KANSAS CIYT, KAN. — Dairy Farmers of America announced it is donating commercial refrigerators stocked with milk to community food pantries as part of Feeding America’s Hunger Action Month this September.

DFA first began donating milk and commercial refrigeration to food pantries in 2020, and the cooperative shared it now has helped close to three dozen locations and donated more than 270,000 servings of milk.

“Refrigeration is a challenge for so many community food pantries, which means that it’s hard for them to keep fresh foods like milk and other dairy products on hand,” said Jackie Klippenstein, senior vice president of government, industry and community relations. “We are so pleased to not only provide nutrient-rich milk and dairy products to our partners in the food bank community, but also to help ensure that they’re set up for the future with the infrastructure improvements these cold storage units provide.”

Since the pandemic began in 2020, DFA’s Farmers Feeding Families Fund has raised $950,000 and it has made dairy product donations that have helped 617 communities receive more than 36.4 million servings of dairy.

Per Feeding America’s data, 12 million children and more than 38 million people deal with hunger and food insecurity in the US.