Sep. 7—Following the announcement that the Borden Dairy Company planned to close two of their production facilities in Dothan and Hattiesburg, Miss., many Alabama school districts will now be forced to seek out a new supply of milk for student lunches.

The decision to close the Dothan facility comes two years after Borden filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company cited structural changes in both the retail market and dairy industry. Court filings show the Texas-based dairy supplier stated that large retailers beginning to produce their own dairy, and the rising popularity of non-dairy alternatives, resulted in decreased demand for its products. In a report, Borden said that the Dothan facility "could no longer support continued production."

This closure —when finalized on September 30— will impact more than 100 public school districts, charter schools, and government agencies in Alabama that receive the 8 oz. cartons of milk through their participation in the National School Lunch Program. This correlates to over 736,000 cartons of milk served to roughly 422,000 each week. Cullman County Schools Child Nutrition Program Director Emily Blankenship said that they receive around 25,000 cartons of chocolate milk and 10,000 cartons of whole milk each week.

In a press release, Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Rick Pate said that his staff have been working in conjunction with the Alabama State Department of Education's (ALSDE) Child Nutrition Program and the Dairy Alliance to resolve the 8 oz. carton availability.

"Through our Farm to School program, ADAI has a strong working relationship with Alabama's Child Nutrition directors. As soon as we learned of the plant closures, my staff began consulting with all parties to find a solution to this temporary milk disruption issue," Pate said.

One option presented by the ALSDE was the possible alternative of shelf stable milk, which is pasteurized at a higher temperature and does not require refrigeration. Blankenship said that this option was presented to the CCBOE but, due to the cost associated with shelf stable dairy products, was not feasible.

"The thing is with it [shelf stable milk] is that it is very expensive. When we were looking at it I think it was like three times more than what we would pay for fresh milk. But they did put it on our bid for us to purchase," Blankenship said.

Instead Blankenship said that the CCBOE opted to seek out their own bids for milk providers after a bid placed through the Jefferson County purchasing cooperative — Purchasing Association of Central Alabama — received no vendors.

Blankenship said that the CCBOE received three replies from vendors after seeking their own bid which opened at 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. The winning bid from Purity Dairies, at .34 per carton, actually comes in .11 lower than the previous price of .43 that the CCBOE paid for Borden milk.

Blankenship said that while things seem to have worked out for the better in their case, that other districts have not been so lucky and that districts in the lower regions of the state were having a particular hard time finding a new supplier.

"We have already had two different districts reach out to us today after they heard about our bid," she said.