The Northeast Dairy Producers Association released a statement Wednesday regarding the milk carton packaging shortage affecting school districts in New York.

“The recent announcement of the shortage of individual milk cartons could have impacts on school cafeterias across the nation. The bottleneck is due to a packaging materials shortage that is limiting the availability of cartons. To be clear, this is strictly a packaging issue and not a milk supply issue. The work of family dairy farms and the supply of locally produced milk remains strong and uninterrupted in New York State.”

“Dairy processors are working diligently with industry partners to find alternative solutions for serving fresh nutritious milk in schools as well as other institutions like hospitals, nursing homes, and prisons including pouring milk from gallon jugs as well as exploring the possibility of installing milk dispensers. We encourage school food service directors to contact their dairy distributors to strategize a milk delivery system that works best for their district until this packaging issue is resolved.”