Five school districts serve their K-12 students yogurt produced at the Milkhouse, a family-run organic farm in Monmouth. Several more schools will purchase the yogurt in April to align with dairy as the featured ingredient in the Maine Harvest of the Month Program.
Andy Smith, who runs the Milkhouse with his partner Caitlin Frame, says that Maine Farm & Sea to School incentive programs encourage schools to purchase more local food, which is very helpful: “We love the fact that it gets our products in the hands of very socio-economically diverse consumers. We like that we are feeding kids.”
The farm milks 40 Jersey cows to produce four types of pasteurized organic yogurt – plain, maple, blueberry, and Greek style – and raw milk. When Horizon Organic stopped buying its milk in 2018, the Milkhouse diversified its customer base and began selling to schools. Milkhouse yogurt is also sold at their farm store, independent grocery stores and co-ops, and Hannaford stores, and they hope to begin selling to the University of Maine soon. They partner with Misty Brook Farm in Albion to manage their distribution.
In 2023, the Milkhouse received grant funds from the federal Agricultural Infrastructure Investment Program, which is administered by the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. The AIIP funds have been applied to purchase equipment that will enable them to further access markets in northern and western Maine.
To learn more about Maine’s Local Foods Procurement Program and how to increase farm-to-institution sales, contact Brittany Peats, Maine DACF Institutional Market Development Coordinator, at brittany.peats@maine.gov.
