Hannah Schacherer, Marketing & Communications Intern

At First District Association we strive to produce high quality products for our consumers and we want to make sure everyone is able to have milk and other dairy products readily available in their refrigerators. In 2020 our team started the Dairy Donation Challenge and we are happy to be continuing the challenge this year.

Melrose Area Food Shelf, Board of Directors

Milk is an essential part of most of our days, filled with Vitamin D, making it one of the best sources of calcium for our bodies. Drinking milk can have several benefits such as strong and healthy bones, immune strength and helping aid in the prevention of illness. Knowing how much milk and other dairy products can benefit our bodies we wanted to continue a way for all of our consumers to have access to these products.

We sent our donations to food shelves consistently so they were stocked with milk for an extended period of time rather than giving them the total donation all at once. Knowing the success of last year’s donation, we gave employees a similar option this year to donate a set amount of money each month. As in the past, employees agreed upon a yearlong commitment to be able to provide local food shelves with a consistent supply of milk. Through these donations we were able to provide milk again to the Meeker County Area Food Shelf and Melrose Area Food Shelf. Last year we were able to donate up to 125 gallons and this year, we have reached our goal of the same amount.

Stony Creek Dairy milk jugs at Meeker County Area Food Shelf. 

Similar to last year, we teamed up with Stony Creek Dairy, a dairy farm and creamery near Melrose, MN. Stony Creek Dairy will be supplying the milk and covering shipping costs for the food shelves, ensuring they would not have to put money towards the milk. By First District Association providing milk, we are allowing another year for food shelves to use the money previously used for purchasing milk to be used to buy other dairy products such as cheese and yogurt.

Our team is happy to be providing another year for families to more easily get their dairy products into their refrigerators. Seeing the success of the program we plan on continuing this program for years following and would like to see it grow from the volunteers helping to the amount of food shelves we are able to supply.

Below are links to websites of food shelves mentioned in this blog. If you would like to help your local food shelf, make sure to reach out to donate dairy products or by volunteering.

Meeker County Area Food Shelf: Home (meekercountyfood.org)

Melrose Area Food Shelf: Melrose Area Food Shelf | Facebook