milk cooler that will ensure milk is served both at breakfast and lunch, ice cold just the way kids want it.”

“You should have heard the kids the first day,” Zulkowski said. “They wanted to know if the cooler moos!”

The new cooler, located in the school cafeteria, holds vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and white lowfat milk and whole white milk. “We’ve never had a problem with kids not taking milk,” Zulkowski said.

Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association, an affiliate of the National Dairy Council®, provides nutrition education programs and services to schools in the Mid-Atlantic region. For more information about how schools in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, northern Virginia and New Jersey can receive a milk merchandising grant from Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association, call (215) 627-8800 or visit www.dairyspot.com.