CALF_News_October_November_2019

31 CALF News • October | November 2019 • www.calfnews.net TEXAS FEED FAT CO., INC. P.O. Box 1790 • Durant, Oklahoma 74702 Ted Kirkpatrick, Owner We specialize in Quality Feed Fat and Quality Service. Leaders in the feed fat industry since 1974! With 2 locations to serve you. Call Us Today! TEXAS FEED FAT CO., INC. Durant, Oklahoma Kirk Sehi (580) 924-1890 Hereford, Texas (806) 363-6490 The Southwest Dairy Museum, Inc., is the nonprofit corporation behind the Mobile Dairy Class- room. The corporation was formed in 1982 by a group of dairy produc- ers and affiliated parties interested in setting up a museum to house dairy industry. The original office was in the Affiliated Milk Produc- ers, Inc. building in Arlington, Texas, and later moved to Sulphur Springs. The museum houses artifacts from the dairy industry, along with providing educational information to the public. They also have offices in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Roswell, New Mexico, and Greens- boro, North Carolina. One of the originating board members, Phil Porter, had heard of a Mobile Dairy Classroom program in California. He met with the program staff to see the program. Porter took the idea back to the Southwest Dairy Museum, Inc., Board of Directors. A committee was formed to investigate the pos- sibility of a similar program, and the first SWDMMobile Dairy Classroom was put in place in the Dallas area in 1989. The second unit was put in Fort Worth in 1991. Today there are 13 Mobile Dairy Classroom units that serve Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia. Back to my conversation with the school administrator, who was still skeptical. I explained to him that the program was paid for by dairy promotion funds and would be a very special event for the students and staff at his schools. Many of the attendees at the event were enthusiastic about the possibil- ity of bringing the program to their campuses. The comment heard most was,“So many of our students grow up in the city and have no idea about farms, food production, etc. Many have never seen a cow up close!” It is said the current generation is third or fourth removed from the farm. The media is their only source of information and as producers, whether dairy, beef, pork, etc., we need to have a non-threatening way to get the correct information to them to produce informed adults. If you would like more information about how to bring this program to your local school, please contact the Southwest Dairy Museum, Inc. at (903) 439-MILK (6455) or visit their website https://www.southwestdairyfarmers.com/pages/mobile- dairy-classroom and click on the link “Schedule a Visit.”While you’re there, check out the other ways this organization is working to promote dairy products to the public, from passing out ice cream sandwiches to Special Olympics athletes and their families, to programs presented at the state fairs in their represented areas, to handing out chocolate milk at races. The organization works very hard to utilize the funds designated to them appropriately, without waste, and to continue to promote the nutritional value of dairy products and the need for dairy producers. The Southwest Dairy Museum, Inc. Mobile Dairy Class- room program is a great way to bring the farm to your school, library or fair!  BRINGING THE FARMTOYOU Continued from page 29 Ralph Keel makes his presentation to students at the Kids, Kows and More event in Tulsa, Okla. Photo courtesy Southwest Dairy Museum, Inc.