The lesson in Ms. Nicole Dye’s class was pretty cheesy. “We got to taste food that our cow made,” Kaycie Waines said. “We learned that Clarabelle helped make the cottage cheese and cheese stick and she helped make the yogurt and she made the milk.”
Clarabelle is the name of the dairy cow that the first grade class at Drummond Elementary adopted.
St. Louis District Dairy Council has partnered with dairy farmers in Illinois and Missouri to bring the Adopt-A-Cow program to classrooms. The no-cost program allows classes to “adopt” a calf from one of its farmers, name it, and receive monthly pictures and updates.
“One of the women gave us a lesson on Zoom and she showed us pictures of Clover Farms which is the actual farm that Clarabelle is at,” Dye said. “In other years, you could request scholarships to go visit your cow, but she kind of took us there to see what it’s all about.”
Dye received a $20 gift card to Walmart to cover the costs of purchasing dairy products for the classroom, including milk, cheese and yogurt.
Channing Sheppard said he liked the cheese stick and the milk, but when Waines tasted the cottage cheese, it was obvious she did not like it.
“I didn't like the cottage cheese at all,” she said. “It was kind of like when I tasted an onion.”
After the taste test, the students wrote a Thank You note to Clarabelle for helping make the different products.
Samantha Griffin thanked Clarabelle for making the yogurt and drew a picture of her at the farm petting the cow.
“All of the different things tasted awesome,” she said. “It was fun to learn about where food comes from.”
Full slideshow: https://pattonvillesd.smugmug.com/2020-2021/DR-Dye-Adopt-a-Cow/