Who pays for dairy donations during holiday food drives? Do they really translate to future sales and lifelong consumers? Dairy Farmers Joanna Shipp and Sam Schwoeppe have a conversation with a local retail milk buyer and a dairy donation specialist to discuss how dairy donations work, who benefits and if they are sustainable.

Increasing dairy sales and consumer trust is a goal for many companies and organizations across the industry, and dairy farmers often ask why dairy products are donated or given away when they can be sold.

In this episode of Your Dairy Checkoff Podcast, our farmer hosts have a conversation with Fran Mathis from Busch’s Fresh Market  and  Steve Terzo from American Dairy Association North East about why the dairy industry donates dairy products to hunger assistance programs and the impact it has on dairy consumption and sales.

To learn more about the national dairy checkoff and your local dairy checkoffs, please visit usdairy.com.

Dairy Farmer Hosts:
Joanna Shipp –Virginia Dairy Farmer
Sam Schwoeppe – Indiana Dairy Farmer

Industry Experts:
Fran Mathis is the dairy manager for Busch’s Fresh Market. UDIM (Michigan) works with Fran on implementing the milk drive twice a year. She joined Busch’s in 2015 as a Category Manager, and prior to that worked at Heinen’s as a Junior Category Manager. Fran is proud to be a part of Busch’s Milk Drive for the last 3 years, in the most recent fall milk drive Busch’s guest donated a record breaking 47,194 gallons of Milk in one drive.

Steve Terzo is the Director of Business Development – American Dairy Association North East who works with these programs at ADANE: Fill a Glass with Hope, Dairy Donation Drives during Covid and Building Relationships with dairy processors in the Northeast.