Episode 43 - The Dairy Difference: Advocating for Better School Meals With Smart Swaps

DMI’s Katie Bambacht, Vice President of Nutrition Affairs at the National Dairy Council, speaks with DMI’s Scott Wallin about how the checkoff is working directly with schools to improve school lunches (with dairy being front and center) by collaborating with the School Nutrition Association.

Katie explains that nearly 30 million students participate in school meal programs daily, with dairy providing significant nutrients, while emphasizing the critical role of school meals in addressing food insecurity and improving academic performance.

She also covers the "Made with School Lunch" campaign, which aims to change perceptions of school meals, and the "Smart Swaps" initiative, which helps schools meet evolving USDA standards while maintaining dairy offerings.

The discussion also touches on the potential of whole milk in schools and future projects with the School Nutrition Association.

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

Host & Guest:

• Host: Scott Wallin, Vice President of Farmer Communications & Media Relations, Dairy Management Inc.
• Guest: Katie Bambacht, Vice President of Nutrition Affairs, National Dairy Council

Transcript (AI-Generated, please ignore typos)

Your Dairy Checkoff Podcast   0:00  

Welcome to your Dairy Checkoff podcast from Dairy Management Inc, where Dairy Checkoff leaders and farmers share real stories, strategies and insights that grow sales and build trust for us dairy let's get started.

Scott Wallin   0:18  

Hey everybody, and welcome to another edition of the your dairy check off podcast. I'm Scott Wallen with dairy management Incorporated, and we've got another great topic for you. Today. We're going to talk schools and feeding kids across America and the role that dairy plays on those meals. And with me, to break it all down, is my colleague, Katie Bombeck. She serves as Vice President of Nutrition affairs for National Dairy Council. Katie, welcome the podcast. How you doing today?

Katie Bambacht   0:44  

Thanks, Scott. I'm doing well, and I I appreciate the opportunity to be here.

Scott Wallin   0:47  

Well, this is one of those subjects that farmers just love to hear about. I mean, and you're part of 100 year legacy with National Dairy Council, you're kind of carrying the ball forward, and it's crazy to think about. NDC has been around for so many years, has always had that strong role in school. So that's got to be a point of pride for you, I would imagine. And before we kind of jump into the questions that we have today, can you talk a little bit about the role that you play at NDC?

Katie Bambacht   1:12  

I am a registered dietitian and also a school nutrition specialist, and I serve as Vice President of Nutrition affairs for National Dairy Council, and in my role, I serve as a resource to the dairy community on USDA, federal feeding programs on school nutrition, along with nutrition security, I also lead our collaborative efforts with the School Nutrition Association and other key school partners,

Scott Wallin   1:39  

before we get into some of the programs and strategies, what's this kind of start at that 30,000 foot view and talk about school meals. How many meals are served every day? And most important, can you talk about the prominence of dairy on those meals?

Katie Bambacht   1:54  

Well, school meals, we know they contribute significantly to the health and the well being of our nation's youth and in the lives of our families and communities, nearly 30 million students participate in school meal programs every school day, and dairy foods make up a really important nutrient and health contribution to school meal programs. Unfortunately, we know starting as early as age four, children do not meet their daily dairy recommendations, and the milk and the dairy foods, like cheese and yogurt that are provided in school meals are a critical pathway to help ensure that children have a chance to meet their daily dairy servings, to help benefit from dairies incredible nutrient profile, and based on some research, we know that school meals provide 77% of total dairy milk consumption and 70% of total dairy consumption for low income children. And also, according to USDA data, foods provided as part of school meals are the richest source of dairy in children's diets. So dairy milk has a very big, important contribution and role in school feeding programs and school meals help ensure children have a chance to meet their daily dairy servings and also benefit from dairies nutrients.

Scott Wallin   3:18  

You bring up something that's it kind of hits you when you when you talk about the kids that maybe don't have access to food outside of schools, just how important are these school meals to kids who are food insecure? Well, we know

Katie Bambacht   3:32  

that the majority of children who do participate in school meal programs do qualify at that free and reduced level, which means that they are at or below the federal poverty level, and school meals are their most, maybe their most reliable source of healthy food. And both the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program, they provide balanced meals that meet federal nutrition standards. They ensure access to fruits, to vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and dairy and without these meals, many children may face food insecurity leading to potential nutrient deficiencies that can affect their growth. It could affect their immunity and also cognitive development. And we also know that when students start their day with a healthy breakfast, they do better in school. They focus more, they have higher grades, they have better attendance, and they have improved behavior. And in fact, students who eat school breakfast are shown to have 17.5% higher scores on standardized math test. They have stronger brain functions, from cognitive function to attention, to memory, they have improved reasoning results and also sufficient vitamin intake. So really at the end of the day, kids can't learn on an empty stomach, and school meal programs help fight child hunger and also make sure that every student, no matter their situation, walking. Into the school classroom, gets the nourishment that they need to grow and

