‘If our legislators could hear what we hear, whole milk would be back in schools already’

By SHERRY BUNTING  /  Special for Farmshine

GREENVILLE, N.Y. – “It brings tears to my eyes. If our legislators could hear what we hear from these kids, their teachers, school nurses, cafeteria staff, and parents, begging to get whole milk back in schools, whole milk would be back in schools already.”

“This thing would be fixed by now,” said Duane Spaulding in a June 3rd Farmshine phone interview, a week after he and his fellow grassroots volunteers — Ann Diefendorf and Jay Hoyt — were at the Greenville Central School Ag Awareness Days.

This is the second year they had a booth at the two-day outdoor event, organized by the Greenville FFA.

“We gave out over 800 whole milk and whole chocolate milk bottles from Ronnybrook Farms, basically 400 each day,” Duane reported. “We saw elementary, middle and high school students and heard from everyone, especially the kids, saying: ‘We have got to get this whole milk back in schools.’ They told us the children are simply not getting enough healthy protein and fat in school meals, and their health is deteriorating. By noon, they’re just spent and falling asleep.”

“The kids told us: ‘If we could get this milk back in school, we would drink it every day,” Duane related, describing how the older students clicked photos for social media and what it is like taking time to promote dairy right there ‘in the field,’ hands-on with the public.

Now five years into this, Duane, Ann, and Jay have structured their continuing volunteer milk and dairy promotion into an organization known as Three Farmers Who Care (97milk.com).

From the start of the 97 Milk movement in Pennsylvania, they have filled what free time they have with aggressive schedules spreading the whole milk message in New York State, doing dozens of events annually, handing out milk and providing dairy education — simply talking to people and looking for opportunities, even at a moment’s notice, to be in the right place at the right time to spread the good news and refreshment, while being of service to others.

Ann has painted milk and dairy messages on countless bales, bale caps, signs, wagons – you name it – since 2019.

They applied for and were awarded a grant from New York Ag and Markets this year to do events all over the state to promote milk and dairy with a simple wholesome message that resonates in both rural and urban communities they get into.

“We still volunteer our time, but at least we now have some funds for some of our mileage and to buy supplies and more milk to give out at more events,” said Duane, adding that Ronnybrook Farms, Dygerts Farm Creamery, and others have been generous with donations over these past five years while the Three Farmers Who Care have been paying everything else out of their own pockets.

“Now we can do so much more to get the milk message spread farther,” he affirmed. “We are flat-out booked with events, and more parade and fair invitations are coming in. We do these events to educate the public, and those conversations have led to amazing things for the people we meet, and to save our wonderful family dairy farms.”

Ann looks forward to being at the Capitol in Albany to celebrate June Dairy Month next week. The Three Farmers Who Care also have a big parade in Cobleskill on July 4th, where they are partnering with the local Farm Bureau and expect to give out 1500 bottles of whole milk.