Chattanooga Area Food Bank, partners launch milk program

The Chattanooga Area Food Bank on Thursday launched its Milk for Many pilot program to provide milk for more than 300 families in Chattanooga and North Georgia.

For the first time locally, dozens of area families who rely on the food bank can get a gallon of milk each week.

The Chattanooga Area Food Bank is only the second in the country to launch a program that regularly supplies families with milk.

Hunger is a solvable problem, yet one in six Americans struggles to get enough to eat, said Maeghan Jones, the food bank’s CEO and president.

The program wouldn’t be possible without partners such as Borden Dairy, Unum and the Community Foundation, Jones said.

She spoke after a news conference Thursday morning where Borden Dairy delivered trucks of milk to the Soddy-Daisy Food Bank.

“It really is a representation of what can happen when nonprofit and business and philanthropic sectors come together to address a need in the community,” Jones said.

Borden allows the food bank to buy milk at a discount. Unum and the Community Foundation help to make up the cost to Borden.

Eight food bank distribution sites each get 48 gallons of milk a week. The goal is to eventually increase the gallons of milk distributed and the number of distribution sites so that every family in need may be served.

Along with delivering milk to the distribution sites, Borden also donated coolers that allow the sites to store it and maintain the milk’s quality and freshness.

“The Chattanooga Area Food Bank isn’t only looking at getting our struggling families food, they want to get them nutritious food. We wanted to be a part of that,” said Suzanne Payne, Unum’s corporate social responsibility coordinator.

The food bank and its partners have provided milk to families since January. The food bank announced the program today in recognition of June being National Dairy Month. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of the National Dairy Council.

Milk is one of the food bank’s most requested items, but it’s hardly ever in stock because people usually don’t donate perishable food items.

Unum agreed to help subsidize milk payments for the food bank for two years and possibly three, depending on the program’s success.

The food bank and its partners encourage other companies to subsidize milk costs, as well, so that milk will be provided to more families.

“We hope this program can expand to many sites where there are coolers on site [and] have additional dairies join so that the volume of milk can increase substantially so that our citizens get more nutritional meals through the Chattanooga Area Food Bank,” said Pete Cooper, president of the Community Foundation.

Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yput man@timesfreepress.com or 757-6431.