Scott Wallin   5:03  

succeed. You know, as a dairy check off, we talk an awful lot about working with and through partners. I mean, the work that we've done in food service has been well documented for many years. National Dairy Council also works with and through others and has partnerships. I want to talk about the School Nutrition Association, SNA, and I want to ask you some questions about how we work with them, but before we get into those, give us an overview of SNA. Who are they,

Katie Bambacht   5:30  

the School Nutrition Association, which we refer to as SNA. They are a national nonprofit professional organization representing over 50,000 school nutrition professionals who provide meals to students across the country every day. SNA is recognized as the authority on school nutrition, and they have been working to advance the availability, the quality and the acceptance of school meal programs as an integral part of education since they started back in 1946 and as you mentioned, Scott NDC has a very long standing partnership with SNA which is really centered around our mutual objective to improve the nutrition of children and adolescents that go through these K through 12 programs, school meal programs, and through this partnership, we connect those school nutrition professionals with science based resources that highlight the role of dairy and healthy eating patterns, and we also provide schools with tools on how to include dairy options in school meal programs, and we also share the story of how dairies produce responsibly, how it gets from the farm to their school tray. And the reach of these school nutrition professionals is incredibly important. They interact every single day with children's and teens, and then often, sometimes on the weekends or the holidays or the summer months, as they give meals out during those school closure times. But beyond serving meals, they also engage a lot with the parents and the broader school community. So they really have a pulse on what's going on and the connections to the local community. But probably most importantly, they also plan school breakfast and lunch menus that meet those nutrition standards. So ultimately, they decide how dairy foods are incorporated into their menus, and it's really critical for us to support them and providing education and also those innovative ways to include dairy in school meals, whether it's through smoothies or offering a lactose free milk option or maybe it's a hot chocolate milk program. But ultimately, we're looking to help them increase participation and access to nutrient rich school meals and dairy for all children. So we're

Scott Wallin   7:58  

going to talk about a couple strategies with them. The first one focuses on launch. In fact, it's called made with school lunch. Can you talk about what that program entails and how National Dairy Council is engaged with that program. Both

Katie Bambacht   8:11  

SNA and NDC are very proud, and this is one of my favorite projects that we launched with them as of late, the collaboration around made with school lunch, which is an educational awareness campaign that is designed to help transform how we and our children think about, how we talk about and also experience school meal programs. It's a platform to celebrate the incredible impact that school nutrition programs have on children's lives, and also to challenge outdated perceptions that no longer reflect today's reality. Some people reference school meals from when they had school meal programs maybe 20 years ago. And school meals have changed. We know that they have to meet rigorous federal nutrition standards while still trying to, you know, appeal to students changing palettes. We have the school meals bridge socio economic divides, bringing children together around a shared table to share a meal, and most importantly, they provide those essential building blocks for academic achievement, physical health and also social development. Yet despite these remarkable qualities school meals often remain underappreciated and a bit misunderstood. There tends to be a stigma around school meal programs. A lot of Miss perceptions, and the dedicated professionals who create these meals rarely receive the recognition that they deserve. So it is time to change that narrative and the made with school lunch campaign offers tools, resources and inspiration to help everyone become champions of school meals. By harnessing that consistent messaging, compelling visuals, authentic stories, we can elevate. School nutrition programs to their rightful place as an essential part of the education program and of the school day. So whether you're looking to either boost participation, reduce stigma, or celebrate your local school nutrition team, you'll find those resources within the campaign to do so, and the website for the campaign is made with school lunch.com. I encourage you to check it out. It offers a variety of marketing resources, again, to help schools tell their story in a very loud and proud way. And since most schools have very limited budgets and the majority don't employ a marketing or communication staff. So we've taken that work off their plate by creating these ready to use materials that they can easily share to elevate their local program.

Scott Wallin   10:51  

One of the big events that's on your calendar every year is SNA annual conference, and I've actually had a chance to be at one of those with you, and it's phenomenal to see all these school nutrition professionals from across the country in one place. But what stands out to me is you don't do this conference without having dairy farmers at the booth with you. What is that like having a farmer there? And what are those? What do you see those interactions that our farmers have with some of these school nutrition professionals?

