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Utahns Donate Milk During Hunger Action Month

It is estimated 1 in 6 children rely on food banks every year and at those food banks, milk is one of the most requested and least donated items, according to The Great American Milk Drive.

Ginette Bott is with the Utah Food Bank. She says tackling hunger is a collaborative effort. That’s why they are partnering with the Great American Milk Drive among other organizations to collect milk donations for the Utah Food Bank.

Bott says one of the reasons milk doesn’t get donated as often is because it is a perishable food item.

 “If you go into a store, by their milk case they are going to have the option to take a voucher to the cashier,” Bott says.

Those vouchers are then taken to a food pantry and is distributed to a family

“Then the person can go to the store and pick up the milk when they need it,” she says.

This way they don’t have huge surplus of milk go bad.  

Bott says nutritious food donations are essential because in Utah alone there are 130,000 kids living in poverty.

“Particularly children as we look at kids while they are developing and growing physically, mentally and emotionally,” she says.  

Bott says a child who goes to school without breakfast perhaps may have a harder time focusing in school because they are so worried about where their next meal will come from.

“Something as simple as a glass of milk in the morning with some cereal will give them a good start in the day where they can be successful,” she says.

To date, the Great American Milk Drive has delivered 400,000 gallons of milk.