The Dairy Blog

A new school year is underway. For the plant and route sales personnel, that means large quantities of half pints will be filled and delivered. School milk can increase a plant’s gallonage by as much as 10%! I am old enough (58) to remember glass bottle half pints being served with lunch at Ingleside Elementary in Athens, which is located across the street from our dairy plant. I think the price students paid for milk was $0.02 for a bottle, or $0.10 cents for a week of milk. Even then, our government wanted children to consume milk for its good nutrition. Milk is the best source of calcium and phosphorus for growing children.

The gable top paper carton has been a staple for school milk since the mid 1950’s. Our industry used the same cross section for both bottoms and tops for paper half pints, pints and quarts. It measured 2 ¾” by 2 ¾”. My father (Thomas B. Mayfield) worked with the paper carton industry to develop what was called the “NEP” carton (new economy package) that was 2 ¼” by 2 ¼”. This slim carton reduced carton weight by nearly 50%!

To keep children from becoming bored with the packaging, we change the graphics often. Currently, we are using a camouflage pattern. It is always a challenge for the plant to make sure the cartons do not leak but are not sealed so tightly that students cannot open them. It is time consuming when teachers, particularly elementary school teachers, have to help young children open their milk.

Today, Mayfield delivers milk to over 1,500 schools. Of these schools, 75% still use the NEP paper carton, but we also offer a plastic half pint. It is yellow or brown, has a re-sealable cap and is liked very much by students. Most of the schools Mayfield serves in Georgia are using it. Studies confirm that milk consumption increases anywhere from 18% to 30% when the plastic container is used.

Lowfat Chocolate milk sales are nearly 75% of our total school milk sales. This milk has all the nutrition of milk, and half the added sugars of soft drinks. Researchers have learned that only 2% of a child’s sugar intake is from Lowfat Chocolate milk, and that children who consume Lowfat Chocolate have the same daily sugar intake as those who drink unflavored lowfat milk. We are continuing to look for ways to reduce sugar without adversely affecting the taste. At Mayfield, we want the quality of all our products to be the best.  I’ll report further on this in a future blog.