Katie Bambacht   11:18  

Yeah. So every July, SNA hosts its annual National Conference, which is known as the school nutrition event of the year. And this year it took place in San Antonio, Texas, and it attracted over 6000 school nutrition professionals. And NDC had a significant presence, as we typically do at the conference. We had a very prominent exhibit booth. We had an education session and multiple other opportunities to elevate our joint educational awareness campaign that I just spoke to. But Scott, you're right at our exhibit. We always feature dairy farmers. They are truly the star attraction of our exhibit and on the show floor, and they have several conversation with local attendees and school nutrition professionals about agriculture. We know so many people today are disconnected from a farm, and so having a farmer present gives school nutrition professionals an opportunity to ask questions and to hear directly from the source about how dairy is produced. And these farmers, you know, engage in real time conversations with school nutrition professionals. They talk about on farm practicing, practices, maybe animal care or how dairy foods make their way from the farm to their school. And this ultimately helps build trust and understanding by addressing some of those misconceptions and also correcting myths on the spot. So we always appreciate our dairy farmers who attend to tell their story and engage and help build trust with this audience that we've been working with for so many years.

Scott Wallin   12:54  

Well, I can tell you from talking to those farmers that have been or they get so much out of it, and they just love that opportunity to talk foreign, but to also show their appreciation for the hard work that goes into feeding kids every day. Recently, you and I worked on an announcement over a new campaign National Dairy Council launch called Smart swaps. Now this is done with National Dairy Council, but also our state and regional check off Federation. Can you kind of give an overview of what smart swaps is and why was it so important? Smart

Katie Bambacht   13:26  

swaps is an initiative that's led by National Dairy Council, but in very close collaboration with state and regional Dairy Checkoff programs, it was developed to address the real challenges that school nutrition professionals face as they work to meet evolving USDA meal standards, and this initiative really features three core areas of focus and resource development. First, we have several dairy centric recipes. Second, some sample breakfast menus. And third, several culinary and educational training materials. And all of these resources were designed to help schools implement practical, compliant and student approved meal solutions, and to give a little bit of context regarding the evolving nutrition standards back in 2024 the USDA finalized new meal pattern requirements for both the National School Lunch and the School Breakfast Program, and these updates brought forth a few important changes. First, there is more menu flexibility, so the rule removes the minimum daily grain requirement at breakfast, which gives schools more freedom to feature nutrient rich dairy foods like cheese and yogurt as part of your entree option. And then second, starting in school year 2526 which is this year, there's also new process. Product specific sugar limits so flavor, milk can have no more than 10 grams of added sugars per eight ounce serving, and yogurt can have no more than 12 grams per six ounce serving. And then a few years down the road, beginning in school year, 2728 we'll see even stricter overall nutrient standards being put into place. So there, the sodium limits for breakfast will be cut by 10% and regarding added sugars, average across the week, they need to stay below 10% of total calories. So with these tighter limits on added sugars and sodium, there was a concern that popular dairy foods like flavored milk and yogurt and cheese could be reduced or even removed from school breakfast menus. So rather than seeing this as a setback, the dairy check off solid as an opportunity, it was a chance to support schools by developing practical, smart recipe updates and sample breakfast menus that meet these new standards, while also keeping dairy foods on the menu and on student trays. And ultimately, smart swaps is all about helping schools make smarter, not harder, adjustments. We know these small, achievable changes can help maintain flavor, nutrition and student appeal, while keeping dairy front and

Scott Wallin   16:25  

center. What What role is SNA now playing with smart swaps? Are they? Are they active in promoting this as well? SNA

Katie Bambacht   16:32  

is a key partner in helping us share and also amplify smart swaps across the school nutrition community. We did introduce the initiative at SNA annual national conference I just spoke about in July by sampling one of our new recipes, we sampled the cherry lime smoothie bowl, and it was a huge hit. And through that conference, we collected hundreds of leads of school nutrition professionals who are eager to learn more once the initiative was launched in September, hosting a dedicated webinar with SNA and their 50,000 plus members, and central to that webinar is smart swaps. So we're going to be elevating those student tested recipes. We're going to be elevating those sample breakfast menus and planning tools that are really designed to help make school breakfast nutritious, appealing and also easy to prepare without losing some of those student favorites. But beyond that one webinar, we're also partnering with SNA to elevate smart swaps through their communication channels, including email newsletters, magazine features and other member platforms to really maximize reach and also engagement across their

Scott Wallin   17:44  

network. Katie, I enjoyed the conversation with you. As always, it's great to kind of dive into all the wonderful work that you and your colleagues are doing in schools and just keep it up.

Katie Bambacht   17:53  

Thanks, guys. Great to be here.

Your Dairy Checkoff Podcast   17:57  

Thanks for listening to your Dairy Checkoff podcast. Want to hear more about how your checkoff is making every drop count, head over to dairy checkoff.com or follow us wherever you get your podcasts. See you next time you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai