A few years ago, I noticed fewer students were choosing milk with their lunches, so our team began looking for a way to get them excited about it again. We knew the idea had to be interactive and fun, so we brainstormed possibilities: dressing like a cow, handing out stickers, or holding a contest to see which class chose the most milk. Then we landed on the perfect idea: milk mustaches. We decided to turn it into a contest for June Dairy Month and let students vote for the best milk mustache.
Figuring out how to pull this off in a school with more than 500 students was a challenge, but calling this event a success feels like an understatement. The excitement in the café during the contest was incredible. Students chanted and campaigned for their favorite mustache. Everyone wanted a picture with the cow. When I walk through the school, students shout, “Hey, you’re the cow!” Normally, I might feel offended if someone called me a cow, but when I see the smiles it brings to their faces, I wear that name with pride.
To recreate this same excitement for milk in your own school, I’ve outlined our process below so you can easily bring it to your own cafeteria.
Recruiting the Competitors
First, we needed volunteers. I reached out to the school principal to see if they would be interested in hosting and participating in this event. The school staff happily stepped up. Principals, art teachers, custodians, and even the superintendent agreed to participate and wear milk mustaches. This is the email template I sent to principals in our district to recruit contestants:
Bringing the Contest to Life
Once we had the concept and the principal and staff volunteer buy-in, we started planning the details. We decided we would display photos of staff members wearing their mustaches in the café during lunch so students could vote for their favorite. Students would receive a bead they could drop in a jug to vote for the mustache they liked best. We planned to promote it to students, parents, and the school community leading up to the event.
Here are some of the things we knew we needed to make this happen:
- New England Dairy’s “I love milk” stickers and prizes for the winner.
- Black or other vibrant color tablecloth for visibility
- Clear plastic sign holders that fit 8 ½” x 11″ sized paper. One sign holder per contestant.
- Beads and carafes or other suitable supplies for voting. We found these cow spot wooden beads and old fashioned milk jugs:
Additional Preparations
Once the date was set, we focused on promotion and logistical support leading up to it. We made a flyer to be distributed to staff and families explaining what we were doing. We invited the district communications team to take pictures and share them on our social media platforms. We put a work order in to request a table to be set up in the cafeteria.
About a week before the event, I met with the staff contest participants and used my cell phone to take their mustache contest photos. Once we had the pictures, we printed 8.5 X 11″ copies using this Canva frame template and put them in display frames. Note: We tried milk for the mustaches at first but it did not photograph well. We ended up using the following supplies for the photo shoot:
- Whipped cream
- Small cups- to put the whipped cream in
- Plastic knives- to spread the whipped cream on with
- A mirror-to help with application of the whipped cream
- Wet wipes- to clean the whipped cream off their face
Milk Mustache Contest Day
We wanted to build excitement and help students understand what to expect. We shared fun facts about cows and milk to remind them of the event during morning announcements.
Our team set up the voting station about 45 minutes before the start of the event. The set up included the black tablecloth, the mustache contestants’ framed pictures on the table with the empty milk jug, an inflatable cow, other decorations, and information about milk.
Then it was time for me to get ready. What would a milk event be without a cow? I wasn’t able to get a real cow for the event, so I wore a cow costume and greeted the students at the lunch line and reminded them to take milk with their lunch.
After all the students got their lunch and were seated, we made an announcement to the cafeteria on how voting would work. We called each table up one at a time up to the voting station. Each student received a bead and was instructed to drop it into the milk jug of their favorite mustache.
Once all the lunch waves finished and everyone had voted, we declared the winner. I called the winner to the cafeteria for a photo with me and the cow while they held their milk jug filled with beads. During the afternoon announcements, we thanked all the participants and announced the winner to the students.
This milk mustache contest worked for us for June Dairy Month and is a great way to celebrate any of these dairy holidays:
- National Milk Day: January 11th each year
- World Milk Day June 1st each year
- National Dairy Month: June
- World School Milk Day: last Wednesday in September each year
