Elementary school students across Clovis Unified will be sipping on pink milk just before Valentine’s Day thanks to fourth-graders at Garfield Elementary School.
Students in Garfield fourth-grade teacher Rita Twet’s class recently read an article about a boy in Missouri who successfully campaigned to bring strawberry milk to his school’s cafeteria. While the article in Scholastic’s monthly newsletter was intended to enhance vocabulary and promote class discussion about evidence-based opinions, it also got the kids thirsty. They wanted strawberry milk, too!
Garfield fourth-grader Evan Swearingen – with help from classmates Sabrina Jones, Chloe Hale and Bree Ortiz – gathered 151 signatures on a petition requesting strawberry milk, wrote out why they wanted it, and made an appointment with Garfield Principal Jennifer Bump.
“I was thrilled to see our students taking an active role and affecting change for not only our school, but other schools as well,” Bump said. “I was impressed with their presentation and I called Robert Schram in Campus Catering the next morning, excited to share our students’ request and to invite him to be a part of the process.”
Schram is Clovis Unified’s director of the district’s food services, and he contacted Producers Dairy, the district’s milk supplier. Although the dairy stopped production of strawberry milk because of staffing, as luck would have it, they planned to produce a limited run of the pink milk the week before Valentine’s Day.
Schram immediately ordered several thousand cartons to be delivered to Clovis Unified. “We probably wouldn’t have thought to ask for it if it had it not been for the kids’ petition,” Schram said.
Evan and his fourth-grade classmates are excited. Strawberry milk will be making its appearance at Garfield Elementary on Friday, Feb. 11. (Clovis Unified schools are closed Valentine’s Day, Monday, Feb.14, in honor of Lincoln’s Birthday.)
“I am so proud of Room 40!” Bump said. “They showed such initiative, passion, and drive to make a difference. I hope this experience reinforces that there is so much they can do to affect positive change in the world.”