Big Dairy is trying to get teens hooked on lattes to boost milk sales

Enlarge / Will coffee-flavored milk save the dairy industry? (credit: Getty | Bloomberg)

Amid decades-long souring of milk sales in the United States, big dairy groups have now turned to sponsoring coffee bars in high schools to help skim profits from the trendy—and milk-heavy—latte drinks popular with teens, according to a report by the Associated Press.

A $5,000 dairy grant to a high school in North Dakota helped buy an espresso machine that makes 150-calorie latte drinks containing 8 ounces of milk, for instance. The school went through 530 gallons of milk just for the lattes this school year, according to the food-service director for the school district.

Likewise, a Florida dairy group offers schools grants worth $6,000 to outfit their coffee bars. The campaign is called “moo-lah for schools,” which refers to lattes as “moo brew.” The group says the coffee bars are an opportunity to “serve 8 oz. of milk with 2 oz. of coffee and added flavorings that fit into your school wellness policy.” One of the explicit goals of the grant program is to get students who “might not normally select milk with their school meals to consume milk.”