USDA Increasing Milk Supply to Aide Struggling Americans

Photo courtesy of the Riverlands Lodge.

WASHINGTON, D.C.- In a measure to help struggling Americans, approximately 200 million pounds of products made from nonfat dry milk will be made available to domestic feeding programs, according to the United States Department of Agriculture‘s Food and Nutrition Service.

The goal is to help both struggling low-income families, and dairy farmers who have been challenged by high feed costs and low dairy prices. “The USDA’s disposal plan will benefit dairy farmers who have seen markets disappear and prices plummet in recent months, by increasing consumption of milk and other dairy products,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a statement.

The dairy products will be made from nonfat dry milk transferred from the Commodity Credit Corporation to the USDA. The CCC acquired the milk under the Dairy Products Price Support Program. The dairy products should start moving through the supply chain starting this Spring and continuing through 2009, according to the department.

The distribution of the nonfat dry milk will be as follows:

• 40 million pounds of nonfat dry milk will be fortified, instantized, placed into consumer-sized packages, and made available for use in the: National School Lunch Program, The Emergency Food Assistance Program, Commodity Supplemental Food Program, and Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations.
• 30 million pounds of nonfat dry milk will be donated to states for further processing into fortified fat-free fluid milk, and macaroni and cheese for use in the National School Lunch Program.
• 60 million pounds of nonfat dry milk will be bartered for 1 percent ultra high temperature milk for use in The Emergency Food Assistance Program.
• 20 million pounds of nonfat dry milk will be bartered for ready-to-eat milk-based soups for use in The Emergency Food Assistance Program.
• 50 million pounds of nonfat dry milk will be bartered for reduced fat and lite cheeses for use in the National School Lunch Program and The Emergency Food Assistance Program.

In addition to the 200 million pounds above, USDA also plans to make nonfat dry milk available as follows:

• at least 1 million pounds on a competitive basis for the production of casein.
• about 500,000 pounds for use in the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program.
• about 1 million pounds for use by the U.S. Agency for International Development, based on anticipated requests from the State Department.