A FARMER and WI member has been successful in her campaign to convince another supermarket to trial milk in its ‘food to go’ section, writes Rosie Cripps.

Sylvia Crocker, a member of Lewtrenchard WI and a sheep farmer with her husband, was delighted when she received a phone call on Monday, January 29 from Waitrose, stating that it would be stocking 500ml cartons of milk alongside its ‘food to go’ sections of the store from February 7, where people can pick up a sandwich and a drink for lunch.

Sylvia has been campaigning for this for two years now, with Tesco Launceston being the first to get involved in the project. She told the Post: “Lanson Tesco took it on first, when milk prices were so dreadful. With 170 children having their teeth taken out every day, milk as an alternative for fizzy, sugary drinks is very beneficial. It’s better for obesity too, and also for highlighting the price of dairy, although that has improved on two years ago.”

Sylvia believes that this way of selling milk is not only supporting dairy farmers, but is also extremely beneficial to young people in particular who often choose sugary drinks when buying lunch in supermarkets as part of a meal deal or food to go scheme.

Being part of a WI group also helped get the message across, with many of the ladies excited to learn more from Sylvia about milk and dairy. Tesco has also trialled the scheme in its Swansea and Scunthorpe stores during the summer of 2017, and Sylvia is now looking for further conversations with Tesco to be carried out.

Waitrose will now be stocking 60 of its 368 stores with 500ml bottles of Cravendale milk — equalling to around one in six stores. Sylvia said: “I went along to Okehampton on February 7 during the early afternoon, just to see how it was going, and they explained to me that there wasn’t any there on the shelf — because it had all sold.”

Sylvia and her husband are not dairy farmers themselves, but were both brought up on dairy farms. Her 16-year-old son also works at a dairy farm on Saturdays and both of her children are keen to go into dairy farming when they are older.

“It’s all about looking out for each other and making sure everything gets better,” she added.

Sylvia won the title of Devon Farming Champion at last year’s Devon County Show, after being nominated by the NFU, and has also found success in her hashtag used on social media #MilkandSarnies, after being advised to get the conversation going on Twitter and Facebook.

Her success so far has been simple. “I’ve been doing this since the spring of 2016. It’s all been done with no funding, just lots and lots of letters. Tesco is the one I desire most than anything, because they have over 3,000 stores. If we could get all the stores doing it, I’d be delighted.”

Having found out that Waitrose was to take on the scheme, Sylvia said: “I was beside myself — I was so excited. I took down all the relevant details to make sure it was all correct. I went to visit the manager of our most local store on the 5th (of February), and you’ve got to respect that there are lots of lines in the store, so he looked a bit blank when I first spoke to him about it. However, he said he’d speak to his staff, and they’re all on board with it. I think if there’s a bit of praise for what you’re doing, it gets more people to realise that they’re doing a good thing.”

She continued: “I would really like to finish this. I’m still in conversation with Tesco, Waitrose is now stocking the milk in 60 of its stores, and I’ve been writing letters to Asda and even Greggs — they stock it in their stores in Scotland, but not here, which I don’t really see the logic in.

“It would be lovely to finish it. I’m trying to lamb sheep, so I’ve got more than enough work to do myself, but I’d really like to think, good, this is finished now.

“It’s just amazing — and it’s all so simple. Waitrose, Asda and Morrisons have all banned high-energy drinks to under-16-year-olds, because it’s so bad. It’s all relative to promoting and bigging up milk and dairy.”

The 500ml semi-skimmed milk bottles from Cravendale will be on sale in Waitrose at 60p, with the store stating that it is ‘committed to providing nutritious food for its customers’ through its Good Health label, enabling customers to make healthier choices.

Moira Howie, Waitrose nutrition manager, said: “Milk is an ideal drink to go and is a great source of protein and calcium. It hydrates and quenches thirst, and is a perfect addition to a healthy balanced diet.”

Sylvia added: “I’m delighted with how far it has come. It’s wonderful, absolutely wonderful — and it’s supporting farmers and supporting the wellbeing of people. You see teenagers, office workers, dentists, nurses — all manner of people going into the supermarkets at lunchtime to pick up a sandwich. If they can pick up a 500ml bottle of milk, then hopefully it will go further. Hopefully this will continue to motor along.”