| Categories |
Adopt marketing techniques to promote healthful choices; Make more healthful foods and beverages available |
| Problem Overview |
- 17 Middle and High Schools, Average Enrollment 1,090, 18,546 Total Students
- 24 percent of students eligible for free and reduced-price school meals
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| Program/Activity Description |
The Midwest Dairy Association and Dairy Management Inc., partnered with Davenport, Iowa-based Swiss Valley Farms to place state-of-the-art vending machines in 17 Quad Cities schools (middle and high schools in Bettendorf, Davenport, Pleasant Valley, Eldridge, and Iowa City, Iowa along with Rock Island, Illinois). The black-and-white spotted vending machines, which serve milk and dairy products exclusively, were installed in schools at the beginning of the 2002-2003 school year.
An earlier milk-only vending test completed in 2001 demonstrated that students would choose milk over other beverages such as juice and soda if it were readily available in attractive, easy-to-open containers, and in additional flavors. This test went a step further to see if cheese and yogurt could have marketing success if included alongside milk.
The test was designed to achieve three related goals:
1. To understand better the challenges faced in instituting a viable vending program under “real world” conditions.
2. To assess students’ response to greater product availability via vending (milk, cheese, and yogurt).
3. To determine if school food service could successfully manage a dairy vending effort.
The test showed that school food service can meet the challenge and be successful in vending dairy as a positive alternative to other vended products, with the required labor, time, and commitment. Training, good location with all-day access, and promotion are essential to assure a profitable operation. School food service, if committed, can implement dairy vending.
Most schools will need a “learning curve” to become proficient in operating a vending business. Issues include offering the right product mix, ordering according to established sales patterns, stocking the right amount of product to optimize sales without excess out-of-date products, and properly executing promotions and sampling. Because cheese and yogurt products have a longer shelf life than milk, these products allow for more flexibility in ordering.
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| Program/Activity Outcome |
- Dairy vending machines selling milk, cheese, and yogurt were installed in 17 middle and high schools at the beginning of the 2002-2003 school year.
Machines were stocked and maintained by school food service staff, who also collected sales data.
- Machine placements varied, but most were in or near cafeterias. Times that machines were available to students also varied, but they were consistently available prior to school and during lunch periods.
- Promotions and sampling sessions increased student interest and customer awareness. Examples include product sampling during student lunch periods; Press Your Luck, in which purchasers of select milk bottles with a sticker on the bottom received a prize; and Lotto Free Vend, a promotion in which machines were set to dispense a free product at every twenty-fifth sale.
- Total milk sales increased 5.1 percent by volume per school over the previous year when dairy vending machines were not in the schools.
- Although more dairy units were sold through high school vending than through junior high school vending, more product moved through junior high than high schools on a per student basis.
- In terms of total sales, milk accounted for 60 percent, followed by cheeses at 24 percent and yogurt at 16 percent.
- Junior high students were more interested than high school students in vending machine purchases of yogurt (24 percent versus 10 percent of sales) and cheese (31 percent versus 18 percent of sales).
- Availability of 16-ounce units (versus 8-ounce units in the cafeteria line) increased the total amount of milk sold.
- Yogurt and cheese sales from vending added to total sales, rather than displacing sales that would have occurred from the lunch line.
- Nearly half (49 percent) of all the milk purchased through the vending pilot was reduced-fat varieties (non-fat white, 2% white, 1% chocolate, and 2% strawberry).
Feedback from the school administration, parents, and the community indicated that the healthier vending choices were appreciated. Twelve of the 19 schools kept the machines, and several of the other schools are now exploring options for maintaining dairy vending machines in their schools.
- Over the 2003-2004 school year, the dairy involved with the pilot noted an “explosion” in milk vending in Iowa, with more than 80 milk and/or dairy vending machines placed in schools, and more additions expected for 2004-2005.
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| Story Highlights |
Keys to Success:
- Placement: Vending machines were placed in high-traffic areas with a variety of products and frequent rotation of items.
- Promotion: Marketing efforts added excitement and helped to sustain sales with signs, contests, games, and product sampling.
- Staff: Enthusiastic and knowledgeable food service staffs at the individual schools were essential to the project’s success.
Future Plans:
- Continue to work with schools to supply dairy vending machines.
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| Words of Wisdom |
"Cafeteria staff asked, ‘Are the students going to buy the items?’ Then after it got started, some staff could not believe what we were selling."
— School food service Manager, Quad City Schools |
| Program Contact |
Kevin Stiles |